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Reading Time: 2 minutes There has always been an element of protest in Jewish religiosity. We can picture ancient biblical prophets like Nathan or Amos or Jeremiah ranting at someone, or no one, or everyone about even small injustices inflicted upon seemingly unimportant people. We can imagine their grim visage on such occasions, illuminated paths of sweat scoring their […]
Judaism
Posted inDeep Dive
Who invented Christianity?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Here’s the thing: No one knows for sure if the words of Jesus in the gospels are his actual words. We’re fairly certain that some of them definitely aren’t. There is even a not-very-good argument to be made that Jesus never existed. Most biblical scholars accept that Jesus probably did exist. They agree that at least […]
Posted inLeaving Religion
Why I am no longer a Jew
Reading Time: 5 minutes For many years, I was an integral member of a Reconstructionist synagogue in Pittsburgh—Dor Hadash, now known to all the world because of a gunman’s attack in 2018. My three children celebrated Bar and Bat Mitzvahs there. I was very happy at Dor Hadash. I still send a contribution every year. But a few years into […]
Posted inSexuality
On bikinis and hijab
Reading Time: 5 minutes For Americans, as in most of the West, the meaning of the Arabic word “hijab” is as opaque as the term “bikinis” is clear. But the ancient misogynistic traditions that spawned both are still very much alive in the United States as elsewhere where Christianity still reigns. The recent movement to ban abortion in the […]
Posted inReligion
On Yom Kippur, and its homophobic beginnings
Reading Time: 3 minutes In the early days of October, millions of Jews will observe Yom Kippur. During this most sacred day of the Jewish religion, the faithful will spend hours fasting, praying in synagogue, and spiritually atoning for their wrongdoings against God and people. While many Jews are not regular synagogue attenders, if they do ever go to […]
Posted inEducation
Are Hasidic Jewish children happier in ignorance?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Defenders of Hasidic Judaism claim they’re happier, whatever their educational gaps—but there are reasons to doubt this self-serving conclusion.
Posted inEducation
No one has the right to starve a child’s mind
Reading Time: 5 minutes A media exposé sheds light on the shockingly poor education offered at Hasidic Jewish private schools.
Posted inHealth
An old darkness stirs
Reading Time: 4 minutes Thanks to anti-vaccine ideology, diseases long ago vanquished are creeping back—even polio.
Posted inPolitics
Ohio senate candidate is a ‘proud Jew’ using evangelical churches to attract GOP votes
Reading Time: 4 minutes Although the words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the First Amendment, the Establishment Clause was intended to separate church from state. But Josh Mandel, hoping to become a US senator, doesn’t believe in church/state separation and is aggressively wooing evangelical MAGA cultists in a bid to become a US senator. He’s […]
Posted inReligious News
Jewish leaders vow to oppose the Sunshine Protection Act: ‘It will affect our religious life’
Reading Time: 4 minutes I have too many damn clocks in my apartment, and twice a year I have to adjust them. After dealing on Sunday with the last of six that require manual adjustment— while reciting the “spring forward, fall back” mantra—I learned that a bill that would do away with the need for these changes is being […]