Last night, Jon Stewart decided to blow a shofar on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” to alert his viewers to some breaking news (Keith Olbermann leaving MSNBC). He called it a News Shofar and announced “Something happened!” but never actually blew the shofar. Instead he just put the shofar to his mouth and kept…
Since commenting here about how the assassination attempt of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has brought the “Who Is a Jew” debate back into the spotlight, I have had some really intriguing conversations with colleagues about how we define Jewish status. A number of colleagues, including Rabbi Irwin Kula, Rabbi Kerry Olitzky, Rabbi Alana Suskin, and…
Ten years ago I was asked by the editor of the journal Conservative Judaism to write about my favorite book from my childhood. There was no question I would write about Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. In honor of the Jewish holiday of Tu Bishvat — the birthday of the trees — I republish those…
Just because LeBron James started meeting with a rabbi this summer doesn’t mean he’s ready to be dispensing theological statements. I’ve been thinking a lot about LeBron’s statement via his Twitter feed last week about the Cleveland Cavaliers’ huge upset to the Lakers. In what has become known as the “Karma Tweet,” LeBron tweeted the…
Jewish humor has always been one of my favorite topics to teach. I’ve taught classes about Jewish humor and Jewish comedians to teens and adults at many different settings including synagogues, Jewish camps, and on college campuses. As an aspiring stand-up comic, I have always been interested in the history of Jewish humor, what makes…
It’s hard to believe that Hurricane Katrina occurred five-and-a-half years ago. I traveled to New Orleans in 2007 with other rabbis to help in the cleanup effort and spent two quick days there this past August when I was the keynote speaker at the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Fraternity Convention. It was impressive to see…
As a Conservative rabbi and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly, I cannot officially consider Jewish descent to be determined patrilineally (from the father). In fact, in its “Code of Professional Conduct,” the section detailing the responsibilities for membership in the Rabbinical Assembly lists four current standards of religious practice. The first is: “Matrilineality determines Jewish status.”…
Here’s my recent post on the Jewish Techs blog for The Jewish Week If you didn’t receive numerous email solicitations from non-profit organizations during the final week of 2010, then your email server was likely down. Many of these charitable organizations that sent year end pleas for your contributions have begun using Razoo.com, which claims…
In Memory of Debbie Friedman (1952-2011) Debbie Friedman’s music is so fully integrated into synagogue liturgy,that in many congregations it is considered “traditional.” I don’t remember the Jewish Theological Seminary in the late 90’s as a very spiritual place. I began rabbinical school in 1998 and there was a general consensus that the Seminary was…
I’m surprised this hasn’t gotten more attention, but on the Tablet Magazine website (a project of Nextbook) basketball fans are able to create their own starting lineup among the best Jewish-American Basketball players of all time. Tablet teamed up with FreeDarko, “the amazing five-year-old collective of basketball writers known for its wit, one-of-a-kind drawings, and…