Author Archives: Richard Jeffrey Newman

What I’m Reading: Spinster, by Sylvia Ashton-Warner

I’ve been slowly making my way through Spinster, a novel by Sylvia Ashton-Warner. The book, which was first published in 1959, is a fascinating story about a white teacher of Maori children in New Zealand. The books is really interesting … Continue reading

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Spotlight Is an Important Movie. If You’re a Survivor of Sexual Violence, You Might Not Want to See It Alone

Last night, my wife and I went to see Spotlight, the new movie starring Michael Keaton that tells the story of his character, Walter V. Robinson, and team of journalists he led at The Boston Globe in that paper’s coverage … Continue reading

Posted in Rape, intimate violence, & related issues | 8 Comments

Making Fear a Thing of Beauty

A reading and workshop built around strategies for turning what scares you into art. When: December 12, 2015, 2:00 – 3:30 PM Where: QED Astoria, 27–16 23rd Avenue, Astoria NY 11105 To buy $5 tickets click here. Here’s the Facebook … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | 2 Comments

from “Multiculturalism and the Politics of Interest,” by Michael Walzer

Reading Walzer’s essay, I kept having to remind myself that this book was published nearly twenty years ago. There’s a lot about what he says that makes sense to me, but I found myself wondering if things have changed. Religious community is of course … Continue reading

Posted in Jews and Judaism | 4 Comments

from “Pluralism and Its Discontents: The Case of Blacks and Jews,” by Cheryl Greenberg

Twenty years or so ago, not too long after I first started teaching at the college where I am still a professor, one of my colleagues–the woman who started the institution’s Jewish Studies Project–tried to start a Black-Jewish dialogue on campus. It … Continue reading

Posted in Jews and Judaism, Race, racism and related issues | 3 Comments

from “In Defense of Shaatnez: A Politics for Jews in a Multicultural America,” by Mitchell Cohen

Shaatnez refers to the prohibition in Jewish law against mixing wool and linen in the same garment. Such mixing is considered, as Cohen puts it, “an inappropriate bringing together of opposites” (35). His article is an exploration of the value that multiculturalism … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Jews and Judaism | 9 Comments

from “The Melting Pot and Beyond,” by David Biale

Continuing my excerpting from Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism, this is from the first essay in the book, “The Melting Pot and Beyond,” by David Biale, a fascinating look at the Jewish role in forging the notion of the United States … Continue reading

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More from Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism

This is from the introduction by David Biale: Standing somewhere between the dominant position of the white majority and the marginal position of peoples of color, Jews respond with ambivalence to the attack of multiculturalism on the Enlightenment. For two centuries … Continue reading

Posted in Jews and Judaism | 1 Comment

What I’m Reading: Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism

Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism, edited by David Biale, Michael Galchinsky, and Susannah Heschel, has been on my shelf since I bought it in the late 1990s—the book was published in 1998—but I only started reading it last month. I … Continue reading

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Jews and Judaism | 2 Comments

A Publication Announcement & An Upcoming Event

I have some very exciting news! Ghostbird Press has agreed to publish For My Son, A Kind of Prayer, a chapbook of poems about being a father and raising a son. If all goes well, the book should be out … Continue reading

Posted in Writing | 6 Comments