Rabbi Michael Rothbaum is spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Elohim in Acton, MA and a member of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. He lives in Oakland with his husband, Yiddish singer Anthony Russell.
Michael Rothbaum
By Michael Rothbaum
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Opinion Our Job As Jews Is Not To Watch Politics As Sport. It’s To Bring Jewish Values Into The Public Sphere
When reports of the White House whistleblower hit the press in September, a colleague joked on Facebook that all us rabbis would have to rewrite our High Holiday sermons. I panicked; I didn’t realize it was a joke. But as my heart rate settled back to normal, I realized the joke was just another reminder…
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Opinion Protest Is A Sacred Jewish Practice
Despite growing up to become a rabbi, I don’t remember much about my Hebrew School days. I remember being excited to learn the letters, and being bored reading about some people called “Babylonians” in a book that smelled like a basement. One thing I do remember quite clearly, however, is a trip I took with…
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Opinion On International Women’s Day, We Jews Must Work To Make Sure No One Burns.
We are coming up on the yahrzeit of a burnt offering. In 1911, a fire at the Triangle Waist Company factory took the lives of 123 young girls and women. Jewish and Italian immigrants, mostly ages 14 to 23 years old, worked in the factory producing women’s blouses called “shirtwaists.” The owners of the factory,…
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Community 4 Myths About Poverty That Are Nowhere In The Bible
Why are people poor? It is, on the face of it, a simple question. People are poor because, in comparison to other people, they have less money. But the question is often asked in moral terms. What makes people poor? American political discourse, especially in conservative circles, views poverty as a moral failure of the…
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Community Should A Synagogue Be A Safe Space?
When is a “safe space” not safe? Depends on who’s asking. The term itself was borne of the desire to cultivate nurturing community for vulnerable populations— think, say, LGBTQ teenagers, or survivors of sexual abuse. But in the age of an ascendant “alt-right,” some conservative commentators decry the very notion of safe space as a…
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Community How Jews Can Reclaim Our Country From The Gaslighter-in-Chief
Here’s a fun exercise: do a Google search of “Trump just kidding.” My last attempt returned over one million results, ranging from “Jamie Dimon Says Trump Was Just Kidding About Kicking 11 Million Immigrants Out of the Country” to “Hillary Clinton in jail? Just kidding, says Donald Trump’s campaign manager.” It’s no longer news that…
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Opinion 7 Rules for Surviving Thanksgiving With Your Trump-Loving Family
My father has the Trump lawn sign. And the bumper sticker. And the hat. And the T-shirt. “Make America Great Again,” they say. Ever since he was shot at during a robbery in his drugstore, my once liberal father has become increasingly conservative. He is a regular Hannity listener and O’Reilly watcher. As I’ve gotten…
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Opinion Why Jews Need To Band Together With ‘Subgroups’ That Steve King Attacked
What do you do when your political party gets described as mostly “old white people” on national television? If you’re Rep. Steve King of Iowa, you go full-on, double-barrel white supremacist. Speaking on a MSNBC news panel discussion on Monday, King took issue with the suggestion that soon there won’t be enough white people to…
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