American Judaism
We are too old not to get arrested for children at the border
By Phyllis Berman and Arthur Waskow — September 9, 2019
(RNS) — As parents and grandparents, as teachers and rabbis and as Jews, we understand that these children and their families will be traumatized for generations to come.
Why Trump’s tweets on Omar and Tlaib go to the heart of American Jewish politics
By Noam Pianko — August 26, 2019
(The Conversation) — The president’s recent tweets have capitalized on a tension embedded within two paradigms of the place of Israel in American Jewish life.
Truck drives into line of Jewish demonstrators protesting ICE in Rhode Island
By Jack Jenkins — August 15, 2019
(RNS) — Organizers say roughly 400 people gathered for the protest and at least 30 participants formed a human barricade blocking the entrance to the Wyatt Detention Facility.
D-Day was the beginning of American Jews’ ‘coming of age’
By Paul O'Donnell — May 22, 2019
(RNS) — When Jewish men and women returned to civilian life in 1945, they no longer perceived themselves as members of a vulnerable minority group, but rather as part of a proud, self-confident community.
Thou shalt covet thy Canadian neighbor’s Judaism
By Jeffrey Salkin — May 7, 2019
In Canada, Judaism -- and Jews -- are different. We have something to learn.
How Hanukkah came to America
By Dianne Ashton — December 2, 2018
(The Conversation) — Hanukkah is ranked one of Judaism’s minor festivals, but in the United States it has gained popularity as an expression of American prosperity and religious freedom.
Lutheran school in Thousand Oaks learns how to grieve after losing one of its own
By Cathleen Falsani — November 9, 2018
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Like any of the mass shootings that have become near-daily trauma to the American psyche, the massacre here happened in precisely the kind of place such things aren’t meant to happen.
Before the TV hit ‘God Friended Me,’ there were two friends fascinated with faith
By Cathleen Falsani — November 9, 2018
(RNS) — The creators of a new CBS show about a mysterious Facebook contact came together just as their faith journeys were diverging.
A tale of two synagogues
By Jennifer Butler — October 31, 2018
(RNS) — The virulent anti-Semitism that led to the murder of 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue this past weekend shares eerie parallels with 1950s Atlanta.
Last-minute invite appears to treat White House call with rabbis as an afterthought
By Menachem Wecker — September 5, 2018
WASHINGTON (RNS) — Sent 10 days before the start of Rosh Hashanah, an invite to an already controversial call to celebrate the Jewish holidays may draw only the Trump administration's closest allies in the Jewish community.
The secret wisdom of Rabbi Rachel Cowan
By Jeffrey Salkin — September 4, 2018
Her greatest teaching was an off-handed comment. We should pay attention to its truth.
At national retreat, Jews embrace tradition with a self-help bent
By John Dyer — August 2, 2018
(RNS) — Seminars at the retreat reflected issues that Jewish folks face routinely, usually with a self-help bent: keeping kosher when big corporations dominate the food chain, anti-Semitism online and on college campuses and the Torah’s advice on confronting bullies.
Questioning real-world learning at ultra-Orthodox schools
By Karen Matthews — July 22, 2018
NEW YORK (AP) — Complaints that some schools run by the city's strictly observant Hasidic Jews barely teach English, math, science or social studies have fueled a movement to demand stricter oversight by state and local educational authorities.
Judge: Jewish heritage can be basis for race discrimination
By Paul O'Donnell — July 17, 2018
(AP) — Jewish people are protected by a law against racial discrimination in employment decisions, a federal magistrate judge has concluded in siding with a football coach suing a private Baptist college in Louisiana.
Surveys show sharp differences between Jews in US and Israel
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald — June 14, 2018
JERUSALEM (RNS) — While most Israeli Jews recognize the Jewishness of their American counterparts, the majority do not share the Americans' dreams to make Israel a more religiously pluralistic country.
