Joshua Hammerman

Joshua Hammerman is an author at Religion News Service.

All Stories by Joshua Hammerman

How OJ Simpson changed the male-only way I talk, think and pray about God

By Joshua Hammerman — April 12, 2024
(RNS) — OJ's violence toward his wife convinced me to pursue a more gender-balanced liturgy.

The zone of indifference

By Joshua Hammerman — March 21, 2024
(RNS) — Elie Wiesel's creed of non-apathy demands that Jews open our eyes to the suffering of innocents on all sides, including Gazans.

Born in tragedy, Refugee Shabbat honors our 110 million neighbors looking for a home

By Joshua Hammerman — February 1, 2024
(RNS) — The sheer numbers of people displaced should tell us this is a shared problem.

Blacks and Jews: Shame, pride and the Curse of Canaan

By Joshua Hammerman — January 11, 2024
(RNS) — We share the heritage of the Bible, which has been used to inspire and at times to subjugate both groups.

Hanukkah: It’s complicated (especially this year)

By Joshua Hammerman — December 8, 2023
(RNS) — It will be a subdued Hanukkah this year, no doubt.

Why the ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl ads make Jews nervous

By Joshua Hammerman — February 7, 2023
(RNS) — Whatever happened to #Pluralism?

The Hanukkah dreidel and America’s gambling problem

By Joshua Hammerman — December 15, 2022
(RNS) — Religious institutions were not prepared for the gambling explosion. We need to catch up.

The climate bill is our generation’s moonshot. Failure is not an option.

By Joshua Hammerman — August 12, 2022
(RNS) — As Ron Howard's new movie shows, our new adventure means digging deep, not going high.

Rams or Bengals? The annual divining of the Super Bowl victor through sacred texts.

By Joshua Hammerman — February 11, 2022
(RNS) — My record is impeccable.

We must commemorate Jan. 6. A national fast is the best way to do so.

By Joshua Hammerman — November 10, 2021
(RNS) — Fasts have fallen from favor, but Jan. 6 deserves one. Our blemished Capitol and our sullied democracy still need that moment of cleansing and rededication.

Inducting a Jew into the Hall of Fame on Rosh Hashana? What is the MLB thinking?

By Joshua Hammerman — July 9, 2021
(RNS) — What would Sandy Koufax do?

Bystanders in a digital age: The heroes of the Derek Chauvin trial

By Joshua Hammerman — April 20, 2021
(RNS) — Idleness is, in many ways, no longer an option now that most onlookers carry in their pockets small, handheld instant-justice machines that can make star witnesses out of 9-year-olds.

This Passover, kosher pig’s on the menu

By Joshua Hammerman — March 25, 2021
(RNS) — Modern Jewish life is filled with kosher pigs, utter inconsistencies we sometimes hardly notice; but they are there, and they are enlightening.

Doing the math: What’s a human life worth?

By Joshua Hammerman — May 18, 2020
(RNS) — As the Holocaust begins to recede from memory, an incontrovertible fact shines like a beacon from the deepest darkness of the 20th century as we face this overwhelming pandemic that will define the 21st. Each human life is priceless.

Auschwitz at 75: From sorrow to song

By Joshua Hammerman — January 27, 2020
(RNS) — As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the time has come to turn our sorrow into song — in a sense, to embrace Auschwitz.
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