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Articles by Arnold M. Eisen
All of us together: The call and the warning
Reading last week’s Torah portion with the crisis prompted by Israeli “judicial reform” in mind, I was struck with special urgency by a call and a warning that the Torah clearly wants us to hear and obey. The call comes at the very beginning of Parashat Nitzavim.
All of us together: The call and the warning
Reading this week’s Torah portion with the crisis prompted by Israeli “judicial reform” in mind, I was struck with special urgency by a call and a warning that the Torah clearly wants us to hear and obey. The call comes at the very beginning of Parashat Nitzavim.
American Yizkor
Featured Post The memorial service for coronavirus victims, a step toward healing, recalled the Yom Kippur service when we remember those we have lost Jan 21, 2021, 4:27 PM Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse, Report this post.
Joseph and his brothers in the voting booth
Featured Post America is divided over status, a conflict in which the forces of envy, resentment and vengeance are dangerously in play Dec 18, 2020, 1:54 PM Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse, Report this post.
After the election, laughter
Featured Post News of Joe Biden's election victory brought a sudden, exhilarating sense that possibility had been restored to America. Nov 12, 2020, 8:07 PM Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse, Report this post.
Turning the page to 5781... alone
Featured Post ‘Social distance’ is the exact opposite of what we need as we ask forgiveness from God and one another Sep 24, 2020, 12:55 AM Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The Times of Israel nor its partners assume any responsibility for them. Please contact us in case of abuse. In case of abuse, Report this post.
OPINIÓN | Coronavirus: Dios nos debe muchas respuestas
Nota del editor: Arnold M. Eisen, una de las principales autoridades del mundo sobre el judaísmo estadounidense, es rector del Seminario Teológico Judío. Las opiniones expresadas en este comentario son las del autor; Ver más artículos de opinión sobre CNNE.com/opinion (CNN) — Mi padre, un hombre bueno y piadoso que agradeció a Dios cada mañana por el regalo de otro día -si estuviera vivo en este momento-, diría que Dios tiene mucho por lo que responder.
Opinion: God has a lot to answer for
Arnold M. Eisen, one of the world's foremost authorities on American Judaism, is the chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author; view more opinion articles on CNN. (CNN)My father, a good and pious man who thanked God every morning for the gift of another day, would have said -- were he alive right now -- that God has a lot to answer for. So much death and suffering! So many hopes for a better life, destroyed by pandemic.
Our moral obligation to US migrants and asylum seekers
Recently, I joined a group of Jewish clergy on a trip to El Paso and Juarez to see firsthand how U.S. immigration policy is affecting the individuals seeking entry to America and changing the border communities through which they pass. What we saw was profoundly sobering. The predicament of those trapped at the Mexican border looks increasingly bleak as the federal government enacts more restrictive policies in the name of protecting Americans from the alleged invasion.
JTS Torah Online
Our faculty and teachers bring the depth and breadth of JTS learning directly to you through a rich collection of contemporary Jewish content, including everything from weekly parashah commentaries to marquee lecture recordings. JTS’s extensive online Torah resources reflect today’s most compelling conversations, research, and teaching from leaders in Jewish study—all available for learners around the world to explore and enjoy.
‘Truth Decay’ Threatens Our Way Of Life
Editor’s Note: Following is a condensed version of a graduation talk delivered at the Jewish Theological Seminary graduates on May 23. What does it mean for someone to choose a career in Jewish leadership in today’s times? According to the ADL, there were 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in 2018 alone. Last week, CNN reported that Google documented a significant uptick in “hate phrases” such as “kill Jews” and “all Jews must die” following the deadly shootings in Pittsburgh and Poway.
Opinion | The Best Way To Fight Anti-Semitism? Remember Our Allies In Other Communities
It’s hard to read the news these days without encountering evidence of a significant rise in anti-Semitism. Defaced gravestones in France. A Belgian carnival float featuring puppet caricatures of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Here in the US, protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting “Jews will not replace us.” And, of course the continuing specter of the shootings at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. What’s going on? Should Jews be worried in this country, as many are in Europe?
Letter To A New Jewish College Student
Your father called the other day and reported that he had just dropped you off for your freshman year at college. We of course reminisced about his time at college, and mine: two distant pasts that both seem like yesterday. We reflected on the new challenges facing a thoughtful, self-aware Jewish student at a liberal arts campus in America these days.
What It Means To Be Jewish Today
Walk into an American synagogue of any denomination on a Shabbat morning and you will see Jews praying aloud to God for the healing of family and friends, often with the greatest emotion exhibited at any point in the service. Survey questions will elicit the information that many of these Jews, perhaps the majority, do not believe in a God who hears prayer or cures illness. Some are not synagogue regulars or even members.
What it means to be Jewish today
What it means to be Jewish today Walk into an American synagogue of any denomination on a Shabbat morning and you will see Jews praying aloud to God for the healing of family and friends, often with the greatest emotion exhibited at any point in the service. Survey questions will elicit the information that many of these Jews, perhaps the majority, do not believe in a God who hears prayer or cures illness. Some are not synagogue regulars or even members.
OPINION: Keep ‘Dreamers’ at Thanksgiving table
Thanksgiving was a major holiday in both our homes growing up — a religious holiday, celebrated all the more joyfully because it was not a Christian or Jewish holiday, not a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or humanist celebration, but a special day dear to all Americans, regardless of background or creed. It just mattered that we were around the table at the same time on a special day we all shared.
In Thanksgiving spirit, keep DACA's Dreamers at the family table
There are times when the right choice isn't clear. This isn't one of them. Congress needs to stand up for our national and religious values. Thanksgiving was a major holiday in both our homes growing up — a religious holiday, celebrated all the more joyfully because it was not a Christian or Jewish holiday, not a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or humanist celebration, but a special day dear to all Americans, regardless of background or creed.
OP-ED The Conservative movement can, and should, welcome the intermarried
(JTA) — Contemporary Jewish life is graced by extraordinary blessing: We are the heirs of a Torah of compassion and justice that has grown ever more supple and vibrant because of the dynamic nature of halachah (Jewish law) and the opportunity to observe mitzvot (commandments). At the same time, modernity has removed barriers of discrimination and anti-Semitism, as well as opened doors to broader cultural participation and professions previously closed to Jews.
The Conservative movement can, and should, welcome the intermarried
JTA — Contemporary Jewish life is graced by extraordinary blessing: We are the heirs of a Torah of compassion and justice that has grown ever more supple and vibrant because of the dynamic nature of halachah (Jewish law) and the opportunity to observe mitzvot (commandments). At the same time, modernity has removed barriers of discrimination and anti-Semitism, as well as opened doors to broader cultural participation and professions previously closed to Jews.
The Conservative movement can, and should, welcome the intermarried
Robert Indiana’s sculpture at the Israel Museum spells out “ahava,” the Hebrew word for love. (Pascal Deloche/Getty Images) (JTA) — Contemporary Jewish life is graced by extraordinary blessing: We are the heirs of a Torah of compassion and justice that has grown ever more supple and vibrant because of the dynamic nature of halachah (Jewish law) and the opportunity to observe mitzvot (commandments).
The Conservative Movement Can, And Should, Welcome The Intermarried
(JTA) — Contemporary Jewish life is graced by extraordinary blessing: We are the heirs of a Torah of compassion and justice that has grown ever more supple and vibrant because of the dynamic nature of halachah (Jewish law) and the opportunity to observe mitzvot (commandments). At the same time, modernity has removed barriers of discrimination and anti-Semitism, as well as opened doors to broader cultural participation and professions previously closed to Jews.
Partition in the Land of Israel, then and now
November 29 marked 70 years since the momentous vote by the General Assembly of the United Nations to create two states in Palestine, one Jewish and one Arab. Jews in Palestine and around the world danced in the streets upon hearing of the UN’s decision. Arabs in Palestine rioted, killing seven Jews on the first day of violence.
Giving thanks for Israel
I’ll be joining JTS colleagues and students tomorrow in saying Hallel to mark the occasion of Israel’s 69th birthday. When asked how and why I give thanks for Israel, despite injustices and inadequacies that I too have loudly criticized on occasion, and how I can give thanks to God for Israel, thereby implicating God in Israel’s failings as well as its achievements — I reply that on Yom Ha’atzma’ut I cannot not give thanks. I am a religious Jew and a committed Zionist.
Retelling the Story
Here’s a fifth question to ask at the seder this year, in addition to the usual four—a question likely to provoke discussion about the meaning of Passover that is especially timely in April 2017. Why on all other nights (and days too) do we recall the Exodus from Egypt, but on this night, which is dedicated to the telling of that story, the Haggadah says little about what actually happened at the Exodus, and how it happened?
The rabbi should speak out — Jewish Journal
The question of whether and how rabbis should speak out on controversial issues of the day has been with us for many centuries. If the subject has become especially contentious in America of late, it is probably because American Jews in 2017 find ourselves in a situation utterly without precedent. Technology and globalization have spurred change more rapid and far-reaching than at any time in human history. American society and culture are in flux.
Israel in the winter sun and cloud
Israel’s prime minister was in Washington this week, seeking to enlist President Trump’s support for his vision and agenda. I recently traveled in the opposite direction, seeking to take a break from the draining anxiety and frenzied activity of the past few weeks by immersing myself in day-to-day Israeli life. I wanted to experience once more the Israel I first fell in love with as a student 40-plus years ago, and that I love still.
Israel, U.S. move right - away from most American Jews
Israel, U.S. move right — away from most American Jews Many Jews have reacted with understandable horror to the news that Donald Trump has named as ambassador to Israel a man who ardently supports West Bank settlers and calls Jews who oppose those settlers via support of J Street “smug advocates of Israel’s destruction,” and “far worse than [the] kapos” in the Nazi death camps.
The Case for “Assimilation” and Diaspora
It’s hard to believe, reading Gerson Cohen’s brilliant, provocative essay “The Blessing of Assimilation in Jewish History,” that fifty years have passed since its delivery as a commencement address at the Hebrew Teachers College in Brookline, Massachusetts.1 Cohen’s challenge to widespread assumptions remains as relevant as ever in 2016; the communal dilemmas that he identified continue to engage and divide Jewish leaders; and the agenda that he implicitly and explicitly set for American...
Jewish pride on campus is under siege. Here’s what your kids can do to fight back.
Over 300,000 Jewish college students have arrived or will arrive shortly on American campuses — and what they experience there is likely not only to broaden their minds and uproot long-held assumptions, but shake their Jewish selves to the core. They will contend with powerful faculty and student voices accusing them of complicity in a regime of privilege and oppression here in America and of colonialism, genocide and apartheid in Israel.
Judaism's Case Against Donald Trump
Professor Eisen is the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary. Side-by-side headlines in the morning papers on Sept. 16 called to my mind one of the most important teachings in Judaism, which happened to loom large in the portion of the Torah read at synagogue the next day. The lead story concerned Donald Trump’s continuing praise of Vladimir Putin as a great leader worthy of admiration by Americans.
Jewish pride on campus is under siege
NEW YORK (JTA)—Over 300,000 Jewish college students have arrived or will arrive shortly on American campuses—and what they experience there is likely not only to broaden their minds and uproot long-held assumptions, but shake their Jewish selves to the core. They will contend with powerful faculty and student voices accusing them of complicity in a regime of privilege and oppression here in America and of colonialism, genocide and apartheid in Israel.
Jewish Pride on Campus Is Under Siege
More than 300,000 Jewish college students have arrived on American campuses — and what they experience there is likely not only to broaden their minds and uproot long-held assumptions, but shake their Jewish selves to the core. They will contend with powerful faculty and student voices accusing them of complicity in a regime of privilege and oppression here in America and of colonialism, genocide and apartheid in Israel.
Jewish pride on campus is under siege -- Here’s what college kids can do to fight back
NEW YORK (JTA) — Over 300,000 Jewish college students have arrived or will arrive shortly on American campuses — and what they experience there is likely not only to broaden their minds and uproot long-held assumptions, but shake their Jewish selves to the core. They will contend with powerful faculty and student voices accusing them of complicity in a regime of privilege and oppression here in America and of colonialism, genocide and apartheid in Israel.
Jewish pride on campus is under siege. Here’s what your kids can do to fight back
Students at the University of Delaware Hillel (University of Delaware Hillel) NEW YORK (JTA) — Over 300,000 Jewish college students have arrived or will arrive shortly on American campuses — and what they experience there is likely not only to broaden their minds and uproot long-held assumptions, but shake their Jewish selves to the core.
Op-Ed: Purim invites all Jews to write their own stories
(JTA) — This week’s Purim holiday offers a good opportunity to reflect upon the challenges confronting Judaism in North America — a Diaspora, like ancient Shushan, where Jews enjoy enormous influence and achievement in a multicultural society but where Jewish well-being seems far from secure. The threat in our time comes not from anti-Semitism like that of the wicked Haman, but from assimilation to a society where every door is open to Jews.
Guest column: Jewish Americans, be wary of Trump at AIPAC
Today we will join 20,000 fellow Jews in Washington, D.C. for the annual AIPAC policy conference. And this year, as in prior election years, the leading presidential candidates — Donald Trump among them — will take the stage to address pro-Israel advocates from across the country. So what makes this year different from all other years? This year, we’ve seen politics turn ugly. Hateful rhetoric cascades through the airwaves, inciting violence and bigotry.
This Rosh Hashanah, Make Some Noise in Synagogue
The CEO and managing director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic set off a storm of protest in the classical music world this spring when he suggested that concert halls could benefit from less audience decorum and more clapping, laughter, cheers, and other expressions of emotion. Don’t sit still so much at the symphony, Richard Dare urged: Performances of classical music need to be livelier, less hushed, less boring, and audiences can do their part in making that happen.
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