#BeAMaccabee
A week before Hanukkah started, the USCJ, along with the Conservative/Masorti Movement partners, launched a hashtag campaign for Hanukkah to encourage Jews to post symbols of Jewish pride on social media. The campaign was a continuation of the solidarity efforts the Movement has been promoting since October 7, 2023. (more…)
When I was an undergraduate at Columbia University in the late 1980s, I took a class on Arab nationalism at the School of International and Public Affairs. One day, I found myself vigorously sparring about Israel with some Muslim students in the course when a Palestinian student name Zuheir said, “I’ve been imprisoned and beaten in many Arab countries,” cutting the conversation short. After class Zuheir and I compared notes. (more…)
Click for December 2023 Bulletin . Will open with Adobe Reader or equal.
By the time you read this message, I hope it is out-of-date.
· I hope that the hostages who have been kidnapped by the murderous savages of Hamas have been rescued and are home with their families.
· I hope that Hamas has been destroyed. (more…)
Even though I’ve never set foot in Israel, I firmly believe that one can establish a profound connection to a place through various means beyond physical travel. (more…)
As of the date this article is written, Israel is under attack from all sides. While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) relentlessly continue their mission of dismantling Hamas in Gaza following the atrocities of October 7, amid all the tragic collateral civilian casualties due to Hamas having embedded deeply in the local population, Israeli cities and towns continue to be targeted by rockets fired from Gaza. Other Iranian-sponsored terrorists have joined in this naked aggression: Hezbollah rockets have forced Israel to evacuate civilians from the “finger of the Galilee” emptying towns from Metulla to Kiryat Shemona. Combined with surviving residents forced to flee their homes in Israel’s south (the “Gaza envelope”), at least half a million Israelis are now refugees in their own homeland living in hotels, shelters, or with family elsewhere in the country. Iranian-backed terrorists based in Syria have launched rockets and drones at Israel, one of which landed on a kindergarten in Israel’s Red Sea resort town of Eilat. From the south, Iranian-backed Houthis have also launched rockets at Israel, though so far none of these have reached their targets, having been intercepted by US naval forces or Israeli missile defense systems. (more…)
During 1941 and 1945, Hitler’s Nazi Germany murdered around six million Jews, about two-thirds of the European Jewish population, in what would become known as The Holocaust.
Although this was a time where tales of hope and salvation were few and far between, there are stories of individual people and groups who demonstrated extraordinary bravery to save lives. They were a glimmer of light during a dark time that resulted in few happy endings.
On November 12, 2023, our Kritstallnacht Community-wide commemoration will take place at Congregation Or Shalom, in person and via Zoom. We will remember the lesser-known story of Syndrome K, the fictitious disease invented by Italian doctors that fooled the Nazis and saved lives. The program will include the presentation of a U.S. Senate Special Recognition to Dr. Cristina Ossicini on behalf of her late father Dr. Adriano Ossicini. (more…)
Shedding the concept “completely strikes at our sense of identity and autonomy,” the Stanford biologist and neuroscientist argues. It might also be liberating. What if Believing in Free Will Is Just a Choice?.
By Hope Reese
There is no free will, according to Robert Sapolsky, a biologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University and a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. Dr. Sapolsky worked for decades as a field primatologist before turning to neuroscience, and he has spent his career investigating behavior across the animal kingdom and writing about it in books including “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” and “Monkeyluv, and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals. (more…)
In the very first chapter of the Bible, there is a verse that may be the most important verse in the whole Bible, or anywhere. It says that every single human being is created in the image of G-d.
This sounds so simple, right?
And yet, if everyone believed this and looked at all other human beings as equals, this world would be a very different place. (more…)
Click for November 2023 Bulletin . Will open with Adobe Reader or equal.