I am very happy to announce that my book Justice in the City: An Argument from the Sources of Rabbinic Judaism is out and available at Academic Studies Press and Amazon.com . You can now download and read the introduction of the book here (just click on the cover image). Read More »

Director of Campaigns New York, NY About the organization: Inspired by Judaism’s commitment to justice, American Jewish World Service (AJWS) works to realize human rights and alleviate poverty in the developing world. Read More »

I could probably just about build a raft and sail around the world with all the books advocating for Jewish Social Justice that have come out in the last couple of years. Several of them are very good. I particularly like Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ first book, which is both thorough and excellent. Read More »

Feministe has a round-up on the recent squabbling about whether or not religious organizations that don’t approve of birth control should have to have health plans cover it. Read More »

The following is a sermon I delivered to my congregation, this last Shabbat, on the published remarks in the Atlanta Jewish Times by Andrew Adler calling for a US President to be assassinated by Mossad agents. Read More »

It’s like this + this Learn more about how you can dig in here . !!זאָל זיין מיט מזל Read More »

Shaul Magid responds to Dov Linzer’s op-ed on modesty and the chareidi community. Always interesting, always controversial, always important. Dear Rabbi Linzer, I read with great interest your op-ed “Lechery, Modesty, and the Talmud” in the New York Times last week. Read More »

Join the National Havurah Committee, havurahs and minyans from across the mid-Atlantic region for the NHC Chesapeake Retreat on February 17-19, 2012! “Shall the Rich Pay More?” In parashat Mishpatim, Moses receives law concerning fines, lending, and restitution. Read More »

It’s about time… Read More »

This is a guest post by Lillian Cohen-Moore, a freelance writer, editor and stage manager who calls the West Coast home. She often tours and travels to cover assignments; she lives out of a suitcase and on twitter. Earlier this month in Beit Shemesh, Israel, a group of women did something unthinkable to their critics: they danced . Read More »

Gal Beckerman at the Forward posits that Newt Gingrich’s use of “food stamp President” holds racist overtones and that “Saul Alinsky radical” is pregnant with antisemitism. Newt seems to think the average American knows who Alinsky is and that conservatives know to hate him. Read More »

Parodies of The Downfall , a German dramatization of the end of Adolf Hitler’s reign, have been used to protest everything from football loses to Rebecca Black . Here in the Jewish community, the roughly 5-minute footage has been used to protest parking in Tel Aviv , the worrying spread of kiddush clubs , and even housing prices in Israel . Read More »

The following is a sermon I delivered to my congregation last week for Parashat Vay’ḥi on the travesties in Beit Shemesh and Mea She’arim — a little late, but still important. The Mirriam-Webster dictionary defines legacy as: a gift by will or something which is transmitted by or received from an ancestor. Read More »

A little tempest in a teapot has apparently hit the ranks of the Conservative movement about the cover of the latest issue of Kolot (The Conservative Movement’s now-integrated magazine, including more or less all the different arms of the movement that used to have separate magazines). Read More »

As the new year begins, here at Jewschool we put together an entirely unscientific, completely biased view of some of the best and worst of 2011. 2011 was simultaneously one of the most inspiring and dispiriting years I can think of. From the shooting of Rep. Read More »

Just over a week ago, the world Yiddish community lost the greatest Yiddish songstress of our time, Adrienne Khane Cooper, who died on December 25, 2011 at the age of 65. Adrienne was a person of enormous passion and talent who, as both a performer and teacher, molded a whole generation of young Yiddishists and klezmorim . Read More »

This is a guest post by Naomi Kramer, longtime friend of Jewschool and even longer time lover of cooking and cookbooks. You don’t have to love women or Zionism to enjoy the beautiful Hadassah Everyday Cookbook . Non-female identified cooks, post-zionists, never-were-zionists, and everyone else will still enjoy the delicious eats from Leah Koenig. Read More »

x-posted to Justice in the City There was once a healthy and interesting conversation in this country about the relationship between religion and democracy. Not the specious bombast of the Rick Perryesque “America is a Christian country so we should be able to hate anybody we want and celebrate Christmas ” kind of conversation. Read More »

It’s been a poor month for JNF as progressive upset continues to gather it negative attention. Voices inside and outside the quasi-governmental NGO have protested the dispossession of Bedouin in the Negev and Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Read More »

Here’s another great job opportunity in the Washington DC area! Jews United For Justice (JUFJ), DC’s local Jewish social justice organization, is hiring a Community Organizer (and yes, the position has actual responsibilities ). Read More »