SHABBAT READING
Understanding Sacrifice: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, The Rabbi Sacks Legacy, Tzav 5776, 5783 — One of the most difficult elements of the Torah and the way of life it prescribes is the phenomenon of animal sacrifices – for obvious reasons. First, Jews and Judaism have survived without them for almost two thousand years. Second, virtually all the prophets were critical of them, not least Jeremiah in this week’s haftarah. None of the prophets sought to abolish sacrifices, but they were severely critical of those who offered them while at the same time oppressing or exploiting their fellow human beings.
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TRANSITIONING TO MODERNITY
How the Soviet Jew Was Made by Sasha Senderovich: Harvard University Press, 2022, 368 pp., Reviewed by Maria Lippman, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2023 — Sanderovich’s book may be read as an attempt to challenge Yuri Slezkine’s broadly acclaimed work The Jewish Century, which sought to explain the rise and disproportionate prominence of Jews among the Soviet political, academic, and cultural elites.
American Jewry’s Stunted Sons: Ruth R. Wisse, Mosaic Magazine, June 16, 2022
Prophetic Fervor and the Jewish Writer: Howard Jacobson, Sapir Journal, Vol. 8, Winter 2023
Orthodox High School Musical: Hannah Rubin, Tablet, Mar. 20, 2023
The Vanishing: Jacob Savage, Tablet, Feb. 28, 2023
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:
SAPIR Presents: Felicia Herman and Rokhl Kafrissen: Sapir Journal, YouTube, Feb. 28, 2023 —
Felicia Herman interviews Rokhl Kafrissen, author of “‘The Jewish Future Needs Yiddish” in our newest issue.
A Snapshot of American Jew-hatred: Melissa Langsam Braustein, JNS,Feb. 24, 2023 — Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, doesn’t believe that antisemitism has doubled. Greene noted the American population has remained fairly constant; no particular incident between 2019 and 2022 should have multiplied antisemitism; and people’s opinions remain “stable over time.”
American Jews: Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: Dominic Green, The JC, Mar. 9, 2023 — Suddenly, everywhere you look, Jews are disappearing.” Few sentences are as likely to press the collective panic button as this one, which opened The Vanishing, a piece on Tablet magazine’s website this week.
Symposium Unpacks Young American Jewry’s Attitudes Towards Israel: JNS, Mar. 27, 2023 — In its annual symposium at the University of Haifa, the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies examined the relationship between young American Jews and their attitudes towards Israel.
