Stories,photos

193 results total, viewing 171 - 180

I came to the “My Six-Word Memoir” exhibit at gallery (401) at the Dwares JCC about a week before it was scheduled to close on April 11. Within minutes, I realized that I could not absorb what was before me in a single visit; so I arranged to … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 5/9/14

The miracle and the mystery of love

Almost every Jew knows that we read the Megillah, the scroll of Esther, every year on Purim. However, while we customarily refer to Megillat Esther as THE Megillah, we read four additional megillot (scrolls) during our liturgical year: Ruth on … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 4/24/14

Sholem Aleichem – nostalgia with a bite

Ever since it opened on Broadway in the fall of 1964, starring Zero Mostel as Tevya, “Fiddler on the Roof” has been part of Jewish consciousness here in America, throughout the diaspora and in Israel as well. Not wanting to argue with success, … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 4/10/14

What makes Israel Jewish

When American, British, Argentine or any other Diaspora Jews visit Israel, they know that they are in a Jewish place since most of the people living there happen to be Jewish. The language most frequently spoken, read and written is Hebrew – a … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 3/27/14

Shifting American Jewish Identities

In his much-discussed article in the June 10, 2010, issue of The New York Review of Books, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart, author of “The Crisis of Zionism” (2012), wrote: “For several decades the Jewish … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 3/13/14

Time to reengage?

When my father and I would drive “down the shore” on New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway, heading for a boat that would take us to where the bluefish were running, occasionally we would go far enough south to pass the exit for Double Trouble … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 2/27/14

Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Beethoven and God

I found my way via a footnote in the Jan. 9, 2014, issue of “The New York Review of Books” to an essay by jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, “Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix, Beethoven and God.” With a title like that, how could I not read it? The essay, … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 2/13/14

Ari Shavit’s bittersweet love letter to fans of Israel

Ari Shavit’s “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel” is a bittersweet love letter addressed to all those who want to see Israel succeed as a democratic Jewish state. The subtitle suggests why bitter (“Tragedy”) and why … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/30/14

A very narrow bridge

In 1995 Kay Redfield Jamison, Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, published “An Unquiet Mind,” a breakthrough book on the subject of manic-depressive illness – today, most often referred to as “bipolar … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/17/14

Berlin: a city that lives with the dead

The German/English “Berlin & City Guide” (No. 6, 2013) contains an article entitled “Remembering the terror,” which begins with the following sentence: “Berlin’s theme year ‘Diversity Destroyed’ encompasses not only the Nazis’ rise … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/3/14