Marc Overbeck, at The Blogs

Apr 30, 2024, 6:58 AM

A month ago, I had planned to write an essay titled “Zionism is Humanitarianism” in response to growing reports from social media and general media that Zionism was being increasingly conflated with ethno-nationalism. Over the past month, the cascade...

Oct 11, 2023, 11:52 AM

What after the war? The future of Israel

Like so many Jews in the Diaspora, I woke up last Shabbat morning expecting life to be familiar, even celebratory. We'd completed the festival of Sukkot. My wife and I had put up and decorated our best-ever sukkah -- beach-themed...

Jul 30, 2023, 7:09 AM

A Precious Crack in the Wall of Entitlement

To steal from Charles Dickinson’s opening in A Tale of Two Cities but to say it differently: “It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.” The week in Israel began with the unilateral passing of legislation...

Jul 25, 2023, 6:28 AM

The New Existential Threat for Israel

During the first 50 years of Israeli statehood, in the face of military attacks from other sovereign nations in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973, the existential threat for Jews was whether Israel would continue to exist as a political...

About Me

Marc Overbeck has been a member of Reconstructing Judaism’s Board of Governors since October 2020, and twice served as president of Temple Beth Sholom in Salem, Ore, where he lives with his wife Deb. Marc earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from Willamette University and also studied at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he served as a Hansard Scholar and research assistant for former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

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