Since hearing the news Wednesday morning of the death of Rav Prof. David Weiss Halivni, z”l, my teacher and my shul rabbi during a formative
Content warning: Sexual harassment by a clergy member The Forward has published an important article, “How a Rabbi Suspended for Sexual Misconduct Can Stay in
The texts discussed in this piece can be found, with translations, at the bottom. Parashat VaEra, which we just read, teaches an insight that Torah
The author, the National Jewish Educator for Avodah, originally wrote this for the Avodah Service Corps. The Festival of Sukkot is about closure. It arrives
The Torah gives just one unique commandment for Rosh HaShanah, to hear the sound of the Shofar, producing that raw, emotionally complex, array of sounds
by Aryeh Bernstein This devar torah for Parashat Ki Tavo and Labor Day was first written internally for the Avodah Service Corps, for which the
“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” — Final social media post of Charlottesville martyr Heather Heyer; may Hashem avenge her blood. We are
by Jacob Abolafia A picture hung (and perhaps still hangs) in the library of the Conservative synagogue where I spent my first conscious years attending
These two texts challenge us to pay close attention to the power dynamics involved in a hegemonic body adopting cultural products of a subordinate group. Sometimes erasure comes through restricting the minority practice of its own culture, as in Antiochus’s later persecution, which we marked on Chanukah. But sometimes erasure comes through cultural appropriation, depending on a subordinate group to create culture, and then taking it and turning it from culture to artifact, from lifeline to epitaph.
Alas! Alone she sits, vacant lots, empty streets
Abandoned by companions, absent lovers to greet.
Bustling communities pushed out, in retreat
Bereft remnants blamed for their woes.
View More