Posts Tagged: Jeremy Rosen blog
Judaism and the Solar Eclipse
There will be a solar eclipse on August 21, which will be visible across parts of the United States for the first time since 1918. Solar...
As It Goes With Corruption in Sport, So It Goes With Corruption in Religion
The end of another soccer season is upon us. I used to be a fanatical supporter of Manchester United. During my youth, soccer was my...
Passover Defies Logic, But It Works
Pesach, like all of religion, defies logic. That does not make it any less significant, valid or effective. The whole of mysticism, you might say, all...
Why Religion Needs Risk
There is no word I know of in the Bible for “risk.” Modern Hebrew uses the word “sakanah,” which really means “danger.” “Risk” in modern...
The Lines That Divide Us as Jews — and Human Beings
Fifty years ago, I had the privilege of studying in a great yeshiva in Israel. In those days, there were none of the more modern...
On These High Holidays, Pray for Others to Repent
When I was a child in England, I often used to see men and women standing at street corners holding placards saying such things as,...
Why Open Immigration Is Inevitable
Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of humans around the world are on the move -- political refugees and economic migrants. They are already and...
Finding Hope By Remembering the Good of the Past
Those who follow me on this blog will know how much scorn I have for abuses of religion and religious authority. I despair at the pettiness...
The Power – and Curse – of Charisma
It just never seems to end. The press publicizes yet another case of a rabbi and teacher guilty of abusing his position in a sexual...
On Democratic Governance and Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama's Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy is a follow up to his earlier The Origins of Political...
Why Are Good People Slaughtered by Terrorists?
As we celebrate the miracles of Hanukkah, we are bound to ask why sometimes some people are saved and at other times not. A month...
On Ferguson
The shooting of yet another young unarmed black man, this time in the town of Ferguson, Missouri, has ignited a firestorm in the United States...
The Karaites and Simchat Torah
Who are the Karaites, and do they keep Simchat Torah? I have several times in the past come across Jews, invariably thoughtful and charming, who have...
The Faith of Fallen Jews: Conforming Doesn’t Work
Thanks to Brandeis University Press, I have been thoroughly enjoying a volume of essays by the historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, who died far too early...
