Whose Holocaust?

 

For much of Europe, today is the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dedicated his address this year to children murdered by the Nazis, with the message that "the best tribute to the memory of these children is an ongoing effort to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust, so that no such horror is visited upon future generations."

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A Very English Institution

 

Last week some 600 Jews converged on the hamlet of Kerhonkson in upstate New York for Limmud NY, a three-day "marketplace of Jewish ideas." Now in its eighth year, the volunteer-run Limmud NY is open to professional teachers and amateurs alike.

Talking Heads  Nathan Lopes CardozoCardozo Academy.  Is wearing a kippah all the time equivalent to not wearing it at all? Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo tells Limmud how his kippah has come between him and God.  SAVE

Renaissance in Russia  Alex WeislerJTA.  The idea of bringing Limmud to the former Soviet Union was dismissed as ridiculous. But now, with a network from Odessa to Beersheba, it is rejuvenating the Russian-speaking Jewish community.  SAVE

Unity in Adversity  Ofra BengioHaaretz.  Deteriorating Israeli-Turkish relations have caught Turkish Jews in the crossfire. Yet Limmud Istanbul testifies to a community as resolute and vibrant as ever.  SAVE

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Human Rights and Religious Wrongs

 

Although the discourse on human rights has a long pedigree, traceable at least to early modern natural rights theory and politics, the philosophical case for human rights against one alternative, religion, has yet to be made.

No Human Rights for Jews?  Elena BonnerSakharov Center.  Speaking in May 2009 to the Freedom Forum in Oslo, the late Elena Bonner denounced the blatant anti-Semitism of her fellow human-rights activists.  SAVE

Human Rights Watch vs. Israel: An Inside Story  Ben BirnbaumNew Republic.  A tale of bias and bigotry in the human-rights organization that is a major force in international politics.  SAVE

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Jerusalem and Athens

 

The holiday of Hanukkah is, in part, a celebration of the victory of traditionalist Jews over Jews bent on assimilation to Greek Seleucid culture.  As such, the second-century B.C.E. Maccabean revolt has resonated throughout the ages not only as a key historical contest, but as a wellspring for interpretations of the divergent views of the Hebrews and the Greeks. 

Hebraism and Hellenism Reconsidered  Louis H. FeldmanJudaism.  For almost every supposed difference between the two systems of thought, one can point to exceptions or actual similarities; yet certain very real divisions remain.  SAVE

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Insight & Analysis

History without Witnesses  Deborah E. LipstadtJewish Week.  As the Holocaust disappears from living memory, what matters is not who is speaking but who is listening.  SAVE

Three Talmudists Confront the Evil Urge  Shai Secunda, Amit Gevaryahu, Eva Kiesele, Raphael MagarikTalmud Blog.  A symposium on the psychological, historical, and rabbinic development of the yetzer hara picks up where Jewish Ideas Daily left offSAVE

Indices, Plural  Menachem ButlerMichtavim.  The New York Times' recent report on a new index to the Talmud neglected to point out that this work stands in the shadow of a 16th-century index—one that, perhaps, changed the course of Jewish history.  SAVE

Bullies, Sluts, Bulimics . . . and Supreme Court Justices  Shira KohnLilith.  Given the numbers of women involved over the decades, historians won't be able to ignore the Jewish sorority experience for much longer. (PDF).  SAVE

Decoding Day School Enrollment  J.J. GoldbergForward.  Despite two decades and millions of dollars spent pushing the idea, Jewish day schooling just isn't catching on among non-Orthodox American Jews.  SAVE

Digging that Hole  Efraim KarshHudson New York.  Attempting to defend his political science department against charges of bias, one professor betrayed the true depth of the problem by likening Israel to Nazi Germany in several key respects.  SAVE

Geoffrey Hartman's Jewish Turn  Andrew BushH-Net.  The scholar's aim is not to tear down the temple of the Western academy, but to build a third, distinctively Jewish pillar within it. Its name is midrash.  SAVE

Voices & Arguments

Vital Signs: Hebrew, Nature's Way

 

Jack Wertheimer

Third in a series on people and places fostering commitment to Judaism and the Jewish people.

It's not easy for a teacher to communicate in an entirely foreign language, especially to pre-schoolers. But that is what happens in an extraordinary experiment in Hebrew-language immersion launched seven years ago at the Jacob Pressman Academy, a Conservative day school in Los Angeles. Children entering the school between the ages of two and five have the option of spending half their day in classrooms where only Hebrew is spoken.

Continue Reading "Vital Signs: Hebrew, Nature's Way"  Jack WertheimerJewish Ideas DailySAVE

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Voices & Arguments

Vital Signs: Putting the School into Hebrew School

 

 

Jack Wertheimer

The second in a series on people and places fostering commitment to Judaism and the Jewish people.

Wertheimer    (thumbnail)

One class is analyzing a talmudic debate after having read it in the original Aramaic; in a neighboring room, students are conversing entirely in Hebrew; in a third, an "Ethicist" column from the New York Times is being examined in light of rabbinic sources; in still another, young men and women are working their way through a biblical text.

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Voices & Arguments

Vital Signs: Torah and Service

 

Jack Wertheimer

As if from a fantastical time machine, some 300 youngsters disembark in the woods of western Pennsylvania to find themselves at the building site of King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. In a quick briefing they are introduced to the biblical passages describing the construction project, invited to imagine the challenges confronting the ancient builders—how to move and hoist heavy loads of quarried stone, how to shape metal into giant candelabra—and then immediately drafted into the mammoth task. Only when their labors are complete, two and a half hours later, do they begin the mundane assignment of meeting their counselors and locating their bunks.

Continue Reading "Vital Signs: Torah and Service"  Jack WertheimerJewish Ideas DailySAVE

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Voices & Arguments

Vital Signs: Torah and Service

 

Jack Wertheimer

As if from a fantastical time machine, some 300 youngsters disembark in the woods of western Pennsylvania to find themselves at the building site of King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. In a quick briefing they are introduced to the biblical passages describing the construction project, invited to imagine the challenges confronting the ancient builders—how to move and hoist heavy loads of quarried stone, how to shape metal into giant candelabra—and then immediately drafted into the mammoth task. Only when their labors are complete, two and a half hours later, do they begin the mundane assignment of meeting their counselors and locating their bunks.

Continue Reading "Vital Signs: Torah and Service"  Jack WertheimerJewish Ideas DailySAVE

SAVE "Vital Signs: Torah and Service"

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