The very flatness and blandness of the matzah remind us of the empty and oppressed lives of the Israelite slaves — and of downtrodden people in all places and in all times.
The question is whether our overt war against Al Qaeda should be extended to Iraq.
Lee Hirsch struggled for nine years to make \”Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony,\” which won the audience and Freedom of Expression Awards at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and opens today in Los Angeles.
Every Chanukah, I am struck by the beauty of my chanukiyah as the flames glow steadily against the darkness around them.
Watching the second tower of the World Trade Center crumble into dust on Tuesday, I was able to imagine the horror of the survivors of the Titanic as they witnessed their vessel sink into the Atlantic Ocean. A symbol of human progress and ingenuity, a monument to economic strength and power, the Titanic was regarded as indestructible. So too the World Trade Center represented, more than any other edifice in the United States, America\’s sense of its own power and invulnerability. Rising more than 100 stories high, these towers once so effectively dominated the New York skyline that in the air they could be seen from 150 miles away. When a 1993 car bomb failed to destroy them, the sense of invulnerability may have also given way to a sense of complacency.
\”Love and Liberation: When the Jews Tore Down the Ghetto Walls\” by Ralph David Fertig (Writers Club Press, $17.95)
On Jan. 9, 1807, Prince Jerome of Prussia decreed that the fortifications of the ancient city of Breslau could be destroyed. After 540 years of isolation, the Jews of Breslau tore down the ghetto gates. Under Napoleonic law, they were now free to pursue their religion while becoming citizens of the state.
At every Passover seder, in each generation, Jews are reminded to see themselves as though they came out of Egypt in person.
It\’s the festival of freedom, and, once again, Allied warplanes are flying the skies of Europe to stop tyranny and protect the oppressed.
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