Category: Social Issues
Why I Keep Coming Back, or: Hooked
This past semester, I completed an ethnographic project on a Sacred Harp singing group in the Boston area, motivated by one central question: what is it about this old-timey style of music with its ar... Read More
Hearing Our Song at the Sea: A Dvar Torah on B’Shalach (Ex. 13:17-17:16)
This past week’s parsha (Torah portion), “B’Shalach” (Exodus 13:17-17:16), is a rich and event-filled text. We witness the physical and spiritual movement of the Israelites out of slavery and ... Read More
The Sacred Art and Duty of Cow Protection
How we treat our mother cow will define the very course and future of our civilization. Wait…the cow? For most Western people, when we think of the cow we think of her as dinner, as the skin beh... Read More
A Divine Call for Affirmation
This past week, Jews around the world commenced the reading of the Book of Exodus as part of the annual Torah reading cycle. This past week’s Torah portion, Parashat Shemot, contain important moment... Read More
Immigration and Interfaith
During the first week of December, I traveled to the Arizona-Mexico border with 12 others from Harvard Divinity School as part of a course titled Border Crossings: Immigration in America. We spent fiv... Read More
Politics of grace
Like many people who celebrate Christmas (or get a holiday for it regardless), I have just headed out of my usual climate to go see family for the time I get off of school. Like many people, I knew ... Read More
Kenya Yetu Hakuna Matata (In our Kenya there are no problems)
This past summer I was in Kenya, partially for pleasure and partially for research. I stayed close to the Westgate Mall, site of the horrific terrorist attack in September, and visited it several time... Read More
Dasani, Mayor Bloomberg, and Reverse Idolatry
Earlier this month, the New York Times published a five-part series on Dasani, an 11-year-old girl living in a homeless shelter in New York City. The series explicates the experience of New York City... Read More