Stories,photos

186 results total, viewing 51 - 60

During my elementary school days in the 1950s, I attended religious school three days a week at Temple B’nai Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Elizabeth, New Jersey. When our teacher … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 10/2/19

Bringing new life into old words

When I was a sophomore at Columbia College in 1963-1964, I had the privilege of studying creative writing with Kenneth Koch, a celebrated poet of what is known as the New York School. Since creative writing is inspired by “creative reading,” Koch made it his mission to bring to our attention up-and-coming authors who were not yet widely read. I am especially grateful that he introduced us to the Argentinean Jorge Luis Borges (1889-1986), whose short-story collection “Ficciones” (Grove Press, 1962) had recently become available in an English translation from the Spanish. more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 9/10/19

Rape and rape myth in Jewish tradition

Rabbi Gavi S. Ruit, a valued member of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island, teaches adult education classes here in southern New England. Her forthcoming book, “The Story of … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 8/1/19

Filmmaker shows that Iranians are not all that different from us

Only a handful of Americans – outside of a small but dedicated circle of cinema aficionados – have ever heard of Asghar Farhadi. I learned about him quite by accident. In … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 7/5/19

The power of words unspoken

Dan Pagis (1930-1986), a well-regarded Israeli poet, was born in Bukovina, a German-speaking part of Romania. During World War II, he spent three years in a concentration camp in Ukraine. … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 6/6/19

An essential difference to life in Israel and the Diaspora

In the opening pages of “Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew” (Yale University Press, 2017), Israeli scholar Avner Holtzman writes that the life story of Bialik (1873-1934) is … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 5/2/19

The burden and the blessing

“Memory is a passion no less powerful or pervasive than love. It is to live in more than one world, to prevent the past from fading, and to call upon the future to illuminate … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 4/4/19

Stephen Greenblatt “The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve.

Where do we come from?

“The image of the man and the woman in the perfect garden suggests a tension between things as they are and things as they might have been. It conveys a longing to be other than what we have … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 3/6/19

Words that come from the heart

Beginning with the fall semester of 1980 and continuing through the spring semester of 1988, with generous support from the Jewish Chautauqua Society, I had the privilege of teaching a series of … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/31/19

The cost of denial

When my wife, Sandy, and I sat down this past fall to view the 2011 Israeli film “The Flat” (“Hadirah”) on Netflix, we had no idea that we were about to see a documentary … more

Rabbi James Rosenberg | 1/10/19