Purim

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Esti Rosen Snukal

Jun 19, 2025, 5:04 PM

I Believe in Miracles

Today is the 23rd of Sivan in the Hebrew calendar. As told in the Book of Esther, this was the day that Mordechai, with the full authority of King Ahasuerus, issued a new decree: the Jewish people, scattered across...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Jun 18, 2025, 9:30 PM

The Iranian resistance agents are the unsung heroes of the fall of the dictators

Not to diminish the IAF pilots flying the sorties with professionalism and heroism or the Israeli administration battling well on a dozen fronts You're so confused if you can't tell the Iranian People from the Ayatollahs. Clearly, Israel's intelligence gathering is...

Warren J. Blumenfeld

Apr 13, 2025, 2:50 AM

Trump Exploits Jewish Students as Pawns in Attacks on Higher Education

By now, most of us have heard of “Project 2025,” created in 2024 by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation: an ultra-right Christian nationalist organization. “Project 2025” is the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page book subtitled “Mandate for Leadership: The...

Apr 5, 2025, 12:14 AM

A week in the Land of Israel, Part 4

Purim in Jerusalem, photo by Rod Kersh 2025

I am writing this at an unusual time* – it is almost mid-day and my habit is to write first thing in the morning, straight from bed, before anything else has crowded my thoughts. I was once told that writing...

Raphael Cohen-Almagor

Mar 27, 2025, 2:55 PM

Tales from the Land of Milk and Misery

Some things are clear: 7 October should be a Memorial Day in #Israel. Only an independent national inquiry committee can get to the truth, probing the ill-functioning of the government, the IDF and the SHABAC and explain the colossal decision-making processes...

Mar 25, 2025, 2:41 PM

Celebrating Purim I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!

Helen Ready’s 1971 women’s liberation anthem, “I Am Woman Hear Me Roar,” comes to mind when I think of Purim. Remember Esther? The Purim story honors Esther, the heroine of the story. An abbreviated Purim tale informs us how Mordechai...

Aaron D. Cherniak

Mar 25, 2025, 2:41 AM

Tuning out Noise, into Signal: Purim, Presence, and Listening

It is not unusual for there to be background noise during the reading of Megilat Esther– the squeaking of chairs, sounds of small children, and of course, the raucous tradition of blotting out Haman’s name with noisemakers, boos, or,...

Mar 20, 2025, 2:25 PM

Vayakhel: When We Come Together as a Community — Then and Now

Helen Keller famously said, "Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much". The biblical term for coming together as a community or nation derives from the root k-h-l (קהל), which is the root of the...

Michael Zoosman

Mar 20, 2025, 12:29 PM

A Purim-Ramadan Oasis for Middle East Peace on Canada’s Neediest Street Corner

A brief oasis for peace in the Middle East occurred this past Sunday right here in Vancouver, BC in the broken heart of the Downtown Eastside. Members of the local Jewish and Muslim communities converged on Main and Hastings’...

Mar 20, 2025, 12:00 PM

An Interview with Rabbi Dalia Marx: The Struggle for the Soul of Israel

Rabbi Dalia Marx. (Dana Bar)

Dalia Marx is Professor of Liturgy and Midrash at Hebrew Union College’s Jerusalem campus. A Reform rabbi, she teaches Israelis studying to be ordained rabbis as well as North American rabbinical students spending their first year of studies in...

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