Opinion

On Friday night, Nov. 2, I entered a local synagogue with a feeling of trepidation. Could a copycat of the recent tragedy in Pittsburgh take place in Tucson? I wondered what I would do if the unthinkable happened again. Remembering how we were taught in elementary school to crouch… Read more »

The vast majority of Americans are not anti-Semites, nor anti-black, or anti-gay, etc. This may not have been the case when I was born in Chicago 80-plus years ago. At that time the gays hid in the closet, black people were seen and not heard, and we Jews could… Read more »

We sang Shalom and we almost believed it We proclaimed Love stronger than Hate and we tried to believe it We stressed Solidarity and we thought we believed it We shouted Never Again but we could not believe it. — Joy Nelson… Read more »

Earlier this year, our colleagues at the three leading Jewish newspapers in the United Kingdom published the same front-page headline and joint editorial voicing concern over rising anti-Semitism in Britain’s Labour Party. Today we have found a mournful occasion to follow in their footsteps. For many Jews, the United States… Read more »

(Kveller via JTA) – “I’m so scared for your synagogue,” my (non-Jewish) mother said to me as we were driving the other day. We were talking about my daughter’s schedule — religious school was on the agenda for that afternoon — and she had asked me about our synagogue’s security… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The outpouring of grief over last month’s massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue has sparked a degree of counterintuitive hope. Just maybe, the eternal optimists among us believe, this will prove to be the watershed event that sends all the craven anti-Semites crawling back into… Read more »

On Saturday, I received a text: “why do they hate us so much?” It was from my daughter, a first-year student at college who is thousands of miles away from home but, at that moment, was reaching out for comfort, wishing she was curled up on the couch beside… Read more »

(JTA) — My father, whose own father changed his unpronounceable last name to Carroll when he came to America, would often tell a story about job hunting in the late 1940s and 50s. It was only after the interview that the men across the desk would ask, “And all… Read more »

The Trump Administration recently proposed an unprecedented expansion in our country’s public charge rules for applicants for citizenship. For the first time, a legal immigrant to the United States can be considered ineligible for citizenship simply because they utilize SNAP — our nation’s food stamp program. These new public… Read more »

  NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Shmuley Boteach may or may not be America’s most famous rabbi. But among Jews, at least, he may be it’s most polarizing rabbi. Boteach has built his career on those twin tent poles of American fame: sex and celebrity. In books like “Kosher… Read more »

Dianne Feinstein

WASHINGTON (JTA) — There are 56 candidates for Congress who identify as Jewish. Among them are 41 Democrats: five are running for the Senate — three incumbents and two challengers. Among the 36 in the U.S. House of Representatives, 18 are incumbents and 18 are challengers. (Three incumbent Jewish… Read more »

Oh, if I could count the many discussions my husband and I have had on this topic — multiple times a day on some days. Pros, cons; the list begins. Our house fit us well enough and served its purpose well enough when we bought it 12 years ago.… Read more »

Some people believe we live in a world where everything can be seen and touched. They buy into scientific explanations and find it hard to believe we live in a complex world where there’s much we can’t explain. Here is a true story of divine providence or in Hebrew,… Read more »

First, I want to thank Dov Marhoffer for his efforts to educate America’s youth on the Holocaust. May he live a long and healthy life and continue this vital work. May he be inscribed for blessing in the book of life and have a sweet new year. But I… Read more »

I feel uncomfortable writing this letter, but I feel that a response is needed to the recent article written by Dov Marhoffer, “‘Never Again’ belongs to the Holocaust, not the gun control movement,” (AJP 9/14/18).  I cannot begin to imagine the horrors that he must have experienced as a… Read more »

It’s thrilling to be part of a historical moment when women are stepping into the political arena in record-breaking numbers. They’re tossing their hats into the ring — left, right and center — in national, statewide and local races. It’s an auspicious lead-in for next year’s 100th anniversary of… Read more »

I have long had a problem with the central rite of Simchat Torah: dancing. I have nothing against the kind of dancing that requires learning certain steps — I then enjoy the challenge of mastering the particular dance. The dancing on Simchat Torah, however, requires almost no skill and consists… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Diversity and inclusion have become watchwords in our Jewish community, and rightly so. In the past few decades, we have considered how our congregations and institutions can better serve the needs of various populations, among them women, LGBTQ people, Jews of color and interfaith couples. Now,… Read more »

(JTA) — The wall separating Bethlehem from Israel-controlled territory is silent and noisy at once, like the breakdown in conversation between Israelis and Palestinians that helped kill the Oslo peace accords. It was only this year — in June, almost 25 years since the launch of the accords that… Read more »

LAS VEGAS (JTA) — This summer, America’s Jewish youth rebelled. Or at least a very small minority of them did. But through orchestrated stunts and aggressive marketing, they garnered the headlines they sought. These youth are demanding that Israel end its “occupation,” presumably of the West Bank. They are… Read more »