This is a really good story, written by Chicago writer Andrew Patner, regarding Obama’s now famous speech. As Patner points out, the South Side of Chicago is as unique a cross-section of America as any other.
Enjoy.
We will do and we will understand.
So said the People Israel when they stood at Mount Sinai and God offered the Torah. It’s said in the Midrash that this willingness to accept the Torah “on faith” was an expression of their religious valor, giving expression to the inherent connection between the Jewish people’s recent […]
My students in the 7th grade can quote not only from the latest music and entertainment venues of the electronically linked lives but they can quote Shakespeare and Robert Frost as well. The literary curricula of various New York City schools continues, thank God, to demand such a relationship with the written word.
That’s good.
So […]
John McCain jumped the gun and beat everyone else to Israel for a trip as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Here’s what it looked like in Yediot:
It’s possible that the smile on Joe Lieberman’s face has to do with having successfully corrected McCain on his policy gaffe in Jordan, claiming Iran […]
Here is a link to the speech that Presidential candidate Barack Obama gave.
A masterful piece of work.
The comments below the WSJ piece represent a cross-section of its readers so I also include the synopsis of reactions posted by Huffington Post. Enjoy.
Riding the 6 train today, in the midst of St. Patrick’s Day reverie.
I wear an Obama pin on my jacket’s right side.
Two drunk celebrants sit across from me on the train and zero in on the pin; and in an instant, I am black; or gay; or Asian; or Latino; or a woman; and certainly […]
Ending Exodus, Uncomfortably Ever After
Matthew Soffer
Congregation Beth Elohim
March 7, 2008
“Sit back, relax, and enjoy.” I hear this phrase and chills run down my spine, as it sends me down “memory lane.” By the age of 9, I had seen Les Miserables 48 times. My brother played the role of Gavroche, the orphan […]
There are so many swirling currents of life for each of us to navigate and understand. In my own case, they relate to the many rhythms of people’s lives as they intersect with questions of Jewish identity.
Today, I engaged the 7th graders in the question of educational standards and their importance in building Jewish […]
I wonder what King David was thinking exactly when he wrote Psalm 104–the Psalm designated by the prayerbook as that which is read on Rosh Hodesh–the new month. You’ll have a chance to give it a look later this week when the Hebrew month Adar II enters the calendar in this leap year.
The words […]