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The protest outside Park East Synagogue in New York was not a complicated sociological moment. It was a group of demonstrators shouting slurs, taunts, and explicitly hostile language at Jews entering a house of worship.That should be the starting point for any...
When I wrote my first piece about Nobody Wants This in Jewish News (December 2024), I analyzed its first season through the lens of the Argentine film Transmitzvah. In that essay, I highlighted how the film treated Judaism with humanity — characters who make mistakes,...
The day following the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York City, Ted Deutch, CEO of American Jewish Committee, distributed the following email. The world’s attention is focused on New York City with Zohran Mamdani winning the mayoral election, and I...
Jon Polin(JTA) —When I walked into the small, ramshackle gymnasium that is our humble synagogue on Shabbat morning this past week, pictures of the 14 children from the congregation who would be starting first grade on Monday decorated the walls. It must have been one...
(JTA) — On Monday, July 28, my son was inducted into the IDF. He started thinking about joining as a hayal boded, a “lone soldier” (someone who makes aliyah alone with the intention of serving) while in high school. After his friend was murdered by Hamas terrorists at...
Rabbi Asher Knight(JTA) — My family has lived in Colorado for generations. I was in touch with my mother and cousins following the firebombing attack on people marching to call attention to the hostages held in Gaza. In my mind, I can visualize exactly where it...
The death of any young person at the hands of a terrorist is horrific. The death of a young couple on the verge of getting engaged to be married reverberates further. The Mishnah tells us that to destroy any life is to destroy a world, but to destroy the lives of two...
In 2010 when the Holocaust Commission conceived of what would become the What We Carry program, its previously robust survivor Speakers Bureau was beginning to shrink. Witnesses to history continued to leave us, but eventually the program grew, and consisted of films...
Of the many Jewish holidays that dot the calendar, one of my son’s favorites is Purim. For children, Purim is celebrated with costumes, festival foods like hamantaschen, donations to those in need, and a community reading of the Book of Esther, which joyously...
Love may be a universal theme, but the way it is portrayed can vary profoundly from one work to another. This is evident in the series Nobody Wants This and the film Transmitzvah. Both productions, available on Netflix, revolve around dilemmas involving Judaism,...
Third time’s the charm. You let me know if that’s the case by the time you finish this article – it’s the third one I’ve written where I feel compelled to share an experience with Jewish News. The first was after I completed the March of the Living in Poland. Second...
It was Saturday night.One of my lecturers and I were on a Zoom call with a bubbly and cheerful English lecturer from Mexico planning a collaboration between our students. My phone rang and I saw it was my administrative coordinator, calling at 9 pm – which only means...
America is experiencing a strong uptick in antisemitism, especially on our college campuses. Jewish students feel unsafe and numerous attacks have been registered. University presidents have struggled to admit that advocating for the genocide of Jews is against school...