By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Is it possible to objectively critique films, TV, books and music? In the past, scholars/researchers acted as if they were independent observers whose socio-economic and religious backgrounds had no impact on their opinions. In contemporary times, though, there are…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
On Sunday, August 14, at 2 pm, nearly 50 of us gathered in the sanctuary of Congregation Bnai Israel, a simple, but beautiful, 100-year-old wooden synagogue in the picturesque Catskill village of Fleischmanns, NY. Punctuating a lecture by Dr. Eric Goldman on “The…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
My mother said the first time she tasted pizza it was love at first bite. She also claimed that someone in her family’s past must have been Italian. (That doesn’t seem plausible because her mother’s family was from Germany and her father’s from Russia, but …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
A family mystery
Matt Goldman is best known for his wise-cracking Nils Shapiro detective series. However, as “Carolina Moonset” (Forge) shows, Goldman also excels at portraying family connections. Although the narrator, 46-year-old Joey Green, prefers using hu…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
An Anti-Defamation League audit noted that “antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the United States in 2021, with a total of 2,717 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League).” (To see the report, cli…
