Gleanings Today
Mar 5, 2003 By Lewis Warshauer | Commentary | Kedoshim
During a recent visit to Kansas City, I was talking to friends at my former congregation about their recent trip to the New York area. They had been to a wedding reception and marveled at the prodigious sushi bar. I smiled when they admitted to making the classic mistake of those not familiar with New York folkways: filling up on appetizers in the mistaken notion that they are the main meal.
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Disabilities, Inclusion, and Jewish Education
Dec 9, 2015 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
How does the Jewish community help individuals with a range of disabilities participate meaningfully in Jewish education and Jewish life? A panel of experts discusses key innovations and challenges in the field as they apply to both formal and informal Jewish education, and explores which programs, services, and opportunities are still missing.
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Society and the Stranger
Feb 5, 2005 By Matthew Berkowitz | Commentary | Mishpatim
Sensitivity to the plight of the stranger stands at the core of Parashat Mishpatim. With debates raging over migrant workers in the United States and the treatment of foreign laborers in Israel, our Torah reading could not come at a more appropriate time. Just a few weeks ago, the Jerusalem Report ran a cover story on the plight of the foreign–worker community in Israel.
The Syrian Refugee Crisis: Realities and Responses
Feb 2, 2016 By The Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video
What are the realities on the ground in Syria and other affected countries? What are our responsibilities as individuals, as a country, and as a Jewish community? How do we fulfill the Jewish moral imperative of dealing compassionately with the stranger even as we ensure domestic security?
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Modern Day Prophets
Jun 26, 2010 By Andrew Shugerman | Commentary | Balak
Twice during my teenage years, I felt that I’d witnessed a modern-day prophet speaking live on television. I grew up with the idea that such a phenomenon was not just possible but something for which we, as American Jews, yearn. We have watched how tremendous oratory can change history by reflecting the transformations taking place in our society and around the globe.
Jealousy As a Test of Virtue
Dec 14, 2007 By Daniel Nevins | Commentary | Vayiggash
Gifts can make you crazy. Picking them is hard, and so is accepting them with grace.
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Judah’s Story, Our Stories, and the Stories of Refugees
Dec 17, 2015 By Julia Andelman | Commentary | Vayiggash
Read MoreThey grabbed me and led me to a van. I told them: ‘I’m an old man. I’m not a threat.’ But they didn’t listen. On our way to the prison, they kept stopping on the street and collecting more people. They blindfolded me when we arrived and they beat me very badly. Then they put me with seventy other people in a room smaller than this one. It was very cold because it was December and I was barefoot because I’d lost my slippers.
Our Lying Patriarch
Oct 21, 2009 By Abigail Treu | Commentary | Toledot
The evidence stared at us: a hot pink eye embedded in dark skin. “Which one of you did this?” my mother demanded. I, of course, knew the secret, having mashed the Bubbilicious bubble gum into a crack in the dark-stained paneling of our family room some hours earlier. My little sister, trying to be helpful, asked with what I knew to be complete innocence: “Well, what kind of gum is it?” Which was all our mother needed to hear to jump to a conclusion that brought her investigation to its end and my sister to her inevitable reprimand.
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