SHABBAT READING
Is Atonement Possible Without Blood? A Jewish-Christian Divide: Prof. Marc Zvi Brettler and Prof. Amy-Jill Levine, The Torah.com, July 1, 2021 — Many Jews find odd the Christian belief that the blood of Jesus atones for people’s sins. At the same time, many Christians believe that Jews have no means for achieving atonement since the Temple was destroyed and, therefore, sacrifices ceased. Indeed, Leviticus makes atonement contingent on sacrificial rites with accompanying blood rituals, but Judaism focuses on atonement achieved through repentance, prayer, fasting, and other acts. Christianity, conversely, while it promotes these acts as well, associates atonement with Jesus’s crucifixion. How did these two groups, both reading the Bible, come to understand atonement so differently?
______________________________________________________________
LIFTING ONE’S FINGER OFF THE SCALE
Listen: The End of Affirmative Action: John Podhoretz, Commentary Magazine, July 3, 2023 — Adam White joins us today to discuss the landmark Supreme Court decision ending the use of race as a factor in higher-education admissions. Give a listen.
Trading Places: Eric Kaufmann, Tablet, Mar. 2, 2023 — Kanye West’s paranoia notwithstanding, Jews are slowly fading from the American elite. A few decades hence, we may look back at the age of Jewish prominence, from roughly the 1920s to the 2000s, as a relic from a bygone golden age.
Supreme Court Gets Rid of Affirmative Action in College Admissions: Alison Durkee, Forbes, June 29, 2023
How Supreme Court Justices Sparred on Affirmative Action: Brent Kendall, WSJ, June 29, 2023
Harvard’s Jewish Quotas Cited in US Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling: Ron Kampeas, Times of Israel, June 30, 2023
Jews and Affirmative Action: Dan Schnur, JNS, July 6, 2023
US Supreme Court Rejects Affirmative Action in University Admissions: Reuters, Jerusalem Post, June 29, 2023 — The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a North Carolina public charter school’s defense of its blocked requirement that girls wear skirts – a student uniform policy that its founder explained is aimed at treating women like “fragile vessels.”
‘Today Is a Hard Day’: Harvard Responds to Supreme Court Affirmative-Action Loss: Abigail Anthony, National Review, June 29, 2023 — The Harvard University president, vice president, provost, and 15 deans signed an email reaffirming the institution’s commitment to diversity after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action on Thursday.
A Landmark for Racial Equality at the Supreme Court: Editorial Board, WSJ, June 29, 2023 — The Supreme Court had one of its finest hours on Thursday as it reaffirmed, in logical but forceful fashion, the bedrock American principle of equality under the law.
The Left Wants to Make Hispanics Affirmative-Action Props: Garion Frankel, National Review, July 6, 2023 — Last Thursday, the Supreme Court decisively struck down affirmative-action programs practiced by Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.