JVOICES

The arrangement reached with the police and the ultra-orthodox is not a compromise but a surrender. There is no difference between ‘don’t march’ and ‘do what you want, but in your houses behind closed shutters’. In both cases we are banished from the streets into a space that is fenced-in, policed and worst of all [...]

i had almost finished the essay below on radical history, martyrology, hagiography, and the ‘reconviction process’ last friday. that night, i heard that one of the people killed that afternoon in oaxaca by mexican government paramilitaries was someone i knew. as i thought about these most recent murders in the attack on the [...]

Perspectives on the Million Man March:
For Black Jews, a Second Day of Atonement Can Bridge a Gulf
Seeking reconciliation among themselves can be a major step toward a
healing process between two troubled groups.
Los Angeles Times, Oct. 13, 1995
The Boston Globe, Oct. 14, 1995
For African American Jews–and it should be quickly and clearly understood that we are [...]

crossposted from Jewschool
In returning to our regular routine post-Yom Kippur, I know I am emotionally and spiritually inspired by the holidays, and feeling the impact of the work a bit on my body.
I also feel the presence of the many conversations and discussions I didn’t have.
Many (and I do think this is the majority [...]

Picture it: a bar. It could be any bar, or perhaps it is a cafe. Elegant, pale-skinned men recline against comfortable chairs amid decor that is at least avant garde, if not always impeccable. Cell phones glimmer wand-like, lips murmuring platitudes or denials, incantations that invoke the lucrative urban deities of status [...]

the calendar has come around again to the time of one of the many proud jewish traditions that has gone out of practice in recent years, though not one that gets mentioned very often.

in ashkenazi communities from nyu-york and buenos (aires) to varshe and london (and i assume to durban and sydney), each fall, on the 10th of tishrey, radical jews - mainly anarchists, though also bundists, communists, and other socialists - held a celebration. the community would turn out in full force, dressed in their best clothes, and pack the hall, sometimes spilling out into the street. they would generally begin by sitting down to a banquet, followed by a musical program that would lead into dancing until the late hours of the night. the event would be held in a hall as close as possible to the official center of the jewish community, the synagogue.

the yom kippur ball drifted out of common practice as the first half of the twentieth century waned. radical jews’ inclination to confront the religious authorities declined as those authorities wielded less and less practical power; their impulse to acknowledge the date of atonement for halakhic transgressions declined as the secular jewish culture they created grew stronger. so why, every year at about this time, do i - three generations of secular radical jewish life past that era - have an urge to throw a really rowdy party?