This will be my final JCRC Observer article, and as usual, I am right at the deadline. On May 15th, I retired from the position as JCRC Director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville and my tenure in the role was bookended by Mark Freedman. Mark and I met originally during a Jewish Agency For ...
Under cover of darkness, with the table set for the Passover Seder that should have been celebrated the next day, my grandparents, with my two-year-old mother and their nine-year-old niece in tow, fled their comfortable and familiar home to escape the clutches of the Nazi’s. After the horrors ...
In her sermon on March 8, Rabbi Sharon Brous, of IKAR in Los Angeles, eloquently and comprehensively outlined a concern that many of us in the Jewish community have been feeling. Brous, both a Columbia alumna and mother of a current Jewish student at Columbia, articulated the conundrum many of us feel ...
Many of us are familiar with the story from the Talmud in which a Roman approaches Rabbi Shammai asking, “Convert me but teach me the entire Torah as I stand on one foot.” Shammai, feeling he was not serious, sends him away. The Roman then approaches Rabbi Hillel with the same request. ...
In the past few months Jewish community leaders have been busy working with state and local officials to consider a layered approach to handling the rise of antisemitism. These efforts include drafting and proposing both state and local statutes necessary to do everything in our power to prevent future ...
Reports and articles detailing disturbing and frightening incidents of stress, hostility and in some cases violence between Black and Jewish communities in New York have been in the news for some time. These tensions reached a boiling point in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. A new documentary, ...
Reports and articles detailing disturbing and frightening incidents of stress, hostility and in some cases violence between Black and Jewish communities in New York have been in the news for some time. These tensions reached a boiling point in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. A new documentary, ...
During our Jewish Federation Women’s Philanthropy program on Sunday, November 17, guest speaker Eve Barlow was asked about her thoughts on how to best combat antisemitism. In her answer she echoed what several other guest speakers, including author Dara Horn, have recommended to us at prior programs. ...
It has been almost a year since the horrific attack inflicted on Israel October 7th, and the pain and terror of that day continues to weigh heavily on Israel and on many of us here in the US. The aftermath of the horror is still palpable, hostages are still being held captive, and the war is now ...
Nashville has been facing a vexing problem, with a revolving door of white nationalist groups coming to call over the past months. There were so many of these groups that it started to receive national and even international attention, including the Jerusalem Post reporting, “Nashville has a ...
