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Dec 28, 2022, 8:32 PM

Whoopi Goldberg is right; so is the ADL

Earlier this year, Whoopi Goldberg said that the Nazi-led genocide known as the Holocaust was “white on white” violence. Her comments that landed her a two-week suspension from “The View.” Recently in an interview with Sunday Times of London,...

Aug 27, 2022, 9:32 AM

Against the ‘Judeo-Christian Tradition’

Some American politicians like to claim that their policies are based on the values of the Judeo-Christian tradition. For Jews, there are no Judeo-Christian values and the Judeo-Christian tradition is a myth. Let’s be clear: “Judeo-Christian values” is only Christian supercessionism...

Jun 24, 2022, 7:24 PM

Religious Freedom and the Right to Abortion

Roe v. Wade was based on the Supreme Court’s decision that the Constitution includes a right to privacy and thus a woman’s right to determine whether or not she needs an abortion, i.e. what happens to her own body....

Jun 1, 2022, 5:49 PM

Poor Shavuot! It lacks the kind of home observance—like seders, matza and maror for Pesach; sukkahs, lulavs and etrogs for Sukkot; latkes, gifts and menorahs for Hanukkah—that would endear it to the people. On Shavuot, if you don’t go...

Feb 5, 2022, 6:45 PM

The Crisis in Ukraine

Perhaps because I grew up in Canada I look at American foreign policy through a different lens than other Americans, but I am having a hard time accepting the US government’s claims regarding Russian intentions in Ukraine. We being told...

Sep 27, 2021, 1:27 AM

Pondering Creation (Thoughts on Genesis 1)

Rabbi Yonah said in the name of Rabbi Levi: Why was the world created with a “ב" (bet)? Just as a bet is closed on all sides and open in the front, so you are not permitted to say,...

Jul 16, 2021, 12:03 AM

Israel’s Family Reunification Law

I’m confused. The new Israeli government was seeking to extend the 2003 Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law, the so-called “Family Reunification Law”, which typically involves an Israeli citizen requesting citizenship for his or her non-Israeli spouse. However, although part...

Jul 27, 2020, 6:09 PM

The US Campaign to Undermine Chinese-Israeli Relations

Seeking to counter China’s growing influence on the world stage, its technological advances, and desperate to deflect attention from its own COVID-19 failures at home, the US government and its proxies appear to have launched an anti-China media campaign...

Jun 30, 2020, 8:49 PM

Israel’s Lost Dream of 1967 and the Arab Peace Initiative

Israel is poised to make an existential choice. After so many decades of developing Jewish towns and cities in the West Bank, and now with the blessings of the Trump Administration, Netanyahu’s government is about to decide whether or...

May 13, 2020, 7:54 PM

Who’s to Blame for COVID-19?

Who’s to blame for the spread of the coronavirus? 5-G? Bill Gates? China? How about God? For centuries, natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and plagues were often understood to be of divine origin. Figuring out reasons why a basically...

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About Me

Rabbi Anson Laytner of Seattle is currently president of the Sino-Judaic Institute and longtime editor of its journal Points East. He is the co-editor, with Jordan Paper, of "The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng." Before retiring, he taught at Seattle University and worked with the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. His most recent book is "The Mystery of Suffering and the Meaning of God."

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