Ideas
The Jewish Society in Israel is Blind to the Crimes Against Humanity It’s Committing
In April 2016, I traveled with a delegation of doctors and medical students to the extermination camps in Poland. One morning we arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and before we entered, we sat down for a conversation near the house of the camp commander. The guide told us about Rudolf Hess, who lived there with his wife and five children, and asked us if we thought it was possible to be a good father and at the same time manage a death camp.
Jonathan Siegel: Parashat Emor
“The Torah asks, why should you not hate the stranger? Because you once stood where he stands now. You know the heart of the stranger because you were once a stranger in the land of Egypt. If you are human, so is he. If he is less than human, so are you. You must fight the hatred in your heart as I, God, once fought the greatest ruler and the strongest empire in the ancient world on your behalf. I made you into the world’s archetypal strangers so that you would fight for the rights of strangers – for your own and those of others, wherever they are, whoever they are, whatever the colour of their skin or the nature of their culture, because though they are not in your image, says God, they are nonetheless in Mine.”
When a Slave Becomes King
Especially this year, when we are surrounded by inordinate suffering inflicted on us and by us, I would suggest that we take seriously the Haggadah’s implicit counsel to transition from a focus on “In every generation they stand up against us to destroy us,” on what they have done and continue to do to us—the negative memory—to “In every generation one must look upon oneself as if you had personally left Egypt,” to what we can do for ourselves and for others—the positive, constructive memory.
A New Halakha of B'tzelem Elohim that Responds to our Current Reality
“When we see the world differently, we are called upon to respond – to articulate a halakhic vision that corresponds with the reality we perceive.”
The State Is Not the Covenant: Jewish Ethics Beyond Nationalism
“The nation-state seems to have an almost hypnotic power over us. It promises us security and freedom, and presents itself as the ultimate carrier of our culture, tradition, and religion. I believe that our inability to distinguish ourselves from the state, in this case Israel, and its modes of thinking accounts for much of the horrors we are seeing right now. “
Yitro’s Torah: Seeing, Listening, and Speaking Out
“We rely on critique and challenge and re-assessment and open conversation. We always have. At this juncture, all the more so, we need new minds, new perspectives, new paths forward, new Torah. Making space for differences of opinion is crucial.”
Judaism as Restraint: Power, Ethics, and the Renewal of Zionism
“The question is this: Can there be an ethically principled and restrained Jewish nationalism? What role will Judaism play in relation to that nationalism?”
When Jewish Means Just: Smol Emuni and the Moral Imperative
“The justification for Smol Emuni is not just communal—it is political and religious. It is about how we perceive the meaning of God’s moral demands in light of the violent political interpretations of those who claim to speak in His name.”
Not Just Us: A Zionism That Recognizes the Other
“In law and in national policy making, the only Judaism that can be Israel's ‘civil religion’ is the Judaism that is compatible with democracy, be it secular or ultra-orthodox. I believe that the Smol Emuni is not only about prioritizing the return of the hostages over the continued war; it is about propagating a democratic state of Israel, at large.”
Judaism in Action: Faith as a Force for Justice
“They need us—as Jews and as Americans—to stand against the current threats of deportation, against the actual arrests of people for exercising their first amendment rights even when we may not agree with what they say".”
A Different Jewish Voice: Conscience, Covenant, and Moral Clarity
“What are we called upon to do in a world that is so broken, here, in Israel-Palestine, and many places in between? Where is the north star of our moral compass as Jews?”
Smol Emuni: A Judaism of Conscience and Care
“We are not here only to find a community. We are here because we feel it is urgent for us to speak up.”
The Hope That Will Prevail: Ethics at the Heart of Jewish Identity
“Both Judaism and socialism teach us again and again: Responsibility for our society. Care for the weak. Protect the stranger, the orphan, and the widow….This is the role of the people of God.”
Candle in the Dark: A Call for Humility
“The nation-state seems to have an almost hypnotic power over us. It promises us security and freedom, and presents itself as the ultimate carrier of our culture, tradition, and religion. I believe that our inability to distinguish ourselves from the state, in this case Israel, and its modes of thinking accounts for much of the horrors we are seeing right now. “
Our Colleagues in Gaza are Being Killed, and the Medical Establishment in Israel is Silent
Last Sunday (March 30), a UN rescue team arrived to locate the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and aid workers in Gaza, after they disappeared for the Tel A-Sultan neighborhood in Rafah a week earlier. According to reports, they arrived at the site in coordination with the Israeli military, and a military official told them to “come with digging tools”. And indeed, they dug. Inside the piles of send the found the 15 dead, some of them still wearing gloves, some of them with their hands or feet bound, some of them were shot dozens of times in their upper body. They were found dead in a killing pit, together with an ambulance and a UN vehicle that were also found buried in the sand.
Opinion | Loving Israel Means Calling to End the War in Gaza
When weighing future threats that would be a result of releasing terrorists in a negotiation against the immediate, confirmed danger that the hostages faced, the rabbis wrote that we are commanded to prioritize the release of those in immediate danger, even at high cost.
Hostages NOW: The infinite value of life even during war
Professor Rashid Khalidi spoke to a room full of Jews on the Upper West Sids of NY. Smol Emuni roganzied the event, Esther Sperber said a Dvar Torah and Adi Mahalel interviewed and moderated the event.
Professor David Myers: October 7 and the Long Reign of Intergenerational Traumas
David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History at UCLA and served as president of the New Israel Fund from 2018-2023. He also directs the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute, the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, and the UCLA Dialogue across Difference Initiative. He is the author or editor of many books in the field of Jewish history, including, with Nomi Stolzenberg, American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton, 2022), which was awarded the 2022 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish studies.