Category: Challenges
The Challenge of “Amen”: A Young Rabbi’s Reflection on Taking Part in an Interfaith Prayer Service
Last week I had the opportunity to take part in an interfaith prayer service to support my town’s re-elected mayor who would be inaugurated the following day. It was an incredible moment for fai... Read More
Amish Mafia Outrage
Last month, Discovery Channel launched a new TV series called Amish Mafia. It takes place in Lancaster County of Pennsylvania and purports to offer a behind the scenes look at a group of Amish thugs w... Read More
Revisiting the Victim Narrative of the Sikh American Community
Originally published in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel. After a white supremacist opened fire at a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek in August, significant media resources have been devoted to desc... Read More
“Just to Make a Statement”: Power, Sincerity, and the Women of the Wall
The Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall claims that Women of the Wall "don't come to worship, they come to demonstrate." But what he chooses not to see is that separating worship from politics is a luxury... Read More
Taking the Spirit out of Spirituality
Recently I have been reflecting on a series of internal discussions that I have been part of within a Muslim email group. A lot of the argument has centered about the practice of halal certificati... Read More
Please Stop Making God an Accomplice to the Newtown Massacre
No one knows what to say in moments like this. But we utter many things about God. Do we really mean these things? The divine love is not complicit in their deaths. The divine love does not call the... Read More
A Muslim Prayer for Victims by Quaiser Abdullah
In Islam, when we hear tragic news, we say, “From God we come and to Him is our return.” I pray for the well-being of the survivors of the horrendous tragedy and that as a national and global comm... Read More
After Newtown, a Divine Name for Right Now
The tragic events of last week occurred while Jews were reading a section of the story of Joseph and his brothers which is bursting with bereavement. As I read it through the lens of midrash, this anc... Read More