The tradition of drinking to excess on Purim is problematic, because Jews are not exempt from alcoholism
By RABBI SHARON STIEFEL
Every Jewish holiday has its associations. When we think of Purim, we think of hearing the megilla reading — the Book of Esther — making noise at Haman’s name, sending gifts to one another of mishloach [...]

Experience gained as a green apprentice at Kibbutz Lotan is now applied to eco-projects in low-income areas of Minneapolis

By JOSH TOLKAN

After graduating from Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., with a concentration in environmental and technology studies, I was interested in gaining hands-on ecological experience and seeing Israel. On Kibbutz Lotan’s Green Apprenticeship program, I [...]

An Orthodox rabbi in Israel came under verbal attack after making some laudatory comments about Jesus

By MOSHE GIT

Recently, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, of the Orthodox settlement of Efrat on the West Bank, caused a stir in traditional circles by referring to Jesus as “Rabbi Jesus.”
In a video posted to YouTube, Riskin said he has been [...]

This year marks the centennial of Degania, Israel’s first kibbutz
By NOGA SHAVIT
I am what you may call an “urban girl.” Nature is not really my thing, and nothing makes me happier than the feel of a city, with its boulevards, cafés, and the pleasant sounds of people and cars running around.
Still, kibbutzim were always a [...]

The new film from St. Louis Park natives Joel and Ethan Coen explores life’s most fundamental questions

(Editor’s Note: This sermon contains spoilers about the film and reveals crucial plot points.)
By RABBI NORMAN M. COHEN

Is it merely the title of the new Coen brothers’ movie, a Job-like story that asks more questions than it [...]

The glorification of Operation Solomon, the 1991 airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, has become the vested interest of certain segments of American Jewry and of the individuals in Israel and abroad who played a role in the operation
By MOSHE GIT
More than four years ago, the editor of the American Jewish World asked me to [...]

After Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s war in Gaza, Hamas has emerged as a more potent threat
By MOSHE GIT
Earlier this month a large majority of the United Nations General Assembly members voted to send the Goldstone report to the Security Council. The U.N.-sponsored Goldstone report on Israel’s punishing incursion into Gaza last January has become a [...]

The quest for Israeli-Palestinian peace was not interrupted by the Rabin assassination, nor was the late prime minister the personification of peace
 
By MOSHE GIT
 
A number of Jewish communal groups sponsored a program, “Remembering Yitzhak Rabin,” on Oct. 28 at Beth El Synagogue. Yaakov Katz, military correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, was scheduled to speak about [...]

Iran has sufficient fissionable material to develop a nuclear weapon and a long-range missile to send that weapon almost anywhere in the region
By YAAKOV KATZ
JERUSALEM, Israel — Imagine the following scenario: Iran announces it will stop enriching uranium, will abide by all of the United Nations resolutions on its nuclear program, and will permit International [...]

Hopefully, the Beth El community has not become so polarized that the only speakers to whom we will willingly listen are those who share our views
By TOM SANDERS
In the Sept. 18 edition of the American Jewish World, a fellow Beth El congregant explained why he is “appalled and saddened” that Condoleezza Rice will be speaking [...]