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.
What is the miracle of Hanukkah’s first night?
By Joshua Hammerman — December 20, 2019
(RNS) — It may be that 2,000 years later, Jews, a miraculously inextinguishable and inexhaustible people, still joyously light their menorahs and spin their dreidels as the sun sets.
Your tax return is a sacred document
By Joshua Hammerman — April 16, 2018
(RNS) — Corny as it seems, I improvise a blessing when I put my completed tax forms in the mail. (Commentary)
Why God and Ben Franklin pick the Pats
By Joshua Hammerman — February 1, 2018
(RNS) — 'For many years, I’ve been using biblical and other Jewish sources to pick the winner, and I’m almost always right,' writes Rabbi Joshua Hammerman.
The Good Swastika
By Joshua Hammerman — January 26, 2018
(RNS) — Making peace with the swastika does not mean making peace with Nazis past and present, nor with their hateful ideology – nor with their corrupted version of that symbol.
