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The Oscar-nominated short film A Night at the Garden is a 2018 documentary about a massive pro-Nazi rally that happened in Madison Square Garden 80 years ago this week, on February 20, 1939.
At the time, Adolf Hitler was constructing his sixth concentration camp and would soon instigate war with Poland, kicking off WWII and beginning the Holocaust. At Madison Square Garden, these 20,000 Americans gathered publicly to celebrate Nazi racism, anti-Semitism, and the forthcoming genocide.
In so many ways, the country has forgotten...
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Shortly after International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY-12) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21), reintroduced the Never Again Education Act, an important piece of legislation designed to improve Holocaust education and combat anti-Semitism. This bill could not come at a more opportune moment, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC) is proud to...
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This poem plays with the concept of hester panim (the hidden face of God), which is related to the name Esther, who plays a central role in the upcoming holiday of Purim. It also alludes to this line in Exodus 33:20 and related lines in Exodus 34 in Ki Tisa, this week’s parashah (Torah portion): “But you cannot see My face, for a human being may not see Me and live.”
Hester StreetI long to see your face on Hester...
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It's been one year.
One year since I could go to school without seeing massive fences around the 1200 building.
One year since my small town became synonymous with mass shootings and joined the ever-growing list of schools who had experienced gun violence.
One year since I learned to despise Valentine’s Day displays at stores.
But, most importantly, one year since the shooting at my school that left 17 injured and another 17 dead. My name is Haley Stav, and I’m a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
To say that the last...
Read MoreRecently, I traveled from Israel to the United States for a conference. Boarding the plane, I felt a good deal of anxiety. My nerves were not related to typical concerns about turbulence, long delays, or to flying itself. Rather, I was concerned about a problem specific to Israeli flights: women being forced to switch seats to accommodate Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men who do not wish to sit next to women to whom they are not related.
Thanks in part to the hard work of the Israel Religious Action Center, the practice of pressuring women to change...
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