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Jun 5, 2023, 6:08 AM

Jews. Christians. Couscous.

(courtesy)

At an interfaith conference in Geneva, the Spirit of God moved in air redolent of cinnamon, as an outlandishly diverse group 'schmoozed' into the night

May 13, 2023, 3:12 AM

Shostakovich and the sex-sick society

Wouldn't it be titillating if we sang this in our underwear? That seems the first and the last question asked of themselves by the visionaries of the Grand Theater of Geneva when staging Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,...

May 4, 2023, 5:06 AM

The Jewish lady who dressed Milwaukee’s kids

Part of Florence Eiseman's Children Clothing 'collection.' (via Facebook)

In Middle America, in the middle of the 20th century, an anxious new mother took up sewing and changed children's clothing in all the ways that matter

Apr 27, 2023, 11:43 PM

Abroad with Mordechai Gebirtig

The plaque commemorating Mordechai Gebirtig at 5 Berek Joselewicz Street in Krakow, Poland. (Feigeles-Olko, via Wikimedia Commons

The songs of a Yiddish poet and songwriter from Poland killed long ago resonate with me so deeply that I must thank him publicly

Apr 19, 2023, 9:21 PM

When Jews play Nazis for Jews

Less than a week before the first night of Passover, I was stuffed with many others into a little theater in Geneva to see a bonafide community show. Community theater is its own special genre. It has undeniable charms. I...

Nov 22, 2022, 3:47 PM

Klezmer was my rock

Who is punk if not they? Unidentified Russian klezmer band. 4 March 1923
(National Library of Israel via Wikimedia, author unknown)

It's a hybrid music, as Yiddish is a blended tongue, made to trespass and wander over boundaries. But it surpasses all its components.

Nov 9, 2022, 7:21 PM

Antisemitism and Europe’s God problem

In the courtyard of Synagogue Hekhal Haness in Geneva, last night, November 8, 2022. (photo by the author)

When a Kristallnacht commemoration documented the rising violence against Jews in Europe but didn't explain it, I had no choice but to figure it out myself

Apr 16, 2019, 8:20 PM

Cheer, cheer for old Notre Dame

Smoke is seen in the interior of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019 (Philippe Wojazer/Pool via AP)

Today the cathedral is a stinking black trench. But the void is cross-shaped: cruciform. Who can look away?

Oct 15, 2018, 12:54 PM

Discovering rhythm

Girls playing double Dutch outside The Ida B. Wells Homes in Chicago, 1973. Photo by John H. White. Wikipedia.

Creation sings, so we sing. Creation thumps and bumps in time, and so do we. It seems to be what God intended.

Feb 11, 2018, 4:04 PM

Poland: Of lead and of gold

The ceiling of the Progressive Synagogue in Krakow. Instagram.

'The souls of Jew and Gentile floated up in lightness to somewhere under the synagogue ceiling...'

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About Me

Erik Ross is a priest of the Dominican Order. He writes here with the permission of his major superior.