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Blog

On January 4, 2018

Toxic nationalism is not new

My great-aunt and grandmother lived through the Petlurya pogroms. Their stories would give you nightmares. When I remember this, I fear for our increasingly tribalized world, and our increasingly tribalized country. Pogroms have happened here – not against Jews – and could again. We Jews have the obligation to defend our neighbors. We’ve seen this
On December 25, 2017

Chinese Food

Is Chinese food on Christmas really a Jewish tradition?? Well, of course it is, just a pretty new one, born in America in the mid-20th century when ethnic food meant Italian or Cantonese. (For some reason, all the Cantonese restaurants had neon signs outside that said “cocktails.”) Jews didn’t have anything particular to do on
On October 17, 2017

Of course I do!

If you’re not involved professionally in the Jewish world, you might have missed the current tumult over people from different religious backgrounds marrying each other. (You’ve probably heard this referred to as “intermarriage” or “mixed marriage.”) The Conservative movement, in particular, has been recently in the (Jewish) news because rabbis are speaking out about defying