Jewish Current Issues

Next Tuesday at Noon (Pacific): "American Jewry Today: Challenges and Opportunities"

This coming Tuesday, March 23, I will be interviewing Brandeis University Professor Jonathan Sarna, the preeminent historian of American Judaism, as part of the American Jewish University "B'Yachad" series. It's free. You can sign up for the Zoom webinar here.

 

Here is the AJU description of the event:

Brandeis University Professor Jonathan Sarna, who was named one of the most prominent historians of American Judaism by the Forward, joins AJU scholar in residence Rick Richman to discuss the current concerns and opportunities facing American Jewry today, from anti- Semitism to modern Zionism.

Monday, November 9: Kristallnacht and Jewish Disenfranchisement: Responding to Histories, Looking Forward

https://www.aju.edu/byachad-together/events/Kristallnacht-and-Jewish-Disenfranchisement-Responding-to-Histories-Looking-Forward (register at this link, no charge).

"Kristallnacht and Jewish Disenfranchisement: Responding to Histories, Looking Forward: Prof. Steven Windmueller in conversation with Rick Richman."

Prof. Steven Windmueller’s parents fled Nazi Germany in 1938. On the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the horrific night of devastation that claimed the life of Jewish communities, join him as he speaks to this moment and its effect on Jews both in America and worldwide, as well as his much anticipated volume on President Trump and American Jews.

Dr. Steven Windmueller is the Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Service at HUC-JITR. From June of 2006 until June of 2010, he served as the Dean of HUC-JIR's Skirball Campus in Los Angeles. In March of 2009, he was appointed to the Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk Chair in Jewish Communal Service and he served in that role until his retirement.

Rick Richman is a resident scholar at American Jewish University and the author of Racing Against History: The 1940 Campaign for a Jewish Army to Fight Hitler. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and New York University Law School. He has written for Commentary, The Jewish Journal, The Jewish Review of Books, Mosaic Magazine, The New York Post, The New York Sun and other publications, and is the author of the chapter on American Zionism in What America Owes the Jews, What Jews Owe America. 

Rick Richman's essay on Kristallnacht, "One Who Fought Back: Herschel Grynszpan and the Holocaust," was published in Mosaic Magazine on April 25, 2019. His review essay on The Road to September 1939, "Could Jewish and Zionist Leaders Have Done More to Rescue the Jews of Poland?", was published in Mosaic Magazine on February 5, 2019. His essay on Ben Hecht and the Holocaust, "The Hollywood Legend Who Mobilized the English Language on Behalf of the Jews of Europe and Israel," was published in Mosaic Magazine on July 3, 2019.

Politics for the Common Good

This free webinar by American Jewish University will be broadcast on Monday, October 26, at Noon Pacific (3 p.m. Eastern; 10 p.m. Israeli time). You can sign up at the link:

https://www.aju.edu/byachad-together/events/Politics-for-the-Common-Good: 

Dr. Eilon Schwartz was invested in creating sustainable environments in Israel when he became increasingly concerned by the extreme social and political polarization and divisions he witnessed in all areas of national life. He therefore created the Shaharit Institute, a think tank and leadership incubator, that seeks to create politics that unite all aspects of Israeli society.

Join him in conversation with AJU’s scholar-in-residence, Rick Richman, to discuss the challenges Israelis face at this moment and how they might create a new national dynamic.

The Striking Parallels Between the Nominations of Louis D. Brandeis and Amy Coney Barrett

https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/history-ideas/2020/10/what-the-first-senate-hearing-for-a-supreme-court-nominee-shows/

Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination, and the possibility of another contentious Senate confirmation hearing, evoke the first time the Senate ever held such a hearing, a little over a century ago—when President Woodrow Wilson nominated, in the same election year in which he was running for a second term, a jurist who belonged to one of America’s religious minorities, and whose views were thought incompatible with the conventional opinions shared by the Washington establishment.

That nominee would go on to become the first Jewish justice to sit on the Supreme Court.

Continue reading here.

 

Video of "The Jewish History That Could Have Been"

American Jewish University: Holocaust Reflections -- The Jewish History That Could Have Been

A special series leading up to Tisha B'av. Jewish history could have been different. At the beginning of World War II, the leaders of the left, right and center of Zionism – David Ben-Gurion, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Chaim Weizmann – traveled to America, a country paralyzed by isolationism, seeking support for a Jewish army to fight Hitler.

It is a little- known story of Jewish heroism and tragedy, unity and disunity -- with lessons for today. AJU Resident Scholar Rick Richman tells the story, and AJU Professor Michael Berenbaum joins the discussion of the Jewish response at the start of the darkest chapter in Jewish history -- and its current relevance. 

VIEW RECORDING.

 

 

THE JEWISH HISTORY THAT COULD HAVE BEEN

MONDAY, July 27th, 2020

12:00 PM PACIFIC TIME

           REGISTER HERE (Zoom presentation online, no cost)

Part of a special series leading up to Tisha B'Av: Jewish history could have been different.

At the beginning of World War II, the leaders of the left, right and center of Zionism -- David Ben-Gurion, Vladimir Jabotinsky, and Chaim Weizmann -- traveled to America, a country paralyzed by isolationism, seeking support for a Jewish army to fight Hitler.

It is a little-known story of Jewish heroism and tragedy, unity and disunity -- with lessons for today, presented by AJU Resident Scholar Rick Richman. Professor Michael Berenbaum joins the discussion of the Jewish response at the start of the darkest chapter in Jewish history – and its current relevance.

Rick Richman is the author of Racing Against History: The 1940 Campaign for a Jewish Army to Fight Hitler. He graduated with honors from Harvard College and NYU Law School. He has written for Commentary, The Jewish Journal, The Jewish Review of Books, Mosaic Magazine, The New York Post, The New York Sun and Is the author of the chapter on American Zionism in What America Owes the Jews, What Jews Owe America. 

Michael Berenbaum is a Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University. He is a writer, a scholar and a creator of Museums. His work has been recognized by the Emmys and Academy Awards. He is the editor of Not Your Father's Antisemitism: Hatred of the Jews in the 21st Century.

Jewish Leadership Conference: Opening Address

Here are the opening words from the opening address at the 2019 Jewish Leadership Conference (JLC) on November 10, 2019 in New York, by Eric Cohen, Executive Director of The Tikvah Fund and JLC co-chair, as published by the Jewish News Syndicate:

Jews like to worry, and the past year has surely given the Jewish people many causes for concern—and even alarm.

Around the world—from the Poway synagogue shooting, to the Holocaust-haunted streets of Berlin, to the Orthodox neighborhoods of Borough Park—the number of physical assaults on Jews, simply for being Jews, is on the rise. To the mad white supremacist, the Jew is vermin. To the radical woke activist, the Jew is a fascist. And to the Islamic fundamentalist, the Jew is a heretic.

Yet stand up to them all we will.

Around the world—even in America—the extreme left treats Israel and the Jewish people as villains and thieves: occupying land that is not ours, manipulating world affairs with our wealth, targeting and attacking Palestinian children. These anti-Semitic attacks are of course offensive and absurd—and even more ridiculous when one considers the amoral ruthlessness and Judenrein policies that stain so much of the Middle East. But somehow it has become a badge of progressive honor to call for boycotts on Israeli companies and war crimes tribunals for Israeli leaders.

Yet stand up to the progressive squad we will.

Around the world—even in America—Jewish students are being mistreated on college campuses: Jew-haters are provided student activity funding and special safeguards, while Zionist clubs are banished from campus. Jewish students are afraid to speak their minds in the classroom, while the crazy carnival of “intersectional” activists—with no Jews allowed—are provided safe spaces.

Perhaps the most egregious example of the corruption of the modern academy is the story of Oberlin College, which over the past few years has appeased anti-Semites and dehumanized a local bake-shop, all in the name of radical politics. Oberlin is what happens when truth itself is abandoned: bakers and Jews alike become collateral damage—or deliberate targets—in the unjust crusade for social justice.

Yet stand up for truth and civility we will.

Around the world—even in America—a campaign has begun to treat the rituals, rites and beliefs of traditional Jews as backward and bigoted. Bans on Kosher food. Bans on circumcision. Efforts to shut down Jewish schools for focusing too much on the transmission of Jewish identity. Efforts to ostracize traditional Jews who do not acquiesce to progressive dogmas about gender and marriage.

Yet stand up for religious freedom we will.

The balance of Cohen’s address is here.

Tikvah's Jewish Leadership Conference

Roger Hertog, Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, Ruthie Blum at the Jewish Leadership Conference of The Tikvah Fund in New York, Nov. 10, 2019 (photo by Rick Richman).

At the conference, Norman Podhoretz received Tikvah's Herzl Award, and Roger Hertog held a one-hour conversation with Henry Kissinger. His opening question asked Kissinger to reflect on his negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and Kissinger began by saying, "Let me say two things before answering this question":

The first is, I am here because Roger asked me [audience applause]. And Roger has been a mentor and an inspiration for all the decades I’ve been here in New York.

Second, I want to congratulate this organization for giving an award, the Herzl Award, to Norman Podhoretz. Nobody has tormented me more [audience laughter], from so many directions, than Norman, through many years of my public life. But nobody has been a better friend -- and more importantly, nobody I respect more, whether we agree or not, for his courage, for his inspiration, for what he has done for the American and the Jewish people, so [audience applause].

Videos from many of the presentations at the Conference will be available shortly at its website.

Eric Weinstein on Shabbat

Eric Weinstein holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D in Mathematics from Harvard. He received a fellowship at the Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and a National Science Foundation fellowship at MIT.

In 2019, he began hosting a podcast called The Portal. The fifth episode, earlier this month, is a fascinating, nearly two-hour discussion with Rabbi David Wolpe, in which Weinstein explored his own views as a Jewish atheist with the rabbi. Worth listening to in its entirety.

The following is an excerpt from the July 3, 2019 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, viewed by more than 3 million, in which the subject of Shabbat came up (beginning at 7:12):

WEINSTEIN: In terms of this weird thing about islands of time, one of the things that we do is we have Shabbat dinner every Friday. No matter how atheist and militant people are against any kind of organized religion, they will leave us alone if we say we're going into Shabbat. … like people will pester me in all sorts of situations, but if I invoke something that is vaguely religious, even Sam Harris probably wouldn't call me during that period of time. I find that very interesting – like, could you create a religion that was simply there to make sure that you had some time offline.

ROGAN: Yeah, I know if I text Ben Shapiro, I'm not getting a text back on Saturday until it’s dark. But when it's dark, he texts you back.

WEINSTEIN: As soon as there are 3 stars in the sky! There's Ben on Twitter -- “What’d I miss?”

ROGAN: ... I think it's probably a really good idea to just take a break from all that electronic shit and just connect with humans in a very old school type of way. I think it's probably very good for it to connect with yourself.

WEINSTEIN: I had this experience: I actually lived in Jerusalem for two years, and we landed in this Orthodox-run hotel. And on Friday night everything shut down, you know, like the textbook. And I then moved into an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood right on the boundary of the place where the secular and the Orthodox met. And what was really fascinating to me was I started telling people “you would never think that it's great not to be able to find a restaurant or a nightclub, but it's amazing that this is enforced downtime.” And about a month in, somebody said “Oh you're in the wrong place -- of course you can go out on Friday night, you just go to the Russian compound and everything is hopping, and you can go dancing and drinking and all these things.” After I knew that, I went dancing and drinking, and I was much less happy than believing that somehow Israel actually shut down on Friday night. And so very weirdly, I appreciated the constraint. As soon as I knew you could break the constraint, I was less happy, and I would never actually obey it anymore.

ROGAN: Yeah, I think having a rigid rule, even though it seems like counter-intuitive, in that it would provide you some freedom by having restrictions, but it does. It gives you some freedom, like OK like now we don't have to think about all these other things. So now we have the freedom to just be alone. Now we have the freedom to be relaxed. Now we have the freedom to just talk to human beings. You know I think, constraints … discipline equals freedom.

WEINSTEIN: Discipline equals freedom.

 

Mother's Day 2019

Rabbi David Wolpe's Mother's Day sermon, Motherhood's Gift.

Sinai Temple President Angela Maddahi's Comments:

It was lovely that we celebrated our mothers today. Thank you, Rabbi Wolpe, for setting the tone and to Craig and Co. for the beautiful music. Personally, though, I think it's not enough to celebrate them only one day a year. Both fathers and mothers should be openly cherished as often as possible. No one is perfect but I know that we all have best intentions for our families and it is our love that binds us together. So, the more love you show your parents, the better life will be for you.

A part of my own Mom's story, in A Short Trip, A Long Journey. (https://jpundit.typepad.com/jci/2010/03/draft-begats.html)

And the poem she left me, written in my Sixth Grade autograph book:

This world that we're a-livin' in

Is mighty hard to beat.

You get a thorn with every rose,

But ain't the roses sweet.