Tag Archives: Judaism

Murray Polner :
Silent rabbis

Arthur Hertzberg believed that the quasi-religious reverence for Israel, right or wrong, tainted the beauty and grandeur of Judaism. By Murray Polner | The Rag Blog | October 21, 2014 One of the smartest, most courageous and provocative rabbis I … Continue reading

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Israel, Hillel, and Idolatry

Harvard Hillel banned a speech by former Israeli Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg. The spiritual issue: Israel, Hillel, and idolatry The Hillel International prohibitions make the State of Israel, and indeed only one version of it, into an idol. By Rabbi … Continue reading

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Drop Gas Masks, Not Bombs

Think out of the box. Digital art by Neho / deviantART. Act out of the box: Drop gas masks, not bombs Use the power of the U.S. in nonviolent, non-military, nonlethal ways to counter Assad’s (or the rebels’) possible use … Continue reading

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INTERVIEW / Jonah Raskin : American Jewish Poet Hilton Obenzinger on Israel, Zionism, and the Radical Sixties

Hilton Obenzinger with family photo. Photo courtesy of Stanford University. Interview with Hilton Obenzinger: Stanford professor, Sixties radical,  and anti-Zionist American Jewish poet “American Jews have been suckered into supporting Israel in unthinking ways. This has been changing, but not … Continue reading

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Do We Rejoice in Death?

Do we rejoice in death? Photo by Matt Sunday / AP.Bin Laden and beyond:Addressing our higher selvesBy Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag Blog / May 3, 2011 How might we appropriately address the death of a mass murderer? The … Continue reading

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Thanksgiving, My Yarmulke, and Alice’s Restaurant

Rabbi Arthur Waskow (not in 1970!) wearing rainbow kippah.You can get anything you want:Thanksgiving and my yarmulke By Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag Blog / November 28, 2010 Thursday, a little before noon, my phone rang. I knew at … Continue reading

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BOOKS / Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Marge Piercy: Science Fiction as Prophetic Vision

Marge Piercy’s ‘He, She and It’:Science fiction as prophetic vision By Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag Blog / November 7, 2010 [He, She and It by Marge Piercy (Knopf, 1991); Hardcover; 446 pp.] Marge Piercy’s novel He, She and … Continue reading

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Marc Estrin : What’s a Jew to Do?

Photo from the USHMM / National Archives / About.com.What’s a Jew to do (with you)… By Marc Estrin / The Rag Blog / September 4, 2010 …you, in this case, being the arch-conservative Catholic composer, Anton Bruckner, next to Wagner, … Continue reading

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Marc Estrin : George’s Messiah

Happy Easter,But crucify him first By Marc Estrin / The Rag Blog / April 3, 2010 This morning, the cheery NPR voice announced that today was Good Friday — but not for the Catholic Church, which was reeling from you … Continue reading

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Yom Kippur and the Middle East : Our Misdeeds and Theirs

Rabbi Rebecca Alpert blows Shofar at Fast for Gaza event at Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. At right is Rabbi Arthur Waskow.We are called to reexamine our actions Jews — and all others who care for peace — must act in … Continue reading

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Jonah Raskin : Revisiting Edward Said’s Palestine

Edward Said: “A scholar, an intellectual and an activist who tried to create a bridge between Arabs and Jews…”Thirty years later:Revisiting Edward Said’s Palestine By Jonah Raskin / The Rag Blog / September 9, 2009 It’s called The Holy Land … Continue reading

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Rabbi Arthur Waskow : Like War? You’ll LOVE Global Scorching

As long as the oil and coal keep pouring CO2 into our planet’s atmosphere, the food will wither, the ice will melt, the oceans will flood, and people will die — and kill. By Rabbi Arthur Waskow / The Rag … Continue reading

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