Category Archives: Jews and Judaism

Interviewing the Heartland

Posted on November 7, 2019 by Barry Deutsch

Help me make more cartoons like this one by supporting my Patreon! A $1 or $2 pledge really helps. In the wake of Trump’s upset (and upsetting) win in the 2016 election, the “heartland interview” – in which a newspaper … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-racism, antiracism, Cartooning & comics, Conservative zaniness, right-wingers, etc., Elections and politics, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc, Jews and Judaism, People of Color, poc, Society & Culture, white people, White Privilege | Comments Off  

from “The Lines That Antisemitism and Racism Draw”

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

Today is Shabbat Nachamu, the Sabbath of Consolation. Last year at this time, I was on a family vacation in Europe, sitting in our host’s dining room in Sweden, early in the morning while everyone else was still asleep, and … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-racism, Anti-Semitism, Jews and Judaism, Race, racism and related issues | Comments Off  

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

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

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 →

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

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

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 | Comments Off  

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

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

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 →

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

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

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

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

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 →

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

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

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 | Comments Off  

Reading Journal: Verses of Forgiveness, by Myriam Antaki – 1

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

I started a new novel not too long ago, Verses of Forgiveness, by Myriam Antaki and translated from the French by Marjolin de Jager. Antaki is a Syrian novelist who writes in French. Verses of Forgiveness, which is narrated in a lyrical, dream-like … Continue reading →

Posted in Jews and Judaism, Palestine & Israel | Comments Off  

Blogging My Summer Classes: Literature of the Holocaust

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Richard Jeffrey Newman

I have just finished reading the first set of essays written by my students in ENG 261, Literature of the Holocaust. The prompt asked them to consider whether or not they think there is an obligation to remember the Holocaust, with … Continue reading →

Posted in Anti-Semitism, Gender and the Body, Jews and Judaism | Comments Off