Genius and Anxiety: How Jews changed the World 1847-1947 by Norman Lebrecht, is the best, popular Jewish interest book in years. It is an amazing collection of stories about the widest possible range of Jews – whole Jews, half Jews and ex-Jews – spanning the century from 1847 to 1947. It is fun to read, told with infectious humor and…
General Topics
Anti-Semitism
The Bible says that poverty will never cease from the earth. Sadly, hatred and prejudice will never cease either. Some hatreds are more widespread and persistent than others. Of these cultural and religious hatreds, anti-Semitism has always been the most persistent and widespread. Anti-Semitism is like a microbe that exists as part of the natural structure of physical organisms (of…
Bulawayo
In the summer of 1966, I was studying in the great Yeshiva of Mir in Jerusalem. One day, I received a call from Rabbi Professor Dr. Louis Rabinowitz, former Chief Rabbi of South Arica and then Vice Mayor of Jerusalem. He was one of the most dynamic, charismatic rabbis in a generation of outstanding ones. He was also a close friend…
Chanukah and Xmas
To the memory of Dr. Daniel Cammerman, a good, brilliant person, and a much-admired and respected pediatrician, taken tragically too soon from us. May his memory be a blessing. This week I was asked by a non-Jewish friend, whether atonement plays a part in Chanukah as it does in Xmas. At first, I did not understand the question. But then…
King David
The festival of Hanukah celebrates the triumph of Judah Maccabee. And he saw himself as the reincarnation of King David, the giant slayer. But David was a very complex and multifaceted character. He was the beloved handsome, singer of psalms, shepherd, musician, fighter, and king. A thousand years after he lived, the rabbis of the Talmud re-created him in their…
Better Angels
Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg said that “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Steven Pinker, not known for his religious faith wrote a well-received book “…