“Judaism” or “Jewishness”?

Last updated on: August 2, 2013 at 1:01 pm By Guest Contributor

By Shalom Goldman, Duke University Earlier this month the pop star Madonna, accompanied by her ex-husband film director Guy Ritchie, celebrated her son Rocco’s Bar Mitzvah at the Kabbalah center in NYC. That neither parent, nor their 13-year-old son, was Jewish, didn’t disturb the celebrity journalists and paparazzi who covered the story, and the fact was not made much of in US Weekly, the celebrity magazine that broke the story. Within Israel, where Madonna is a frequent visitor, the Bar Mitzvah story made... Read more

God Speed: “Race Cars for Peace” in the Holy City

Last updated on: July 1, 2013 at 1:49 pm By Guest Contributor

By Shalom Goldman, Duke University In the US, spectator sports and religious conviction often go hand in hand. Americans are used to players, and teams, who pray and play, invoking Jesus before, during, and after games. This happens on the basketball court, in baseball stadiums, and on football fields. And it is most notable on stock car racetracks, where prayers, along with game results, are often heard over the public address systems. The tone and style of this sports religiosity is that... Read more

Tedx Talk: The Numbers of Religious Freedom

Last updated on: June 10, 2013 at 4:00 pm By Guest Contributor

By Brian J. Grim This TEDx talk* provides an overview of Pew Research findings on the rising tide of restrictions on religion around the world coming from governments as well as groups in society. For more, see the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. The Pew Research study finds approximately three-quarters of the world’s population live in countries with high or very high restrictions on religion coming either from governments or groups in society. Nearly two-thirds of the world’s people live in countries... Read more

Clerical Sexual Abuse Among Catholics and Jews: Comparisons and Contrasts

Last updated on: May 24, 2013 at 2:41 pm By Guest Contributor

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By Shalom Goldman, Duke University Many Catholics in the US and overseas are hoping that the new Pope, Francis I, will help heal the wounds inflicted on the Church by the sexual abuse scandals of the past few decades. And many Catholic victims of clerical sexual abuse, while reminding us that their wounds are deep and permanent, see a healing of the Church as a necessary component of their individual recoveries. Moral outrage about clerical abuse is directed not... Read more

Attacks on Kathy Boudin Are Attempts at Vigilante Justice – Op Ed from Julien Hawthorne

Last updated on: April 30, 2013 at 9:41 am By Guest Contributor

Editor’s Note: The following is an opinion piece from Julien Hawthorne, currently a student at Columbia University, regarding controversial Columbia professor Kathy Boudin. Boudin’s participation in the Weather Underground and especially the 1981 Brinks Robbery has led many to criticize her appointment to a teaching position at an elite university. * Media Attacks on Kathy Boudin Are Attempts at Vigilante Justice By Julien Hawthorne For the most part, Kathy Boudin, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia School of Social Work,... Read more

Why Jews Don’t Elect a Pope, and What Might Happen if They Did

Last updated on: March 27, 2013 at 9:09 pm By Guest Contributor

By Shalom Goldman, Duke University While the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics eagerly awaited the decision of the Cardinals who were sequestered in the Sistine Chapel, members of the world’s other religions, among them many of the world’s 14 million Jews, were also closely following developments in Rome. But as is often the case, there was no Jewish consensus on this issue, or on any other. As the well-known maxim has it, “one Jew, three opinions.” Behind the differences between Catholic... Read more

Inhofe, with God on His Side, vs. Hagel

Last updated on: February 8, 2013 at 12:21 pm By Guest Contributor

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By Shalom Goldman, Duke University At the confirmation hearings for Chuck Hagel’s nomination to head the Department of Defense, the former senator from Nebraska has been pilloried by some of his former Republican colleagues, most forcefully by current Nebraska Senator Jim Inhofe. At Thursday’s hearings, Inhofe said that on security issues, “Hagel’s record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream.” In a Washington Post op-ed piece published a week before the Hagel hearings commenced, Inhofe implied that Hagel is... Read more

Are Evangelicals Monopolizing, Misleading US Anti-Trafficking Efforts?

Last updated on: January 17, 2013 at 12:23 pm By Guest Contributor

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Since the late 1990s, the US federal government has stepped up its efforts to stop human trafficking – the trade in human beings, usually for forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation. The primary anti-trafficking legislation is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), passed through Congress in 2000. During his presidency, President George W. Bush described trafficking as “evil” and focused much of his rhetoric against trafficking on what he called the exploitation of women and children. In her new... Read more

A Bagel with Hagel? Not If You Are an American Jewish “Leader”

Last updated on: January 14, 2013 at 12:31 pm By Guest Contributor

By Shalom Goldman, Duke University Ever since the name of Chuck Hagel was floated by the Obama White House as a possible appointment to the post of Secretary of Defense, conservative Republicans have been telling us that the former Nebraska senator was the worst possible choice for the job. Particularly pointed were the remarks of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who said that, “Chuck Hagel, if confirmed to be the secretary of defense, would be the most antagonistic secretary... Read more

Women of the Wall in Comparative Perspective

Last updated on: December 31, 2012 at 10:23 pm By Guest Contributor

By Laurie L. Patton, Duke University In December, the group of Jewish women activists arguing for women’s rights to pray near Jerusalem’s Western wall in full religious regalia, using tallit (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylactery), faced yet another setback. It is now against the law for women even to bring tallit and tefillin near the Wall. Women are regularly stopped by the police and asked not to enter if they possess those items. Yet Women of the Wall continue to... Read more