Howard Goldsmith, at The Blogs

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May 21, 2024, 12:12 AM

Yes, That Is Antisemitic

The video clip made the rounds on social media. In it, a curly haired young man with a Jewish star on a chain tried to walk to class. Students wearing masks and keffiyehs blocked his way. As his friend...

Apr 8, 2021, 5:23 PM

No one wants to be tolerated

No one wants to be tolerated. No one wants to be grudgingly given a membership to the club or a house in the neighborhood or a seat in the restaurant or a bid to the fraternity. No one wants people...

Jan 18, 2021, 7:18 AM

Funerals Lend Perspective on Trump and COVID

(Ten months and) Two Weeks of Loss, by Rabbi Howard J. Goldsmith It has been a very sad few weeks for our congregation. Dear, long-time congregants have died. Other members of our sacred community have lost parents, siblings, and spouses....

Apr 4, 2020, 11:52 PM

Where is God in coronavirus?

Where is God in all of this? Where could God possibly be in the little ball of RNA that makes sick and lays low and kills? Where do we find divinity in stay at home orders and home schooling...

Mar 12, 2020, 8:18 AM

Jewish geography and Cuomo’s New Rochelle mistake

A cameraman records as a cleaning crew disinfects a bank in New Rochelle, N.Y., Wednesday, March 11, 2020. State officials are shuttering several schools and houses of worship for two weeks in the New York City suburb and sending in the National Guard to help with what appears to be the nation's biggest cluster of coronavirus cases, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The governor's arbitrary one-mile containment policy disregards the Orthodox community's social patterns and endangers local children

Mar 1, 2020, 12:24 AM

Sanctuaries of Science vs Covid-19

"And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." - Exodus 25:8 These words from this week’s Torah portion are inscribed at the entrance to synagogue sanctuaries around the world. They speak to our hope that...

Oct 10, 2019, 6:47 PM

Tears of Yizkor, Joys of N’ilah

I want to tell you why I cry at Yizkor. I want to tell you why I smile at N’ilah. Yom Kippur is exhausting for those of us up on the bimah. Exhausting and still exhilarating. There is nothing better...

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About Me

Rabbi Howard Goldsmith is the spiritual leader of Congregation Emanu-El of Westchester, a Reform synagogue in Rye, New York. He is the President of the Westchester Board of Rabbis and a chaplain for the Westchester County Police Department.