With the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we recall once more the destruction wrought by Nazism, the chaos, desolation, the machinery of death. We peer unflinchingly at the ovens and gas chambers, the cattle cars and the concentration camps, we stare at the heart of darkness and swear, \”Never Again.\”
The Jewish Journal introduces a new weekly column: My Jewish Library. We\’ve asked rabbis, scholars and thinkers to each pick the one book that was essential to their Jewish life. They will discuss the book and its impact, and explain why you need to add it to your Jewish library.
Rabbi Harold Schulweis tells a joke about a Jewish man who complains to his father after marrying a convert.
It seems there was nothing American Jewish communal officials wanted more than for 5764 to be a year of Jewish passion.
In considering the impact of what is arguably the single most cataclysmic event to befall the United States in this generation, professor Lew Smith of Fordham University wrote in Education Week that social institutions such as schools must seize this moment in our history to define their purposes.
On-campus Jewish groups were upset that the administration did not get outside verification of the meaning and symbolic nature of the stole, said Jeffrey Rips, executive director of the Hillel Foundation of Orange County.
Ten years have passed since the premiere of \”Schindler\’s List,\” but the emotional impact of the film and its aftermath remain intense, not least for its creators, actors and the survivors whose lives were depicted.
President Bush hugged a cantor, listened to an Orthodox high school choir, walked with an addict-turned-rabbi and heard success stories of the Jewish-based Beit T\’Shuvah addiction treatment center during his March 3 Southern California visit.
The fact that \”The Passion\” isn\’t anti-Semitic doesn\’t make it an effective piece of filmmaking. The bad news is that Gibson\’s motion picture manages to be sadistically violent and somewhat boring at the same time.
When his father was arrested for building a sukkah at a time when Idi Amin had outlawed Judaism in Uganda, Gershom Sizomu paid the arresting scout five goats for his father\’s freedom.
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