For the past two years the three of us have formed an abiding friendship with B.J. Yudelson. Together we have engaged in two study groups that did not necessarily overlap yet nurtured us in ways that deepened our understanding of our lives and of our commitment to Jewish values, ethics and social justice.

In an essay posted just before Rosh Hashanah in 2014, and is reprinted here in this collection, B.J. wrote about a central verse in the Rosh Hashanah prayers that, “the best way to think of teshuvah, tefilah, and tzedakah (repentance, prayer and charity) is restoring the balance with oneself, with God, and with the community… By returning to one’s true self, by communicating with the Divine, and by performing righteous deeds we can cross to a place where we can write ourselves into the Book of Life. We can’t change what’s happened, but we can move forward to choose life.” read more

I chose to focus on the biblical verse, “And Jacob said to Pharaoh…Few and hard have been the years of my life.” (Genesis 47:9]. This is not necessarily my most favorite verse in Torah, however it always touches my heart. I am fond of the person Jacob-Israel our forefather, despite of his all too human weaknesses and missteps. But mostly I like the honesty, self-awareness and sorrow that the verse reveals. At this moment in the Torah narrative Jacob-Israel is at the end of his life standing before the all-powerful Egyptian Pharaoh answering the ruler’s informative question, “How many are the years of your life?” His answer is just a few words, without self-pity yet, it is personal and acknowledges his complicated and anguished life. In his answer he is giving a self-account for himself and not necessarily to inform Pharaoh. His complicated life dotted by sorrow and grief is emblematic of his namesake, of his descendants the people Israel. read more

I am writing about a crisis in social psychology.

But, before I address the crisis, some background: Recently, a lot of press has been given to the Science article reporting that many psychological effects, in particular social psychological effects, did not replicate in a large scale replication project. Since deciding what replicated and what did not isn’t as easy as it sounds (does it need to be significant to be successful? In the right direction? Consistent with the theory?), the exact percentage of studies isn’t clear, but, to be safe, let’s say over 50%. In other words, over 50% of studies didn’t replicate when another researcher (not the original one who published the original paper) tried to replicate them. That sounds really bad. But it isn’t the crisis I want to write about. read more

Citizenship has been in the news. Donald Trump wants to abolish “birthright citizenship” for Americans, primarily so he can expel some four million American citizens and their foreign born Central American or Mexican-born parents from the United States. And in Europe there is the sad spectacle of hundreds of thousands of essentially stateless refugees, desperate to flee war-torn Syria and Iraq, making their way to the safer haven of Europe in any way they can, herded like cattle, treated like produce, dying on the water, dying on the land. read more

I was standing in line at a suburban supermarket, thankful that there were only two people ahead of me, and expecting no more than the usual checkout routine. The cashier and the shopper had a friendly discussion about the amount of money on the debit card. Both women seemed to be in the same age-bracket, in their early thirties, the customer was African American the cashier was white.

I began to put my items on the counter when the next in line, a white older man said to the cashier, “Those people, they don’t like to work. Why should they? Obama gives them food stamps.” read more

Chemi Shalev wrote in today’s Haaretz an article under the title “The Shameful Jewish Silence on Trump’s Anti-immigration Incitement.” He points out that American Jewish organizations have been strangely silent in condemning Trump’s call for mass expulsions. We want to draw attention to an article we published a few days ago in the Jewish Pluralist, “Expulsion According to Trump” to which we must add, “Taking a Jewish Position,” to the title. We wrote the essay as Jews committed to Jewish principles of justice and placed Trump’s indecent proposal to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America on our Jewish screen of a history of expulsions. This Jewish history obligates (mehayev ?????) us to remember (lizkor ?????) the horrors of expulsions, the tragic and brutalizing destruction that they bring on people and nations. read more

Donald Trump, for those of us from New York City and State who have witnessed his antics for over 40 years, has always been a self-promoting jester. But recently he has crossed the line from his usual boundless self-aggrandizement into something with dangerous political consequences. He has announced that he wants to expel the 11 million undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America from this country.

Trump proposes to also end “birthright citizenship” and thereby abrogate the 14th amendment, at least those parts that state that “all persons born” in the United States are citizens, and all citizens enjoy “the equal protection of the laws.” He wants to build a wall separating Mexico and Canada and to greatly tighten existing restrictions on immigrants and to use their remittances home to pay for this unethical project. read more

For the last week or so, since New York Senator Chuck Schumer decided to abandon his party, his president, his principles (or at least what should have been his principles) and announce his decision to vote against the Iran agreement, I have been thinking about the poem “Ichabod” (1850) by the 19th century American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). Nowadays Whittier is clinging to a place in the literary canon by his fingernails, but at his best he was quite a memorable poet, and one of his best poems is “Ichabod.” read more