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Lawrence Goodman

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Mar 7, 2023, 12:08 AM

The Jewish Courts that Judged Jews Accused of Nazi Collaboration

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Shepsl Rotholc was a famous champion Jewish boxer in Poland in the 1930s. When the Nazis rose to power in neighboring Germany, he beat their fighters in bout after bout. "Rotholc Triumphs over the Swastika," ran one headline. In 1941, two...

Jan 25, 2023, 9:18 PM

Scientist, Zionist Hero, and Her Dog-Training Techniques Were Used by the Nazis

Menzel and her first boxer dog, Mowgli, in the early 1920s in Austria. (Courtesy Leo Baeck Institute)

Toward the end of her life, the Austrian-born Jewish scientist Rudolphina Menzel acknowledged a horrifying reality: the dog-training techniques she pioneered had been used by the Nazis to commit atrocities. "I suffered a lot knowing that my students in Austria...

Dec 12, 2022, 9:07 PM

How Yiddish Schools in America Celebrated Hanukkah

New York's Lower East Side in 1908. (Courtesy New York City Municipal Archives)

Not so long ago, Hanukkah celebrations in America were frequently about politics, Jewish strength and triumph, and Zionism. Growing up in Detroit in the 1960s, Brandeis University associate professor of Yiddish Ellen Kellman sang Hanukkah songs inspired by the American socialist...

Nov 28, 2022, 11:59 PM

L’chaim! A Jewish Anti-Death Penalty Group

The grandson of two Holocaust survivors, Michael Zoosman grew up thinking capital punishment was justified. "I felt that the people who murdered my family members deserved to die," he said. But thanks to a spiritual evolution that began when he was a student...

Oct 29, 2022, 12:26 AM

Chaplains: The Unsung Heroes of American Judaism

As part of her job at Boston Children's Hospital, Susan Harris consoles grieving parents who've just lost a child, supports families with end-of-life care, and comforts children with terminal illnesses. But on Fridays, in anticipation of the Sabbath, she also gives out challah....

Oct 13, 2022, 5:59 AM

Rav Kook: The Leading Thinker of Religious Zionism

One of the most remarkable figures in Israeli history, Rabbi (Rav) Abraham Isaac Kook, who died in 1935, left a large and complicated legacy. The country's first Ashkenazi chief rabbi and founder of the modern Chief Rabbinate of Israel, he...

Sep 27, 2022, 10:29 PM

What Do Jews Mean by Repentance (Teshuvah)?

The sound of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah, the great 12th-century Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides wrote, is a wake-up call for the soul. Its message: "Arise from your slumber! Search your ways and return in teshuvah and remember your Creator!" Teshuvah is the central...

Aug 31, 2022, 6:59 AM

Saving the World’s Synagogues from Destruction

In 1827, Tsar Nicholas I issued the “Statute on Conscription Duty,” requiring Russian Jews to serve in the army for 25 years. Many recruits were boys, some as young as 12, whisked away and sometimes abducted to military boarding homes...

Jul 28, 2022, 6:45 AM

Have We Been Teaching American Kids About Israel All Wrong?

"Love, first, details later" — that's how social scientist Sivan Zakai describes the traditional approach taken to teaching young children about Israel. And in her provocative new book, "My Second-Favorite Country: How American Jewish Children Think About Israel," she argues it...

Jun 28, 2022, 8:34 AM

Is intermarriage good for the Jews?

Demography is not destiny: Children of intermarriage are rethinking what it means to be Jewish in powerful and creative ways

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About Me

Lawrence Goodman is the editor of The Jewish Experience and a staff member at Brandeis University's Office of Communications.