By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Are people allowed to have different opinions about issues without being demonized or receiving death threats? Those are all too common today when it comes to politics, but have not been restricted to that: the same are occurring with disagreements about issues of g…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
This column isn’t going to make anyone happy, including myself. My reactions have been all over the place, so writing this is supposed to help me define my thoughts, but I’m not sure it’s going to help.
The issue? The headline on the JTA breaking news e-mail …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
I don’t usually write about my rabbinical work in this column, but, although there are numerous political and social issues of importance I could discuss, it’s personal ones that are haunting me this week. On June 16, for the first time, I did the funeral of a p…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
“Thinking I really have to write about antisemitism, although I’m not sure how much more anyone can say. Maybe I will say just that.” The impetus for my statement was reading commentators asking where was the outrage about the antisemitism that has flared up i…
One of my favorite memories of freshman year in college took place in a literature seminar: the students in the class got our English professor to admit that “Moby Dick” was a poorly written book. When I was in rabbinical school, I learned that the Herman Melville novel was the favorite …
