Monthly Archives: December 2017

(z”l) Remembering Neil Gillman (Bill Plevan)

Posted on December 28, 2017 by zjb

In Conservative Judaism, will his legacy be forgotten? A working Jewish philosopher-theologian and rabbi at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Neil Gillman (z’l) was a genuine liberal who embraced relativity and tension in religion as a source of creativity and vitality. … Continue reading →

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Affect, Sentiment & Other Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (Solomon Schechter)

Posted on December 27, 2017 by zjb

Somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, I must have bought the handsome 1961 paperback edition of Solomon Schechter’s 1909 Aspects of Rabbinic Theology from a used book shop when I was in graduate school. It then sat on my … Continue reading →

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AJS 2017 Highlights

Posted on December 20, 2017 by zjb

Hated, hated, hated being in Washington D.C. this year for the Association for Jewish Studies conference, what with the monster just down the street in the White House and the zombie tourists at the Mall. After three days off grid, … Continue reading →

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AJS & The Transmission of Affect (Yoni Brafman)

Posted on December 19, 2017 by zjb

“Is there anyone who has not, at least once, walked into a room and “felt the Jewey atmosphere”? But if many have paused to wonder how they received this Jewey impression, and why it seemed both objective and certain, there … Continue reading →

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Hanukah & Hasmoneans

Posted on December 14, 2017 by zjb

This time of year, there’s a lot of snark about the Hanuka taking up an ideological cudgel against the fanatic Maccabees. Some of the discussion relies on the ambivalence tending towards hostility expressed in the Bavli towards this minor festival … Continue reading →

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The Radical Future of American Judaism?

Posted on December 13, 2017 by zjb

My dear friend Shaul Magid is working on a major project on Meir Kahane. Deep in the archives, he has been particularly interested in the JDL during its heyday in the late 1960s and 1970s. Drawn to extreme expression, Shaul … Continue reading →

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Trump + Jerusalem = Nothing Much & Nothing Good

Posted on December 10, 2017 by zjb

The Forward posted a little something under my name,  “Trump Declared Jerusalem Israel’s Capital — So What Happens Next?”. You can read the whole thing here. I tried to cover all the bases. What happens next is most likely nothing. The … Continue reading →

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Empty No Water In It (Trump’s Mouth)

Posted on December 9, 2017 by zjb

Apropos the recognition of Jerusalem, like the pit into which Joseph was thrown by his brothers, President Trump’s mouth is “empty; there [is[ no water in it” (Gen. 37:24).  The rabbis interpret the apparent redundancy (“’empty” and “no water”) to … Continue reading →

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Not On Antisemitism (JVP)

Posted on December 4, 2017 by zjb

If you are a gentile on the left side of the political spectrum and you want to be an ally to Jews, but do not fully understand the history of antisemitism and the politics of Israel and Palestine, you may … Continue reading →

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December 2, 2017 Umm al-Amad, Ma‘in David Shulman

Posted on December 4, 2017 by zjb
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