Bradley Shavit Artson, at The Blogs

Jul 25, 2023, 11:24 AM

Under God’s Wings (& Ours): Conversion & Outreach

The portal to outreach and conversion begins with hours of learning and conversation.

Jewish life is nothing if not interesting! We are a religion, yet we retain historical and emotional ties to the Land of Israel and a shared destiny. We are a people, but we cherish a set of holy writings,...

Jun 30, 2023, 1:08 AM

We All Benefit from Those Who Choose Judaism

I remember a regular spring ritual I used to practice when I was still a congregational rabbi. The event took place early on a Sunday morning in the spring, as thirty eager people and I carpooled down to Laguna...

Jun 20, 2023, 6:43 AM

Facts and Values — Inseparable and Entwined

The task seems explicit: Moses instructs a select group of the leaders of Israel’s tribes to conduct a scouting expedition into the Promised Land. There, they are to observe carefully and return with the factual data that will allow...

Mar 1, 2023, 7:50 AM

Featured Post

Not about assimilation: A response to Art Green

Changes in our Conservative Jewish rabbinical curriculum have nothing to do with Hebrew College’s policy on intermarriage

Feb 21, 2023, 6:20 AM

Tza’ar Ba’alei Hayyim: Compassion to Animals

When we first moved back to California, my wife Elana, gave me the gift I had wanted for years: a puppy. Fond memories of the dog of my childhood had to suffice during my years as a college student,...

Dec 22, 2022, 10:36 PM

Hanukkah Inspirations: Some Lessons from Hanukkah

These ancient lights celebrate Jewish wisdom, self-determination, religious freedom and resilience! (courtesy)

1. The first flame is the bravest. Alone it risks taking on the darkness, knowing that it won’t be as solitary tomorrow. The light wins. 2. Second Night. Not yet a pattern, but now we have a direction: more light,...

Aug 30, 2022, 9:50 AM

We need Mishpakhah, not family values

My ruminations about family life and my lifetime of being a father come at a propitious time. This has been a time in which pastors, pundits, and politicians of all stripes and ideologies have grasped "family values" as a...

Aug 16, 2022, 10:33 AM

Rodef Shalom: Seek Peace and Pursue It

The Jacaranda trees offer a beautiful image of the value of Shalom -- radiant, lovely, and comforting.

The whole Torah exists only for the sake of shalom. — The Talmud War is so unreasonable and wasteful a method of adjusting human differences that one wonders that men would have resorted to the hypocrisy of religious wars and the...

Aug 3, 2022, 12:52 AM

Our God and the God of our Ancestors

At the outset, I must confess that I have no desire to persuade others to believe in God the way I do or for the reasons I do. I offer only my own perceptions of God. In addition, I...

Jul 20, 2022, 12:06 AM

Bal Tash’chit: Preserving the Earth

Setting sun on Santa Monica Beach, California

“The Holy Blessing One took the first human and, passing before all the trees of the Garden of Eden, said, “See My works. How fine and excellent they are All that I created. I created for you. Consider that,...

About Me

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson is the Roslyn & Abner Goldstine Dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies of American Jewish University, and is the Dean of the Zacharias Frankel College of University of Potsdam, training Conservative/Masorti Rabbis for Europe.