The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered
A prism on a kitchen windowsill performs the miracle of fracturing sunlight into the complete spectrum, throwing rainbows on mundane surfaces, elevating them to something celestial and rare. Benjamin Taylor, in his compact and precise memoir, The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered (Penguin, 2017), performs the same miracle. His last year of childhood in Forth Worth, TX, explodes into multicolored fragments, illuminating intersecting themes from the Kennedy assassination to Taylor’s homosexuality and eventual diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome.
The Netanyahu Years
On November 21, 2016, Benjamin Netanyahu surpassed David Ben Gurion’s record of longest continuous service as prime minister of Israel. Though Netanyahu’s years in power have been marked by scandal and political intrigue, his popularity with the Israeli electorate over the past seven years has grown, allowing him to do practically anything he wants.
The Shoah Through Muslim Eyes
A Pakistan-born Muslim woman with a Ph.D. from a South African university who directs the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, a New York City Catholic school, has written a pioneering and courageous book about the Shoah (Holocaust).
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs Asks Prime Minister Netanyahu About Israel's Entry Ban And Reform Judaism's North American Trips
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), sent the following letter today to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
ReformJudaism.org Launches New Podcast "Stories We Tell"
ReformJudaism.org, the flagship website of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), reaching more than two million visitors annually, has launched a new weekly podcast titled Stories We Tell.
Reform Movement Leader on UNESCO's Hebron Resolution
Rabbi Rick Jacobs: It’s hard to fathom how UNESCO can, once again, vote to delegitimize what is demonstrated Jewish history at an ancient holy site. The place where Judaism’s patriarchs and matriarchs rest must not become a political pawn.
House Vote of D.C. School Vouchers Program Alarming
Pelavin: "The passage of the Scholarship for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act...by the House of Representatives is alarming both from the standpoint of our nation's long commitment to separation of church and state and to public education."
Reports About Bradley Manning' Treatment Cause for Concern
Pelavin: "The information which has been carried in the press raises significant concerns about the apparently degrading and humiliating treatment of Pfc. Manning."
Reform Movement Submits Amicus Defending Arizona's Public Campaign Financing Program
Pelavin: "As our religious texts recognize, any time something of value changes hands, the potential exists for those in a position of power to see the world in a hue tinted by the gift giver. Public financing forecloses the opportunity for such distortion."
One Year Later, Health Care Reform Still Vital
Pelavin: "We continue to oppose legislative attempts to repeal or de-fund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and urge lawmakers to, instead, focus on ways to strengthen the law and help fulfill its goals of providing inclusive, accessible, affordable and acc