Religion

JFS and Racial Discrimination

ב׳ בטבת ה׳תש״ע (Saturday 19 December 2009)

As a university student in America, I once read an article posing the question: When did the modern era in Jewish history begin? The author’s answer was to point out that the answer depends on who answers the question. A Zionist might say, for example, that modern Jewish history began in 1789 with the rise [...]

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Hanukah

כ״ה בכסלו ה׳תש״ע (Saturday 12 December 2009)

I’ve noticed that a lot of the readers here are coming from places in the world where there are not a lot of Jews. Consequently, there may be people reading DoG who don’t know what Hanukah is and what it’s all about. Hanukah (rhymes with Monica) is the Jewish Christmas. It celebrates the birth of [...]

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Jews & the US Army

ז׳ בכסלו ה׳תש״ע (Tuesday 24 November 2009)

My grandfather served in the US army’s occupation of Japan after the Second World War – I was led to believe that he was too young to have been in the army during the war – but he was born in 1926 and I’ve long wondered if he didn’t maneuver somehow to avoid having to [...]

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Conversion to Judaism

כ״ח במרחשון ה׳תש״ע (Sunday 15 November 2009)

For purposes of what I consider to be Jewish unity, even though I don’t accept Rabbinic authority to impose an interpretation of the Torah, to legislate or to enforce their interpretation or legislation, I have spent many years believing that all conversions must follow a strict “orthodox” approach: the prospective convert is (1) discouraged, then [...]

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Ancestor worship is idolatry

י״ב במרחשון ה׳תש״ע (Friday 30 October 2009)

While reading the recent article in Slate about gravers, I got to think that one of the things that genuinely and independently appeals to me about Judaism, and even appealed to me when I was a child and hadn’t yet learned anything, is the way Judaism approaches death and mourning. My parents, who both grew [...]

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