Pledging Our Troth As even your editorial (“An Unworthy Oath,” October 22) concedes, Israel’s self-definition as a Jewish state is hardly a new development. Israelis disagree as to whether that self-definition is a matter of religion, nationality or some combination of the two — but that’s not exactly breaking news, either. So why all the…
The Belarus Jews’ Story Continues Judith Matloff’s article, “The Last Shtetl Jews of Belarus” in the October 15 issue, is a moving account of a genuine human tragedy. However, her conclusion that “[w]hen these last people pass on, so will 350 years of vibrant Jewish tradition in Belarus,” is unwarranted. In fact, alongside these individual…
Arranged Marriages In the October 8 op-ed “Rabbi Searches Are Tough, but Are They Illegal?” Barak D. Richman is so correct in his analysis of the potential illegalities caused by the limitations set by rabbinical bodies involved in “monitoring” congregational searches. Having also been a member of a rabbinical search committee, I, too, ran into…
Of Rabbinical Pay and Congregational Possibility The issue isn’t that “Synagogue Dues Don’t Raise More Money Than Church Gifts,” as your September 17 headline states, but rather that synagogues and churches both do not receive more community support or new members. Perhaps the church approach makes it easier for one with financial hardship to participate…
We’re Fighting the Freeze The Jewish Telegraphic Agency report printed in the Forward of September 24, “The Right Waits for Netanyahu’s Move,” regarding the pressure being exerted on Israel to extend the 10-month freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, incorrectly claims that even those American Jewish groups that support these communities are not…
Conversion Before Sanctification As a Reform rabbi, I am proud to be part of a movement that wholeheartedly welcomes converts into our midst. Celebrating converts has a long and revered tradition in Judaism going back to the Book of Ruth, which makes the loyal daughter-in-law of Naomi a direct ancestor of King David. But lacking…
Kaifeng’s Jewish Renaissance Your August 20 article “Israel’s Keenest Yeshiva Students” focuses on the Kaifeng Jews studying for conversion in Israel. But the real news is that the Jewish descendants — or Jews, as they see themselves — are organizing again as a community in Kaifeng. There are at least two Jewish schools in Kaifeng,…
100 Years Ago in the Forward Tragedy struck in Brooklyn when a new mother threw her baby out of a fourth-floor window, killing the infant. Esther Jaffe of East New York was standing by the back window of the apartment that she shared with her husband and aunt, holding her 6-month-old baby. The aunt said…
Post-‘Conservative’ Jews Need a New Name Changing the Conservative movement’s name to “Masorti” would be beneficial because it is Hebrew and could thus be comfortably used by Jews affiliated with the movement worldwide. At the same time, “Masorti” more than adequately describes the character and thrust of the movement, that is, to be traditional in…
The American Jewish Congress and Us As a former executive director of the American Jewish Congress (1971-1978), I was saddened by the news that it has suspended its operations. Jerome Chanes’s July 23 essay on the unique contributions of the AJCongress was a moving tribute to the many innovative actions that are part of the…
Wedding Erodes Intermarriage Taboo Like it or not, the media-hyped Clinton-Mezvinsky intermarriage, discussed in your August 6 editorial, “When Marc Weds Chelsea,” will make religiously based Jewish opposition to such matches in our society more difficult. (I’m the groom’s uncle, although I wasn’t present at the ceremony.) Chelsea did not and will not convert to…
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