Today, Shabbat Zachor, we have read an extra bit of Torah besides the regular weekly Torah portion. Parashat Zachor, Deuteronomy 25:17–19. It is the famous -or infamous- commandment to erase Amalek, the tribe of our enemies so that not even their memory remains. …

I have good news. Good news from Israel. But first, let me share with you a story. When Menachem Begin visited the States for the first time as Prime Minister in 1977, he spent one night in a hotel in New York. Unsurprisingly, a group of protesters hassled him under…

A Holocaust survivor dies and goes to heaven. Because he had been such a saintly and pious Jew, they bring him in front of God. The survivor is terribly nervous -as you can imagine, a religious person literally in front of God. So he tries to break the ice with…

HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2023 Like every year, we meet again, in this place, around the Memorial, on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Twenty years have passed since the institution of the recurrence. The purpose was, and I am quoting from the HMT website, to “bear witness for those who endured genocide, and honour the survivors and…

We Jews, me and you, belong to the best Book Club in the world. There are other clubs and associations out there, all great and good. But our Book Club is the real thing. As you know, because you’re here, our Book Club meets every Saturday morning. During our meetings…

And.. she did it again. Whoopi Goldberg, the non-Jewisn actress who changed her family name at the beginning of her career -many years ago- into a Jewish-sounding one. She never said why, but we often hear that a Jewish family name helps you find a job in the movie industry…

We do not sing the entire Ma’oz tzur in this synagogue. Like many other Jews, we sing only the first stanza. But Ma’oz tzur is considerably longer; it has five stanzas. Let us have a look at the last one. p. 378 in our Prayerbook. When the Greeks were gathered…

So everything is ready for Chanukah. Before Chanukah begins, I would like you to consider another holiday. I know more than one month has passed, so perhaps you’ve forgotten. Let me help you; the last holiday we celebrated was Sukkot. …

You should learn Hebrew. In a moment, I will tell you the reason why. Before that, let me remind you where we are in the Torah reading cycle. Warning. It is, I have to say, one of the most distressing moments of the Biblical narrative. Isaac is on his deathbed…