The Negro’s insistence that everyday practice in America match its democratic promise is bringing about significant changes in our society. The Race Revolution has already affected and will continue to affect Jews, Jewish life and Jewish communal services. Read More »

My great-grandmother, who is still alive, was the daughter of an enslaved African. My other great-grandmother, who took the name “Naomi,” was the first in my maternal family line to investigate the spiritual possibilities of Judaism and take steps toward Jewish practice. Read More »

Jews in the United States today are creating a Jewish culture that draws heavily on African American and, in the case of reggae, Afro-Caribbean styles of expression. So writes Eric Goldstein in the Fall 2007 issue of AJS Perspectives. Read More »

In honor of Black History Month, throughout February this blog will highlight selections at intersections of Black and Jewish history. Some such publications will make us proud; others — like this one — will certainly not. Read More »

( Photo: New England Patriots / Associated Press ) In advance of Super Bowl Sunday, here’s a gem from 1973 by Rabbi Solomon Schiff , who served for a time as a chaplain to the Miami Dolphins: Judaism and Professional Football. Read More »

Posted at the Shalom Hartman Institute. The discourse about Israel – that conducted by those who see themselves as Israel’s friends — seems to come in either of two varieties. Read More »

As Florida Republicans make their choice for a presidential nominee today, some will be thinking of — and perhaps basing their votes on — US policy toward Cuba. Read More »

Latino issues have been prominent in media coverage of the upcoming Florida primary election. This week, from the J-Vault, and as part of our continuing background coverage of that primary: The Jews of Latin America (1918) In this section of the 1918 American Jewish Yearbook, Harry O. Read More »

With the Florida Republican primary election less than a week away, the state of Florida finds itself in the nation’s spotlight, and the political leanings of Florida’s Jewish population has been much under discussion. Read More »

Recent reports that the American Jewish population is well over 6 million have been taken far too seriously, writes demographer Pini Herman: With all the pronouncements about the newly found million Jews we don’t know anything more about one single Jew in the US than we did before this “PEGGING” of US Jews at the over 6. Read More »

BJPA’s next newsletter (coming soon) will feature a BJPA Readers Guide on the topic of Jewish college students. In this installment of our J-Vault series, we share a special preview of one of the items to be featured in that Guide. Read More »

Matthew Ackerman’s post “The Silent Young Jewish Majority” on Commentary’s Contentions Blog argues against an “accepted point of Jewish communal debates in recent years that young American Jews are ‘distancing’ from Israel.” The post prompted this response from BJPA Director Prof. Steven M. Cohen. Read More »

Today being the day of the New Hampshire primary elections, with the eyes of the nation fixed on the contest for the Republican nomination, it’s as good a day as any to ask: Are American Jews Becoming Republican? Steven Windmueller isn’t exactly Read More »

Conversations about of the place of Jewish law in the regulation of public space will always, naturally, be radically different in Israel than in America. But isolated American Haredi communities can and do pose similar problems. A case in point: Rethinking Secularization Theory: The Case of the Hasidic Public Square. Read More »

Thank you for making 2011 BJPA’s biggest year yet. You and over 40,000 other users have visited bjpa.org since January 1, 2011. Every month, we on the BJPA staff select publications from our holdings on a different topic to share with you in our newsletter. But here at year’s end, we thought we’d let you select some publications. Read More »

This week, from the J-Vault: To Find Jews in a War Zone (1915) The Great War (later to be known as World War I) had been raging for a year, with Russia and Western Europe locked in a bloody battle with the Central powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). Sending letters between the United States and Eastern Europe, naturally, was nearly impossible. Read More »

Hopefully you saw our December newsletter on intermarriage, but as the Festival of Lights begins, it is appropriate to note that not every “December Dilemma” has anything whatsoever to do with intermarriage. Read More »

By now you’ve heard the (apparently earth-shattering) news that Matisyahu has shaved his beard. The pundits of Jewry are abuzz with interpretive chatter — and no surprise, since Matisyahu was already (in his hassidic incarnation) an icon and byword for all manner of Jewish discourse about culture, religion, and identity. Read More »

This was easily our most provocative event to date. On Monday, December 5th, Prof. Ruth Wisse and Rabbi Joy Levitt joined BJPA Director Prof. Steven M. Cohen at the NYU Law School for a wide-ranging, passionate, broad discussion of how the Jewish community should relate to the outside world. Read More »

(Cross-posted at Makom.) The imbroglio over these videos should not obscure some essential truths. One is that massive numbers of American Jewish people and families are indeed being lost to the Jewish People, both through cultural challenges and to Read More »