Rabbi James Rosenberg

Featured Most recent

168 results total, viewing 1 - 10

Rabbi Rosenberg has been away from his desk. He has requested that we reprint his well-received column from April 3, 2009, which appeared in what was then the Jewish Voice & Herald. Ever … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 6/3/22

‘The Prison Minyan’

The Jan. 22, 2021, issue of The New York Times includes an article by Corey Kilgannon titled, “Michael Cohen’s Prison of Choice: Well-known to Jewish Offenders.” The article … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 5/6/22

Revisiting ‘Walk on Water’

I first saw the Israeli film “Walk on Water” on a rainy weekend afternoon back in May of 2005, at the Avon, on Thayer Street in Providence. I left the theater somewhat confused, but … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 4/1/22

Poet Wallace Stevens’ quest for meaning

Complacencies of the peignoir, and late Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair, And the green freedom of a cockatoo Upon a rug mingle to dissipate The holy hush of ancient sacrifice … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 3/6/22

‘Do the Right Thing’

I did not see Spike Lee’s widely acclaimed but profoundly controversial film, “Do the Right Thing,” when it first came out, in the summer of 1989. I finally did get around to seeing … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 2/6/22

The importance of touch

For many of us, this past Thanksgiving was a world apart from the Thanksgiving we celebrated – or failed to celebrate – a year ago. On Thursday, Nov. 26, 2020, my wife Sandy and I sat … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/10/22

A complex moral dilemma

Two emaciated men are starving on a raft in the midst of an unnamed sea. One of them picks up a spyglass to look more closely at a circling gull, which suddenly dives and plucks a fish from the … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 12/4/21

The past informs the present in local author’s funny Hanukkah tales

I have known Mark Binder – author, story-teller, longtime resident of Providence’s East Side – for decades. During my 33 years as rabbi of Temple Habonim, in Barrington, Binder … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 11/7/21

The complexities of meeting are well worth it

When Martin Buber wrote, in his classic book, “I and Thou” (“Ich und Du,” 1923), that “all real living is meeting,” little could he have envisaged the nuanced … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 10/9/21

Who is Melville’s Ishmael?

“Call me Ishmael.” This oft-quoted opening sentence from Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” is a call to confusing ambiguity. Who is this Ishmael? Is he Melville … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 9/6/21