Judaism

Thanksgiving

David Paul | Posted 11.27.2008 | Living

Read More: Jewish Culture, Judaism, Thanksgiving Commentary, Romania, Family, Thanksgiving, Living News
David Paul

I think of my grandmother around Thanksgiving. She was born Uman, Ukraine, in 1900 or so, back when it was Russia. As she cooked for us, she would talk about her life and her journey to the warmer climes of Buffalo, New York.

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Turn Friday Night Into Family Night

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach | Posted 11.24.2008 | Living

Read More: Friday Night Family Night, Family Dinner, Obama Family, Relationships, Judaism, Family, Living News
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Our plan follows a 2/2/2 theme: two hours of family dinner, with the family inviting two friends as guests, and with two subjects suggested for all to discuss.

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Where's the Struggle?

David Suissa | Posted 11.21.2008 | Politics

Read More: Proposition 8, Prop 8, Same-Sex Marriage, California Gay Marriage, California Same Sex Marriage, California Supreme Court Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Judaism, Politics News
David Suissa

When I see the coarse arguments currently raging over the issue of same-sex marriage, I don't see any thoughtful or fascinating debates... I see two armies shooting at each other.

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Gays as the New Religious Bogeyman

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach | Posted 11.17.2008 | Politics

Read More: Marriage, Religion and Politics, Religion, Homosexuality and Religion, Proposition 8, Judaism, Gay Marriage, Family, Politics News
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Religion in America has made homosexuality into a false bogeyman, which has seriously distracted religion from giving real values to an increasingly valueless society.

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Pay It Backward--The Greatest Wealth Transfer in History

Larry Gellman | Posted 11.04.2008 | Business

Read More: Budget Deficit $490 Billion, Obama Housing Crisis, T. Boone Pickens, John McCain, Mccain Housing Crisis, Judaism, Bush Tax Cuts, Thomas Friedman, Energy Policy, Barack Obama, Housing Crisis, Bush Economy, Bush Administration, National Debt Soars, New York Times, Financial Crisis, Wealth Transfer, Pickens Plan, Business News
Larry Gellman

For the last 20 years, I've been hearing that we're in the midst of the Greatest Wealth Transfer in History. The slogan has remained the same but both the beneficiaries of the wealth have changed.

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Jewish Stereotypes Confronted At Exhibit

Chicago Tribune | Manya A. Brachear | Posted 10.17.2008 | Chicago

Read More: Spertus Museum, Jewish Stereotypes, Jewish Museum Chicago, Chicago Jews, Anti-Semitism, Beth Gelman, Rhoda Rosen, Judaism, Chicago News

Visitors to the Spertus Museum will do as much nose-ogling as navel-gazing when they tour the latest show at Chicago's only Jewish museum, which, amon...

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Defying Despair: Why I Believe

Sharon Brous | Posted 10.16.2008 | Living

Read More: Religious Texts, Yom Kippur, Humility, Religulous, Judaism, The Holocaust, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Concentration Camps, Israel, Faith, Spirituality, Bill Maher, Ikar, Torah, The Inner Life, Living News
Sharon Brous

Faith is not about hatred and exclusion -- those are perversions of the deepest religious truths. The religious life is not about pretending to know with certainty, it is about living with deep humility.

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A Makeshift Synagogue and Me

Hanna Ingber Win | Posted 10.10.2008 | Living

Read More: Religion, Yom Kippur, Synagogue, Rosh Hashana, Atheism, God, High Holidays, Shul, Religion Culture, Camp Eisner, Jewish Culture, Temple, Judaism, Living News
Hanna Ingber Win

Sundown Wednesday was Yom Kippur. I don't think I believe in God, and yet, my family, Jewish summer camp -- I don't know what they did to me, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for my religion.

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A Religious View of the Fiscal Crisis

Rabbi David Wolpe | Posted 10.07.2008 | Living

Read More: Yom Kippur, Religion, Sukkot, Wall Street, Judaism, Living News
Rabbi David Wolpe

The same people who bewail the stock market now pledge their troth to T-bills. The deeper question is whether we understand that nothing we do is guaranteed in this life.

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Stock Market Foreclosures -- The Whole World Is For Sale

Larry Gellman | Posted 10.07.2008 | Business

Read More: Investment Banks, Investing, Investments, Yom Kippur, Wall Street Crisis, Hedge Funds, Stocks, Judaism, Stock Market, Foreclosure, Business, Business News
Larry Gellman

The gut-wrenching drops in stock prices are not related any more to economic prospects or the decisions of Congress. Stocks are in a foreclosure mode and values have been destroyed by forced selling -- major repentance for past sins.

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Laugh Your Guts Out -- Irony on Yom Kippur and Election Day

Haim Watzman | Posted 10.06.2008 | Politics

Read More: Yom Kippur, Israel, Obama, Elections 2008, Barack Obama, Judaism, Politics News
Haim Watzman

I have a feeling that a lot of Jewish penitents and American voters are not using an essential tool that they need to make their choices. I mean irony.

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Why Orthodox Youth Are Leaving the Fold

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach | Posted 10.01.2008 | Living

Read More: Rabbi, Heritage, Chabad Shliach, Rosh Hashanah, Jewish People, Community, Hassidic Communities, Orthodox Community, Parenting, Hassidic Youth, Jewish Future, Being Better Parents, Observant Parents, Rabbis, Judaism, Yeshiva, Shluchim, Living News
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

For the branch of Judaism that has long advocated - and rightly so - that education is the key to observance, it is simply unacceptable to see so many youth lost.

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Rosh Hashanah For Dummies

Alan Zweibel | Posted 09.29.2008 | Entertainment

Read More: Rosh Hashanah, Religion, Jewish Holidays, Judaism, Alan Zweibel, Entertainment News
Alan Zweibel

That's the beauty of Judaism. You get three New Year's Eves, eight days of Hanukah, plus a Christmas vacation even though it's not our holiday.

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Less Outrage -- More Repentance Please

Larry Gellman | Posted 09.26.2008 | Politics

Read More: Congress, John McCain, Greenwich, Judaism, Jewish Culture, News Media, Bailout, Democratic Party, Catholic Church, Religion, Aig, Synagogue, Henry Paulson, Religion and Politics, Warren Buffett, Fannie Mae Freddie Mac Bailout, Jewish Voters, Politics News
Larry Gellman

It was appropriate that outrage be expressed during those hearings, but the criticism should have been directed from Paulson to the members of Congress.

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Sarah Palin and Women With Too Many Kids

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach | Posted 09.18.2008 | Living

Read More: John McCain, Judaism, Sarah Palin, Sexism, Ageism, Racism, Candidate, 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Living News
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

A society that does not respect the elderly and does not love babies is a society that has seriously lost its moorings.

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Putting Jews Back in Their Place

Daniel Levy | Posted 09.10.2008 | Politics

Read More: Anti-Semitism, Aipac, Mccain Foreign Policy, Jews, Obama Jewish Vote, Judaism, Barack Obama Jews, Florida, Joe Lieberman, 2008 Election, Jewish Voters, Barack Obama, Palin Israel, Politics News
Daniel Levy

The 10-15% of the Jewish vote that the GOP tried to put in play this November is now feeling not only alienated, but downright offended by the latest offerings of the McCain message machine.

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Could Israeli Muslims Kick-Start An Environmental Movement in the Middle East?

Karin Kloosterman | Posted 08.20.2008 | Green

Read More: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Jordan, Religion, Judaism, Evangelical Christians, Middle East, Middle East Politics, Environment, Christianity, Religion and Politics, Israel, Clean Technology, Global Warming, Middle East Peace, Syria, Green News
Karin Kloosterman

I've lived in Israel for almost a decade and was beginning to think that environmentalism in this part of the woods was a Jewish thing. Israel is burs...

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Is This The End Of The Jews? An Interview With Adam Mansbach

Scott Thill | Posted 08.18.2008 | Entertainment

Read More: Religion, Arts, Christianity, Jews, Interviews, Hip-Hop, Judaism, Books, Entertainment News
Scott Thill

Adam Mansbach is a dude of many hats. A hip-hop poet that can recite histories old-school and new without missing a beat, especially in his acid satire Angry Black White Boy.

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Worker Abuse At Nation's Biggest Kosher Slaughterhouse Prompts Ethics Debate

AP | RACHEL ZOLL | Posted 08.11.2008 | Home

Read More: Workers Rights, Kosher, Iowa, Slaughterhouse, Judaism, Food Politics, Politics of Food, Home News

NEW YORK — Very little goes unexamined in the kosher world. From meat and poultry to the coating on vegetables and the ingredients in mouthwash...

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Rabbis, Activists Fight to Make Iowa Workers' Conditions "Kosher"

Rabbi Jennie Rosenn | Posted 08.08.2008 | Politics

Read More: Religion, Judaism, Kosher Redifinition, Agriprocessors Conditions, Jewish Activists, Jewish Culture, Kosher Meat, Rabbi, Politics News
Rabbi Jennie Rosenn

A series of revelations about egregious conditions at the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the United State has inspired Jewish social justice activists to call for a redefinition what it means to be kosher.

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Pluralism At It's Best: A Jew Has A Buddhist Epiphany

Larry Gellman | Posted 07.30.2008 | Living

Read More: Dalai Lama, Inner Life, Aspen Institute, Pluralism, Buddhism, Bu-Jew, Judaism, Jew-Bu, Living News
Larry Gellman

Last week was Aspen at its best. On Monday we got to hear King Abdullah of Jordan and a few days later I participated in a three-day symposium that featured His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

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My Talk with the Saudis, and What I Learned from Them

Rabbi Michael Lerner | Posted 07.19.2008 | Politics

Read More: Spiritual Progressives, Interfaith Dialogue, Judaism, Media Bias, Barack Obama, Modernizing Islam, Saudi Arabia, Islam, Politics News
Rabbi Michael Lerner

This didn't sound like the Saudi King I had come to expect from Western media. I can't remember hearing either Bush or Carter speaking like this or, for that matter, any Israeli Prime Minister including Rabin.

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When a Tombstone Reads 'Light of the World'

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach | Posted 07.06.2008 | Politics

Read More: Charity, Judaism LGBT Rights, Judaism, Lubavitcher Rebbe, Religious Right, Humanity, Good Deeds, Religious Humanism, The Inner Life, Faith, The Rebbe, Politics News
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

The Rebbe replaced religious judgment with an impassioned humanity. His message became a mantra: give charity, pray daily, offer hospitality, and love every stranger as oneself. He gave faith back its heart.

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Why I'm Not Getting Married ... Again

David Shneer | Posted 07.03.2008 | Living

Read More: California Gay Marriage, Judaism LGBT Rights, Judaism, Academics, Partner Benefits, Civil Unions, Gay Marriage, Living News
David Shneer

But when asked about our plans, I recoiled at the suggestion that my husband and I should come to California to get married. "We've been married for twelve years," I say.

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Ice on Mars: Good for the Jews?

Marty Kaplan | Posted 06.30.2008 | Living

Read More: Mars Spacecraft, Phoenix Lander, Jews, Judaism, Space, Science, Mars, Phoenix Lander Mars, Living News
Marty Kaplan

If scientists believe that invisible dark matter and unobservable dark energy make up the vast majority of the universe, then why should mystical accounts of an unseeable cosmos be any more inconceivable?

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