I must confess, it wasn’t until fairly recently that I heard the term M.O.T., as in member of the tribe. But then the person who asked if the guy I was telling him about was an MOT, probably had never heard of JOCs, as in Jews of color. I’ll never know. I didn’t ask when… Continue reading Are you a Member of the Tribe?
I definitely overdid it today trying to squeeze in seeing a bunch of friends in one day. OUCH. This morning, I saw my best friend from my teaching days. As it happens, she is the wife of a Presbyterian pastor! Yeah, this is not the beginning of a joke. We have been trying for years… Continue reading I overdid it, thank G-d!
Racism and the Myth of a “Victim Mentality”By Tim WiseFebruary 20, 2010 Recently, I received an e-mail from a college professor who shows a video of one of my speeches in her classroom. She explained that she was in need of a citation for a claim I had made in the video, to the effect… Continue reading Racism and the Myth of a "Victim Mentality"
If you haven’t heard of it already, then you’ve probably been living under a rock (or a sukkah?). The news media is ablaze with a (possibly) tall tale that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might be a Jew. Apparently, his parents changed their surname to Ahmadinejad after converting to Islam. The name before? Sabourjian…a Iranian Jewish… Continue reading A self-hating Jew?
“…America at its best — open, diverse, pluralistic, fighting for human dignity and decency, confronting the hatreds that resulted in the Holocaust, the hatreds that would invite its repetition.” “Holocaust Museum: America at its best” is a heartfelt look at the latest tragedy and how we can fight against it.
Just when you thought it was safe to go to the museum, a shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Museum says different. Why would anyone shoot up a Holocaust museum of all places?
The Reform and the Conservative movements are dying. The Pope is not a demon. The Orthodox aren’t ready for female rabbis. Homosexuals aren’t welcome? Um, did I embellish the points I took away from this profile of Yeshiva University chancellor Rabbi Norman Lamm, “Non-Orthodox Judaism disappearing”? I don’t think so. What do you think? And… Continue reading Dead on Arrival
“Johancy Torres had never heard of the Holocaust before last fall, but she will soon be tracing the footsteps of Jews at the Dachau concentration camp during a trip for fifth- and sixth-grade students at Public School 86 in the Bronx. “I think I may cry when I see the ovens,” said Johancy, 11, adding… Continue reading The Holocaust Hits Home
My latest guilty pleasure is Jewish fiction. It used to be trashy romance novels. I am currently making my way through most of Naomi Ragen’s books. Right off the bat, I noticed that “The Ghost of Hannah Mendes“ was different than her other books. It didn’t focus on the religious community or on Israel. It… Continue reading The Sephardic Holocaust
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 