Download or read book Rabbi Robin written by Shereen Akhtar and published by Blue Diode Press. This book was released on 2024-07-10 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shereen Akhtar’s tragic death in October 2023 means that this book of poetry will be her first and last full collection. Anyone reading it will immediately sense what a loss that is, but also what a gift she has passed on. Shereen was a lesbian, a Muslim, a human rights lawyer, and had a passionate interest in environmental issues – all of which inform her work. Relationships, including one with a female Jewish rabbi, are dissected fearlessly and compassionately. She never shirks from complexity when grappling with spirituality, mortality and religion. Many poems in the opening section are set in Israel and Palestine and unpick the oppressions and contradictions there. It’s rare that you’ll find language used with such economy, dynamism and intelligence, in ways that also pierce the heart. 'Complex, melancholic, and sensual, the late Shereen Akhtar’s Rabbi / Robin is at a continuous crossroads of reckoning with queer, interfaith love, addiction and channeling “the expansion of this mysterious darkness and light,” in which the speaker invites us to “kiss the calligraphy/ on her skin too holy to touch. The words burn. The words are moot.” But Akhtar’s words themselves ask the reader to give so much more of themselves, to consider and make real a world beyond geopolitical boundaries and intuitional divides, to speak up and out even when “some nights one should be silent, but that, my love, was a lie.” Imaginative as it is confrontational, and full of candid curiosity, Rabbi / Robin is about euphoric flight into the beyond and meditative trajectories that return us here, to right now, these troubling times in which “we even hold our patchwork souls/ tight behind our teeth, firm in the cheeks.”' —Rosebud Ben-Oni

Download or read book Jewish Megatrends written by Sid Schwarz and published by Jewish Lights Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visionary solutions for a community ripe for transformational change--from fourteen leading innovators of Jewish life. "Jewish Megatrends offers a vision for a community that can simultaneously strengthen the institutions that serve those who seek greater Jewish identification and attract younger Jews, many of whom are currently outside the orbit of Jewish communal life. Schwarz and his collaborators provide an exciting path, building on proven examples, that we ignore at our peril." --from the Foreword The American Jewish community is riddled with doubts about the viability of the institutions that well served the Jewish community of the twentieth century. Synagogues, Federations and Jewish membership organizations have yet to figure out how to meet the changing interests and needs of the next generation. In this challenging yet hopeful call for transformational change, visionary leader Rabbi Sidney Schwarz looks at the social norms that are shaping the habits and lifestyles of younger American Jews and why the next generation is so resistant to participate in the institutions of Jewish communal life as they currently exist. He sets out four guiding principles that can drive a renaissance in Jewish life and gives evidence of how, on the margins of the Jewish community, those principles are already generating enthusiasm and engagement from the very millennials that the organized Jewish community has yet to engage. Contributors--leading innovators from different sectors of the Jewish community--each use Rabbi Schwarz's framework as a springboard to set forth their particular vision for the future of their sector of Jewish life and beyond. CONTRIBUTORS: Elise Bernhardt - Rabbi Sharon Brous - Sandy Cardin - Dr. Barry Chazan - Dr. David Ellenson - Wayne Firestone - Rabbi Jill Jacobs - Anne Lanski - Rabbi Joy Levitt - Rabbi Asher Lopatin - Rabbi Or N. Rose - Nigel Savage - Barry Shrage - Dr. Jonathan Woocher

Download or read book Directing the Heart written by Rabbi Yael Levy and published by Way In, Incorporated. This book was released on 2019-09 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Directing the Heart: Weekly Mindfulness Teachings and Practices from the Torah" contains meditations and suggestions for Mindfulness practice inspired by the first five books of the Bible. For each week of the year, Rabbi Yael Levy searches out teachings from the Torah for guidance on how to love in the face of loss, to be open to joy, gratitude and beauty and to live with disappointments, sadness and pain. Using Rabbi Levy's own translations from the Hebrew, "Directing the Heart" can serve as a sourcebook for spiritual exploration for people of all faiths and paths. The book highlights the usefulness of taking time each day to set intentions and engage in spiritual practice. Each chapter includes a poetic meditation on the week's text followed by a recommendation for how to bring the teaching into daily life. Interest in Mindfulness has moved into mainstream American culture and Jewish Mindfulness adds an innovative spiritual component; Rabbi Levy has been exploring its potential for nearly two decades. Her approach strives to awaken the attention - to direct the heart - and strengthen the ability to meet well all that we encounter.

Download or read book The Sacred Calling written by Rebecca Einstein Schorr and published by CCAR Press. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women have been rabbis for over forty years. No longer are women rabbis a unique phenomenon, rather they are part of the fabric of Jewish life. In this anthology, rabbis and scholars from across the Jewish world reflect back on the historic significance of women in the rabbinate and explore issues related to both the professional and personal lives of women rabbis. This collection examines the ways in which the reality of women in the rabbinate has impacted on all aspects of Jewish life, including congregational culture, liturgical development, life cycle ritual, the Jewish healing movement, spirituality, theology, and more. Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Download or read book The Harrowing written by Alexandra Sokoloff and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Five Baird College students are spending Thanksgiving break on campus in their residence hall. However, they soon become aware of another presence disturbing the buildings silence. Together, theyll face three long days and dark nights before the world returns to find out whats become of them. Martins Press.

Download or read book All About Me written by Mel Brooks and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • At 95, the legendary Mel Brooks continues to set the standard for comedy across television, film, and the stage. Now he shares his story for the first time in “a wonderful addition to a seminal career” (San Francisco Chronicle), “infused with nostalgia and his signature hilarity” (Parade). ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: New York Post • “Laugh-out-loud hilarious and always fascinating, from the great Mel Brooks. What else do you expect from the man who knew Jesus and dated Joan of Arc?”—Billy Crystal For anyone who loves American comedy, the long wait is over. Here are the never-before-told, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and remembrances from a master storyteller, filmmaker, and creator of all things funny. All About Me! charts Mel Brooks’s meteoric rise from a Depression-era kid in Brooklyn to the recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Whether serving in the United States Army in World War II, or during his burgeoning career as a teenage comedian in the Catskills, Mel was always mining his experiences for material, always looking for the perfect joke. His iconic career began with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, where he was part of the greatest writers’ room in history, which included Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. After co-creating both the mega-hit 2000 Year Old Man comedy albums and the classic television series Get Smart, Brooks’s stellar film career took off. He would go on to write, direct, and star in The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs, as well as produce groundbreaking and eclectic films, including The Elephant Man, The Fly, and My Favorite Year. Brooks then went on to conquer Broadway with his record-breaking, Tony-winning musical, The Producers. All About Me! offers fans insight into the inspiration behind the ideas for his outstanding collection of boundary-breaking work, and offers details about the many close friendships and collaborations Brooks had, including those with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Gene Wilder, Madeleine Kahn, Alfred Hitchcock, and the great love of his life, Anne Bancroft. Filled with tales of struggle, achievement, and camaraderie (and dozens of photographs), readers will gain a more personal and deeper understanding of the incredible body of work behind one of the most accomplished and beloved entertainers in history.

Download or read book When Scotland Was Jewish written by Elizabeth Caldwell Hirschman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-05-07 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The popular image of Scotland is dominated by widely recognized elements of Celtic culture. But a significant non-Celtic influence on Scotland's history has been largely ignored for centuries? This book argues that much of Scotland's history and culture from 1100 forward is Jewish. The authors provide evidence that many of the national heroes, villains, rulers, nobles, traders, merchants, bishops, guild members, burgesses, and ministers of Scotland were of Jewish descent, their ancestors originating in France and Spain. Much of the traditional historical account of Scotland, it is proposed, rests on fundamental interpretive errors, perpetuated in order to affirm Scotland's identity as a Celtic, Christian society. A more accurate and profound understanding of Scottish history has thus been buried. The authors' wide-ranging research includes examination of census records, archaeological artifacts, castle carvings, cemetery inscriptions, religious seals, coinage, burgess and guild member rolls, noble genealogies, family crests, portraiture, and geographic place names.

Download or read book The Sacred Exchange written by Mary L. Zamore and published by CCAR Press. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The newest addition to the CCAR Press Challenge and Change series, this anthology creates a rich and varied discussion about ethics and money. Our use of and relationship with money must reflect our religious values—this book aims to start a comprehensive conversation about how Judaism can guide us in this multi-faceted relationship.

Download or read book Sacred Encounter written by Lisa L. Grushcow and published by CCAR Press. This book was released on 2014-03-01 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This wide-ranging anthology takes a close look at the breadth of human sexuality from a Jewish perspective. The essays begin with a look at biblical and rabbinic views on sexuality, and then proceed to explorations of sexuality at different moments in the life cycle, sexuality and the marital model, diverse expressions of sexuality, examples of sexuality education, the nexus of sexuality and theology, and the challenges of contemporary sexual ethics. The Sacred Encounter is a thought-provoking and important Jewish resource. Perfect for personal study, or for high school or adult classes. Published by CCAR Press, a division of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Download or read book Contested Rituals written by Robin Judd and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Contested Rituals, Robin Judd shows that circumcision and kosher butchering became focal points of political struggle among the German state, its municipal governments, Jews, and Gentiles. In 1843, some German-Jewish fathers refused to circumcise their sons, prompting their Jewish communities to reconsider their standards for membership. Nearly a century later, in 1933, another blood ritual, kosher butchering, served as a political and cultural touchstone when the Nazis built upon a decades-old controversy concerning the practice and prohibited it. In describing these events and related controversies that raged during the intervening years, Judd explores the nature and escalation of the ritual debates as they transcended the boundaries of the local Jewish community to include non-Jews who sought to protect, restrict, or prohibit these rites. Judd argues that the ritual debates grew out of broad shifts in German politics: the competition between local and regional authority following unification, the possibility of government intervention in private affairs, the place of religious difference in the modern age, and the relationship of the German state to its religious and ethnic minorities, including Catholics. Anti-Semitism was only one factor driving the debates and it often functioned in unexpected ways. Judd gives us a new understanding of the formation of German political systems, the importance of religious practices to Jewish political leadership, the interaction of Jews with the German government, and the reaction of Germans of all faiths to political change.

Download or read book The First Fifty Years written by Sue Levi Elwell and published by CCAR Press. This book was released on 2023-07-10 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ordination of Rabbi Sally J. Priesand in 1972 was a watershed moment in Jewish history. In The First Fifty Years, contributors from across the Jewish and gender spectrums reflect on the meaning of this moment and the ensuing decades, both personally and for the Jewish community. In short pieces of new prose, authors--many of them pioneering rabbis--share stories, insights, analysis, and celebrations of women in the rabbinate. These are intertwined with a wealth of poetry that poignantly captures the spirit of this anniversary. The volume is a deep, heartfelt tribute to women rabbis and their indelible impact on all of us. This collection serves as a mile marker along the journey, a momentary stopping place for reflection and commemoration. While we experience the evolution of women in the rabbinate as inevitable, that doesn't mean it was easy. These pages likewise acknowledge challenges and complexities of these fifty years, identifying some of the detours and roadblocks that still lie ahead... In a mere half century, rabbinic leadership effected a dramatic turning point in Jewish history, an acknowledgment that the voices that were silent or silenced, marginalized, unheard and unseen, are an essential part of the rich and variegated fabric of the Jewish story and must be included... Becoming the most beautifully diverse, inclusive, and thriving community of our highest aspirations, we all need to know what has led us here on the path to a healthy, equitable, and flourishing future. --From the introduction by Rabbi Hara E. Person, chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis

Download or read book Mishkan Ga avah written by Denise Eger and published by CCAR Press. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking collection of LGBTQ prayers, poems, liturgy, and rituals is both a spiritual resource and a celebratory affirmation of Jewish diversity. Giving voice to the private and public sectors of queer Jewish experience, Mishkan Ga'avah is also a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of both the Stonewall Riots and the first pride march, reflecting the longtime advocacy of the Reform Movement for full LGBTQ inclusion.

Download or read book Homelands written by Leonard Rogoff and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2007-09 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Homelands blends oral history, documentary studies, and quantitative research to present a colorful local history with much to say about multicultural identity in the South. Homelands is a case study of a unique ethnic group in North America--small-town southern Jews. Both Jews and southerners, Leonard Rogoff points out, have long struggled with questions of identity and whether to retain their differences or try to assimilate into the nationalculture. Rogoff shows how, as immigrant Jews became small-town southerners,they constantly renegotiated their identities and reinvented their histories. The Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish community was formed during the 1880s and 1890s, when the South was recovering from the Reconstruction era and Jews were experiencing ever-growing immigration as well as challenging the religious traditionalism of the previous 4,000 years. Durham and Chapel Hill Jews, recent arrivals from the traditional societies of eastern Europe, assimilated and secularized as they lessened their differences with other Americans. Some Jews assimilated through intermarriage and conversion, but the trajectory of the community as a whole was toward retaining their religious and ethnic differences while attempting to integrate with their neighbors. The Durham-Chapel Hill area is uniquely suited to the study of the southern Jewish experience, Rogoff maintains, because the region is exemplary of two major trends: the national population movement southward and the rise of Jews into the professions. The Jewish peddler and storekeeper of the 1880s and the doctor and professor of the 1990s, Rogoff says, are representative figures of both Jewish upward mobility and southern progress.

Download or read book Robert and Teresa written by Rita Giuliani and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Step into the dark, seamy world of drug addiction, distrust, disloyalty, and greed and witness firsthand its destructive and tragic effects. Robert and Teresa Gilcriss, an upscale suburban couple, have all that life has to offer including two sons, Godfrey and Reginald, and are the envy of their peers. However, their lives tragically fall apart despite their good looks, material possessions, wealth, social status, and prominence. Robert, a successful attorney in a nationally known law firm who is diagnosed with acute depression, and Teresa, a socialite, terminate their marriage due to irreconcilable differences. Robert's downward spiral begins immediately after with the loss of his powerful position to a fellow attorney, Tony Gonzo, for whom he develops an intense hatred and is followed by his abrupt resignation. Robert and Teresa develop other relationships and eventually marry their newfound partners, whom they summarily divorce. Following an extraordinary string of events, Teresa marries Tony Gonzo, whom she divorces upon Robert's instigation, and graduates from law school. Years later, the Gilcrisses gradually bring their lives back on track by remarrying and settling into a successful law firm owned by Teresa. Robert suddenly and shockingly confesses to Teresa that he is a drug addict and has no love for her despite their remarriage. A physical scuffle ensues, Robert threatens her life, and the unthinkable occurs leaving Teresa no other choice but to murder him in self-defense. Teresa is defended by Tony Gonzo, but is found guilty and incarcerated for her crime. Tony Gonzo's mistress visits Teresa in prison and makes known his evil strategy to destroy her due to his psychopathic jealousies. Her case is retried, and she is eventually freed from prison, while Tony Gonzo is convicted for the death of his mistress, but is later released from prison in a second trial based upon new evidence. Teresa is suddenly found dead in her home. Tony Gonzo flees to France and is the main suspect. While living on the French Riviera, he believes she is sitting opposite him at breakfast. He is stunned by her beauty, and she suddenly disappears. He returns to his villa. He only wants to be with her and nothing more. He ends his life. This novel deals with the devastating consequences of rage, jealousy, hostility, and revenge. It graphically features an exciting series of complex emotions and unique twists that create a gripping, riveting, and suspenseful plot.

Download or read book American Jewish Filmmakers written by David Desser and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2023-04-17 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Sidney Lumet, and Paul Mazursky, all sons of East European Jews, remain among the most prominent contemporary American film directors. In this revised, updated second edition of American Jewish Filmmakers, David Desser and Lester D. Friedman demonstrate how the Jewish experience gives rise to an intimately linked series of issues in the films of these and other significant Jewish directors. The effects of the Holocaust linger, both in gripping dramatic form (Mazursky's Enemies, a Love Story) and in black comedy (Brooks's The Producers). In his trilogy consisting of Serpico, Prince of the City, and Q&A, Lumet focuses on the failure of society's institutions to deliver social justice. Woody Allen portrays urban life and family relationships (Manhattan and Hannah and Her Sisters), sometimes with a nostalgic twist (Radio Days). This edition concludes with a newly written discussion of the careers of other prominent Jewish filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, Brian Singer, and Darren Aronofsky.

Download or read book White Fragility written by Dr. Robin DiAngelo and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2018-06-26 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Download or read book Our Paper written by and published by . This book was released on 1920 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: