Francis Nataf

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Oct 21, 2024, 12:11 AM

Can the Church Teach the World about Sukkot?

Pope Francis with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Sept 3, 2015

As we celebrate Sukkot, it is a good time to consider the relationship between two of its major themes, almost always viewed in isolation. The themes I have in mind are the Jew’s relationship to property and the Jewish...

Mar 28, 2023, 2:59 PM

A time for militant moderation

Protesters blocking highway. (Yoav Aziz, Unsplash)

Israelis must push toward compromise for the greater good with the same passion that some of us sought the extremes

Feb 7, 2023, 3:58 PM

Here’s what Israel’s friends can really do to help

Not that problem. (A protester attends a rally in Tel Aviv against the new government on January 21, 2023. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP))

Don’t add fuel to our fire by taking sides – seek out the voices promoting unity

Apr 13, 2022, 7:59 AM

Ukraine, Passover and how to spread freedom

Four cups of wine, representing freedom and deliverance. (iStock)

At what point does the control we have over others undermine their dignity as beings created in the image of God?

Feb 28, 2022, 7:46 PM

So all lives don’t matter: The cruel common wisdom

The confluence of the COVID pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement presents an opportunity to think more carefully about the value we actually place on the lives of people we don’t know. Starting with the latter – that “Black...

Jan 19, 2022, 3:27 PM

Shockingly, I like the Bennett-Lapid government. Here’s why.

Sitting from left to right: Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar, Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, as Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Housing Minister Ze'ev Elkin walk past after a special Knesset plenum session to approve the new government, June 13, 2021. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP)

It's a fractious coalition that must compromise to survive. The Jewish approach to law views making concessions as a feature, not a bug

Dec 31, 2021, 1:12 PM

How secular Israel became so religious

Members of the Ivgy family celebrate the Jewish Moroccan celebration of Mimouna, in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, April 15, 2020. (Edi Israel/Flash90)

Credit the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, whose lifestyle and outlook draws outsiders to a rootedness that connects each person to the nation, tradition, and God

Nov 23, 2021, 5:23 PM

Hanukkah marks a triumph over cultural colonialism

Hanukkah menorah (PD Yair Aronshtam/Wikimedia Commons)

Was the Maccabees' provincial fundamentalism better than the Hellenists' progress and enlightenment? That’s beside the point.

Oct 25, 2021, 1:37 PM

Jonathan Sacks, morality and Facebook algorithms

Lefthand photo via iStock / Photo on right: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, January 2015. (Blake Ezra/Courtesy)

Before blaming a company for fomenting partisan hate, the late rabbi's teachings would have us take a good look at ourselves in the mirror

Jul 12, 2021, 12:54 PM

Why Israeli and Arab narratives are still at war (and how to change that)

Land in southern Israel, near the Gaza border, burns possibly as a result of incendiary balloons sent from Gaza on May 7, 2021. (Moshe Baruchi/KKL-JNF/courtesy)

We must model what we will likely have to demand from the Palestinians: namely, validating their heritage, at the same time that we cherish our own

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About Me

Rabbi Francis Nataf is a Jerusalem-based educator and thinker. He is the author of the Redeeming Relevance series on the Torah and of many articles.