A unique liturgical feature of this holiday is the recitation within the Amidah and Birkat Hamazon of Al Hanissim acknowledging the miracles of that long ago era, of history’s first open … more

W e live in interesting times that witness murder as state policy and also brazen and often violent religious intolerance. These are also times, by contrast, of religious tolerance in many … more

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, I would like to bring to your attention a wonderful and informative work entitled, “Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American … more

When we think of Noach we tend to envision a flood and a world covered with water. However, in the historical sense, the biblical saga of Noach is transcended by a short listing of  … more

What an irony. I always knew that the first commentary on a Sukkot machzor describing the rather sharp medieval reaction to a British-based Simchat Torah service would come from the pen of a former … more

The headline echoes our … more

Little known and even less hailed, President Benjamin Harrison played a crucial role in the immigration of Eastern European Jewry to this country in the 1890s and into the early decades of the 20th … more

Rabbi Shai Held’s latest book, “Judaism Is About Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life,” is the culmination of a career spent correcting a great misconception, namely that … more

The upcoming fast of Tisha b’Av gives us an opportunity to re-learn and relive past tragedies of our people in a depth of scholarship that would benefit all. Learning from past error and … more

As the Olympic Games in Paris attract world attention this week, I would like to bring to your attention a unique and historically interesting book on the most infamous Olympic Games of all, the … more