Tisha B’Av 2021

Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av) begins at sunset on Saturday, July 17, and continues until the evening of Sunday, July 18. What is Tisha B’Av? Tisha B’Av is the major day of communal mourning. First and foremost Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of both the first and second temples […]

Continue Reading

Yoma 55

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” With this unforgettable observation, Forrest Gump’s mother, played by the inimitable Sally Field, teaches her son (and us) that life can be both delicious and random. Such is the rhetorical power of a good analogy.  The rabbis don’t just enjoy analogies […]

Continue Reading

When “Antifa” Is the Enemy

Over the last several years, debates over antisemitism and Israel/Palestine have roiled the German-speaking world. In 2019, the director of Berlin’s Jewish Museum, Peter Schäfer, was forced to resign after the museum tweeted about a petition against the German government’s decision to designate the BDS movement as antisemitic. In the spring of 2020, Germany’s (non-Jewish) […]

Continue Reading