Author: Neta-Lee Zellweger

(JTA) — I was born in Jerusalem, a city that is the pinnacle of multifaith expression. Yet instead of growing up with a sense of coexistence, I was surrounded by segregation both politically and communally. I did not know what truly living together in unity with other practitioners of Abrahamic faiths would be like.  When […]

“Who shall live and who shall die … who by water and who by fire … who by earthquake and who by plague …” (JTA) — Twenty years ago, people cried when they said these words on Rosh Hashanah, six days after the attacks of Sept. 11. The ancient words suddenly held intense contemporary force. […]

(JTA) — On the second night of Rosh Hashanah, in my second year of rabbinical school, while working at my first-ever High Holiday pulpit, I accidentally conceived. I had my first bout of morning sickness in our introductory Talmud course, and my first pregnancy craving during Hebrew Literature and Grammar (I still swear that pickles […]

(JTA) — Deborah Lipstadt, recently named by President Joe Biden as the U.S. Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, won’t just combat anti-Semitism but may well eliminate it. And that would be a mistake. To be clear, the Emory University historian is a fierce opponent of Jew-hatred and Holocaust denial, having vanquished the Holocaust […]

(JTA) — “Hey Allies: Please don’t schedule meetings or events on the Jewish holidays!” So says a meme that has circulated widely in recent days including the dates for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Seems like a pretty harmless and potentially helpful message to post on social media in the run-up to […]

This article originally appeared on Alma. A year ago, I was watching “Schitt’s Creek” with my wife. It was the last season, second to last episode, so things were already emotional. Then there was that scene. The one where David is sitting on the car with his best friend Stevie and looking at the house […]

(JTA) — We are, once again, in a season of reckoning with sexual abuse in the Jewish community and in the country. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned after a state attorney general investigation found that he sexually harassed at least 11 women, aided by networks of complicity. In the Jewish community, the Reform movement, […]

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in Brooklyn this week, when my neighborhood came together for “One Crown Heights,” a day of music, entertainment, rides and activities for children and community conversation.  The peaceful and joyous nature of the day, with the full diversity of the community on […]

(Detroit Jewish News via JTA) — In 1985, I stood in the corner of a crowded meeting room at the Wayne State University Student Center, stone-faced, while people I did not know lined up at a microphone to denounce me before the Student Newspaper Publications Board. “I don’t think Howard Lovy should be editor of […]

Text Messages, produced with The Jewish Week, is a column sharing wisdom from the weekly Torah portion.  (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — It is easy, in our politically polarizing times, to look at every moral issue through a partisan lens. But we need not look further than Parshat Ki Teitzei to see that defending […]