A month into the new and perhaps final season of \”The Sopranos,\” it\’s high time to consider our favorite TV mobster\’s predilection for Jews. Of course, \”The Sopranos\” features its share of corrupt Jews as well as several marginally anti-Semitic wiseguys. Yet Tony Soprano has evinced a decidedly philosemitic streak.
Unfortunately, at least from the perspective of an editor at a Jewish newspaper, our communal leaders traditionally don\’t do memoirs. The result is an incomplete record of a community that operates a multibillion-dollar charity network, has helped frame the debate on domestic issues from civil rights to church-state separation and wields increasing power on the international stage.
Leaders of Conservative Judaism have argued from their pulpits for more than 50 years that the Torah is a divinely inspired document that evolved over centuries, rather than the product of a single encounter with God at Mount Sinai. Starting this month, their congregants will finally be able to follow along in the pews with a Conservative Bible commentary that says the same thing.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin wants to bring America\’s liberal Jewish establishment to its jerking knees.
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