Monthly Archives: March 2014

Schama’s Story of the Jews, Part 1

Letting go can be hard to do. In A Provocative People, Sherwin Wine explains why it is so hard to do “secular” Jewish history if it contradicts the Bible’s version: Wherever Jews and Christians are to be found, this story is … Continue reading

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Sherwin T. Wine: An Apprecation

This essay first appeared in Jewish Currents May-June 2009, pp. 51-55. It also appears as the Afterword to A Provocative People: A Secular History of the Jews (IISHJ, 2012). For a book-length appreciation of Sherwin Wine’s life and work from a variety … Continue reading

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Food is as Jewish as Fasting

A version of this article appeared in the journal Humanistic Judaism, Summer/Autumn 2013. It is reprinted here with permission. What is the stereotypical theme of every Jewish holiday? “They tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat.” Why should the eating be any … Continue reading

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Disaffiliated Jews

There are thousands of disaffiliated Jews in the Jewish world. I do not mean “unaffiliated” – those who have aged out of their parents’ memberships have not yet chosen a synagogue of their own (which they will eventually), or those whose … Continue reading

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