Rabbi Philip Graubart is director of the Advanced Institute for Judaic Studies at the San Diego Jewish Academy.
Philip Graubart
By Philip Graubart
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Community Saying Kaddish For Leonard Cohen — And America
Many American Jews face two yahrzeits in the coming weeks, two memories of existential loss. The first comes November 8, when we’ll mark the first anniversary of the election of President Trump. For many of us, this wasn’t just the loss of a preferred candidate. It was the death of a certain reassuring narrative —…
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Community What Donald Trump And Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Rosh Hashana
Many years ago, I was laboring through my High Holiday sermons, trying to find a contemporary angle, something to connect my barely-formed ideas to today’s America, when I flicked on the TV and witnessed a clip of then-President Clinton testifying before the grand jury. Referring to whether he’d lied about a sexual relationship with Monica…
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Community 27 Years Ago, My Synagogue Was Vandalized By Skinheads — Here’s What I’ve Learned Since Then.
The telephone woke me at 5:00 a.m. It was the police -– never a good omen. But this wasn’t about family or property, it was my synagogue. “Graffiti,” the cop told me. “In black spray paint. All along the outside wall. You better get down here, Rabbi.” I put on my glasses, sat up in…
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Community Is Activism Always The Answer?
Not long ago I had to get an MRI for a condition that might have been serious. It wasn’t; I’m fine. But I didn’t know that when I pulled up to the radiology building and saw it was on Activist Street. A message, I wondered, for someone facing mortality? If time is limited, then I…
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Community Seriously, Jews: It’s Time To Stop Calling One Another Kapos.
Several years ago, an Israel activist in my community referred to JStreet supporters as kapos. He also posted articles using the analogy on his Facebook page, and forwarded them to his various email lists. He was already known in town for his insulting, flamboyant language, his Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity-style contempt for left wingers or anyone…
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Community The Holocaust Survivor Who Hated Anne Frank
The last Holocaust survivor died last week. Well, Trudy (not her real name) wasn’t literally the last survivor – but that day is not far off. She was my last Holocaust survivor, the last one I knew as a genuine friend, not as a congregant, or a colleague, or a symbol. She was a gossip…
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Community Seriously — What’s With All the High Security Synagogues?
When I was a rabbinical student in Los Angeles almost thirty years ago, I taught Hebrew school at several synagogues. I often ran late, so I would zoom into the parking lot, rush through the front door, and jog directly to my classroom. No one stopped me at the parking lot, or asked for ID…
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Community What Jacob and Esau Can Teach Us About Loving Our Trump Supporting Friends
I’m acquainted with at least three people who voted for Donald Trump. I’m thinking of these three because of the way I came to know them – as fellow volunteers at a homeless shelter. I met the first many years ago, when we were serving food to homeless children at a Manhattan synagogue. The kids…
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