“I had them at Shalom.”These words are attributed to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein as he was on his way back to Chicago in a rented compact Chevy with author Zev Chafets after Eckstein addressed a group of Christian Zionists at the Family Christian Center in Munster, Indiana. I’ve read every book that Zev Chafets has written….
Yesterday’s NY Times published a great tribute to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Here’s a wonderful story from the beginning of the article: In 1965, after walking in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil-rights march with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was at the Montgomery, Ala., airport, trying to find something to eat….
The title of this blog post might lead you to believe that I am jumping the gun on the Tu Bishvat (Jewish Arbor Day) holiday. But actually I have been thinking a lot about Jews and trees after reading Gil Mann‘s wonderful article about Jewish people putting up Christmas trees. Gil’s article has been republished…
I had to laugh today when an article on the Media Matters website was sent to me by way of my Google Alert for the term “Conservative Rabbi.” This has been an effective Google Alert that sends me any articles or websites that mention a rabbinic colleague of mine from the Conservative Movement. However, the…
Jesus Doesn’t Come to Bat for Rockies in First Two Games of World Series After reading the article in Tuesday’s NY Times (“Rockies Place Their Faith in God, and One Another”) about the emphasis the Colorado Rockies baseball team places on Christianity, I couldn’t help but think about the devout Christian pitcher, Eddie Harris, from…
Like every sensible person I was outraged by Ann Coulter‘s anti-Semitic comments on CNBC’s “The Big Idea” with host Donny Deutsch. Coulter began answering Deutsch’s question about what her ideal United States would look like by stating it would be like it was during the Republican National Convention in New York City. She then went…
Now that Barry Bonds has tied Hank Aaron’s home run record and everyone will be talking about what the reaction will be when he actually breaks the record, perhaps the debate over the Noah Feldman NY Times Magazine article will die down! It’s now been two weeks since Noah Feldman’s “Orthodox Paradox” diatribe was published…
Harvard law professor Noah Feldman’s NY Times Magazine article is certainly attracting a lot of attention in the Blogosphere. Perhaps what is most brilliant about his piece is that it was not purely a rant about how his Modern Orthodox high school air brushed him and his non-Jewish girlfriend out of a group photo at…
In this past weekend’s issue of the New York Times Magazine, the brilliant Harvard law professor Noah Feldman (pictured) describes how he has been ostracized from the Modern Orthodox high school he attended because he married a non-Jewish woman. Several years ago, Noah attended a 10-year reunion for his graduating class of the Maimonides School,…
I got very nervous today when everyone started telling me about the media reports that a clergyman made inappropriate religious comments in his opening invocation at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus this past Wednesday (video). This is because I opened Wednesday’s session of the Ohio Senate with a prayer. Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned that…