Tag: Jews

Howie: What a dump! Mookie: These people have absolutely no idea what they are doing. Howie: I don’t see a single tailor shop, grocery store, or delicatessen. Mookie: Where’s the hot dog stand? Howie: Where? Where!? Mookie: Not a one. Howie: Not a clue. Mookie: Zero ...

“What are you?” It’s a question that many Middle Eastern and mixed-race people (and Sookie Stackhouse) are accustomed to hearing. When you’re a Jewish person answering this question, sometimes you have some ‘splainin’ to do. Identity is a strange business ...

Richard Glazar insisted that no one survived the Holocaust without help. To this Prague-born Jewish survivor, who endured Nazi imprisonment at Treblinka and Theresienstadt, plus years in hiding, it was impossible to persevere without others’ support. Glazar conceded that some of his fello...

Commentators often cite the irony of Israel’s image as a “safe haven” for Jews being, in reality, not particularly safe. After all, it remains technically at war with Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. Then there’s Iran, periodic Intifadas, and Hamas…. An otherwise med...

Slugs for salt! Chickens for KFC! Jews for… Hamas?! It is a great mystery which particular aspects of the human condition must be broken in order for a person to actively seek and desire harm against themselves or their own people — or any other beings, for that matter, though affi...

Today devout Jews observe Tisha B’Av, the annual fast day that marks both the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by Babylonians and of the Second Temple by the Romans (among some other calamities). In a broader sense, it is a time to reflect on how divisions among Jews begat disastrous vuln...

Ifyou ask an average American, “What percentage of the United States population is Jewish?” chances are that the answer will land somewhere between 15 and 20 percent. After all, Jews seem to be everywhere, particularly as actors, directors, musicians, and comedians. These ...

In 2023, after half a century, most Holocaust survivors have passed away, and many of their children have also left us, leaving behind a generation of grandchildren and great-grandchildren who have not experienced the tragedy of the Second World War and the horrors of Nazi-Fascist persecution. This ...

There are countless other jokes about Jews and food and it’s no wonder. It’s no secret that Jews have a relationship with food. In fact, there is no way that you can practice Judaism religiously or culturally without food. Within the Jewish legal framework there is the idea that Jewish r...

I know, the High Holidays are upon us and after atoning for my [many] sins of the previous year, I may not be off to the best start by coveting someone else’s experience. But I can’t help it. After one of the most transformative experiences I’ve ever had, attending services all day...

I’ve given a lot of thought to whether I am an American Jew or a Jewish American. To some, perhaps there’s not a difference; to me, the difference feels huge. I am an American Jew. My Jewishness is the core of who I am and what makes me different from 98% of the American population. Grow...

It’s common knowledge that Constantine was the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire. And it’s fairly well known that he began a crack down on pagan worship and belief while simultaneously promoting Christianity and the Christian church opening up the state treasuries for the build...

Whenever I criticize Israel, Zionists use the identity trick. In the past, I’ve just pointed them to Why Zionists Love Identity Politics: The long history of deflecting criticism by insisting anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, but sometimes I name a few of the Jews I admire immeasurably....

I am deeply pained by the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. And I am filled with sadness and trepidation as I share my perspective on this war because it seems to challenge the dominant narrative here in the U.S. However, as a therapist and a Jew, part of my work is to recognize blind spots, part...

The question of the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews has been a topic of scholarly debate, and the theory suggesting a Khazar origin is one of the hypotheses proposed. The Khazars were a Turkic people who lived in the region that is now modern-day Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan. The Kh...