I often hear people say that sitting in a synagogue for a long time can be stultifying, boring, and the opposite of spiritual. My response is that they should take a break and go for a walk outside, in a park, along the coast, or the banks of a river—whatever is available—to look at nature and to wonder at the…
I am a liberal.
I am proud to call myself a liberal. Although, nowadays the term has come to be associated with so many different positions on almost any political, social, or religious issue, I cannot find a more appropriate word to describe myself. One of my favorite school teachers was a man called Helmut Dan Schmidt. Back in prewar Germany he had been…
Jebusites
Abu Mazen is at it again. Claiming at the UN that Palestinians are descended from Jebusites. Yasir Arafat, Faisal Husseini and others before him, have all claimed that Palestinians are descended from the Canaanite tribe of the Jebusites. The 1978 Al-Mawsu’at Al-Filastinniya (Palestinian encyclopedia) asserted, “The Palestinians [are] the descendants of the Jebusites, who are of Arab origin”, and described Jerusalem as…
Purim Carnival
I do believe that the core principles of all religions are virtually the same. They may have different ways of describing the ultimate power, force, or energy that many call God. They all agree on the importance and priority of being a good person, being considerate to others, and trying to make the world a better, more meaningful and spiritual…
Poland and Its Jews
Poland has just passed a law making it illegal and a criminal offence to say that the death camps built during the Second World War on Polish territory were Polish camps when in fact they were designed, built, and commanded by German Nazis. The first part of the law says: “[Anyone] who, in public and against the facts, ascribes to…
Killing Canaanites
With the increase and spread of antisemitic discourse, many have only just become aware of the viciousness and irrationality of the attacks on Jews and Judaism, which have in fact been endemic in all supposedly monotheistic societies. Mainly since the rise of ideologies claiming to be the sole and only possessors of one truth. We believe there are other ways…