Turning Amalek Into Jew vs. Jew
This week, we read Parashat Ki Teitzei, which concludes with the injunction to destroy and forget the tribe of Amalek, the worst enemy of the...
Reza Aslan’s Jesus
Reza Aslan is an Iranian American scholar of religions, whose internationally acclaimed books include No god But God and Beyond Fundamentalism. His most recent book,...
What Would Jewish Law Say About George Zimmerman?
The recent acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin has been seemingly endlessly scrutinized and debated across the political and legal spectrums....
The New Religious Zionism?
As the Hebrew year 5773 comes to a close, I want to explore the background of the most dramatic event in the Jewish world in...
Whose Side Is the U.S. Really On?
As U.S.-brokered negotiations begin–again–between Israelis and Palestinians, both sides want to know: Hey, America, whose side are you really on?
After living in Jerusalem for seven...
A Queer Gentile in the Beit Midrash
As I was shown into the interfaith spiritual center of the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel to my first Beit Midrash (house of learning), I...
My Wife, the Suicide Bomber
Arab-Israeli conflict. Three words that are charged with so much emotion and meaning. Everyone has an opinion (a staunch one at that), everyone has taken...
Notes on Akbar Ahmed’s The Thistle and the Drone
1. Akbar Ahmed's The Thistle and the Drone is his reading of the American War against Terrorism and its ambiguities. He is a former Pakistani...
The Week’s Reading List
In Queen Esther's Garden: An Anthology of Judeo-Persian Literature
A lot of reading this week. First, a book on Judaeo-Persian literature. There turns out to be...
A Jewish Woman’s Visceral Reaction to Buzzfeed’s 51 Hottest Jewish Men
There are so many questions about this Buzzfeed list. Why so many? Why 51 instead of 50? Does anyone think Jeff Goldblum is hot? And...
The (Soul) Doctor is In
The rabbi is dancing and singing, his congregation swooning, his synagogue…absent. We are watching an actor only pretend to be a rabbi and are sitting...
The Ninth of Av in the Shadow of the Shoah
by Eli Kavon
The ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av--which begins this year on the evening of July 15--is an annual day of mourning...