Stories,photos

193 results total, viewing 31 - 40

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

Our dual identity

Our story as American Jews began in September 1654, when 23 Portuguese Jews from Recife, Brazil, arrived in New Amsterdam, now the city of New York. Ever since then, ours is the story of our double … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 8/5/21

Worthy of a suspension of disbelief

“One Night, Markovitch” is the first novel by the young and gifted Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen; the Hebrew original appeared in 2012, while the English translation by Sondra … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 7/1/21

We are awesome too

“When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have established,/What is man that You are mindful of him? The son of man that You pay attention to … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 6/3/21

Amichai’s ‘Poems of Jerusalem’

I have in my home library a number of volumes of the poetry of Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000), perhaps Israel’s best-known post-state poet. Many are in the Hebrew original, others are English … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 5/9/21

What I believe and don’t believe about ‘the word of God’

When I came to Barrington in the summer of 1974 to serve as rabbi of Temple Habonim (then called the Barrington Jewish Center), I made it clear at the outset that I do not believe that our Torah is … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 4/9/21