Francine Klagsbrun, at The Blogs

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Jul 29, 2020, 4:38 AM

Jewish History Unfolding in 800-Word Chapters

In putting its present format on hiatus and going to a strictly digital one, The Jewish Week is following the route of many newspapers, and we cannot turn back the clock.. But oh, what a lovely run it had in print, this newspaper of the...

Jun 9, 2020, 9:54 PM

A Zoom bar mitzvah, with echoes of the past

Illustrative. A young man reading from a Torah scroll (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

In a scruffy loose-leaf folder, its pages yellow with age, my father left a memoir of his years growing up in Russia before coming to America in the early 1900s. He, his parents and four younger brothers lived in a tiny village in Bellarussia (today...

Mar 31, 2020, 11:09 PM

Notes from the coronavirus underground

Some excerpts from my journal during the past month, and some reflections: March 2. “Back from a visit to Israel. We had a great week there … but we canceled plans to go on to Barcelona.” Although the coronavirus had struck China, my husband and...

Mar 4, 2020, 2:35 AM

Abortion, the Issue That Won’t Be Laid to Rest

Recently, I looked through the list of columns I have written for this newspaper since I began writing them 26 years ago (yes, 26 years!). As might be expected, they covered a range of subjects — Israel, feminism, holidays, family and a large variety of...

Jan 15, 2020, 7:36 AM

Yosef Yerusalmi and the meaning of memory

Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, the eminent scholar of Jewish history, could terrify his students at Columbia, especially new students, by glaring at them through stern dark eyes when their answer to a question dissatisfied him. He could also coddle students, inspiring them to keep going when...

Nov 6, 2019, 6:21 PM

Israel And The Diaspora: The Fall Rains That Bind

I always find it moving that during the last days of the fall holiday season, Jews throughout the world begin praying for rain. It doesn’t matter what the climate in any region might be; it doesn’t matter that I much prefer sunshine in the Upper...

Sep 11, 2019, 8:44 AM

To Pursue Justice, To Keep Memory Alive

Robert M. Morgenthau, the former Manhattan district attorney, who died this past summer, had many attributes of greatness. Among them was the fact that he never viewed himself as great. He would never have portrayed himself, even jokingly, as King of Israel or The Chosen...

Jul 10, 2019, 7:16 AM

Throwing hard, armed with Jewish values

Move over, Sandy Koufax. You may be revered in the Jewish community for refusing to pitch Game 1 of the 1965 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers because it fell on Yom Kippur, but let me tell you about some young athletes who don’t...

May 8, 2019, 1:45 AM

Israel’s Early Team of Rivals

A few weeks ago, I received in the mail a three-volume set of the diary of Moshe Sharett, Israel’s first foreign minister and second prime minister. Called “My Struggle for Peace,” it is an abridgment and translation from the Hebrew by Neil Caplan and Yaakov Sharett,...

Apr 10, 2019, 7:07 AM

The Imperative for an American Jewish Zionism

A few months ago, I participated in a program about Zionism with an Israeli consular official stationed outside New York (the location will remain nameless). My topic was Zionism in Israel’s early days and hers was Zionism today. I spoke about the Zionism of David...

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About Me

Francine Klagsbrun, a Jewish Week columnist, is the author of more than a dozen books, among them Voices of Wisdom: Jewish Ideals and Ethics for Everyday Living. She was the editor of the best-selling Free To Be You and Me, produced by Marlo Thomas and the Ms. Foundation. Her newest work is an in-depth biography of Golda Meir to be published in September 2017 by Schocken Books.