http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/ 15 Rabbi Brad Hirschfield looks at the uses and abuses of religion in pop culture en Copyright 2011 Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:26:55 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=4.2-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/03/the_rss_feed_for_this_blog_has.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/03/the_rss_feed_for_this_blog_has.html Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:26:55 -0500 When Pope Benedict, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange and designer John Galliano are all on the front page at the same time, and all for remarks about Jews, people should take notice. Why? Because the three stories all speak to a variety of fears and insecurities among Jews which are paralleled by a variety of unresolved resentments which are still apparently held by many influential non-Jews. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/03/pope_benedict_xvi_julian_assan.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/03/pope_benedict_xvi_julian_assan.html Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:14:51 -0500 In this publicity image released by CBS, from left, Charlie Sheen, Angus T. Jones and Conchata Ferrell are shown during the taping of "Two and a Half Men," in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/CBS, Greg Gayne) Headlines from a variety of entertainment, business and news sources are announcing the cancelation of Charlie Sheen's long-running television program; Two and a Half Men. The reason why? A crazy rant delivered by the abusive and often drunk or high actor, on the Alex Jones Radio show. But wait, there's more. The same articles suggest that Sheen is an anti-Semite, or at least guilty of including anti-Semitic slurs in his insane radio rant. What did he say? Nothing, other than referring to the show's creator and Sheen nemesis, Chuck Lorre, by the Hebrew name, Chaim Levine. Hardly evidence of Jew-hatred. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/is_charlie_sheen_an_anti-semit.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/is_charlie_sheen_an_anti-semit.html Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:01:36 -0500 Breaking news from Israel includes a variety of leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis speaking out regarding the political unrest which is spreading and deepening throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Their conclusion? It's God signaling the coming of the Messiah and punishing the region for Israeli "contempt" for traditional Judaism as these rabbis define it. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/middle_east_troubles_herald_me.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/middle_east_troubles_herald_me.html Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:26:36 -0500 Photo by Katherine Frey/ The Washington Post Amidst the growing excitement these days about democracy breaking out all over the world, one might be tempted to call for greater respect for "the will of the people" right here at home. New polling by Rasmussen indicates that 65% of Americans favor prayer in our nation's public schools. So why not give the people what they want? http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/prayer_without_religion_for_pu.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/prayer_without_religion_for_pu.html Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:26:23 -0500 Orange County, CA District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, is pursuing criminal charges against the so-called "Irvine 11," the 11 students who planned and executed a major disruption of last year's speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the UC Irvine Campus. And now some 100 members of the University faculty are publicly calling on Rackauckas to withdraw those charges, something he has no intention of doing. Most people are debating which side is right. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/how_to_handle_the_irvine_11_li.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/02/how_to_handle_the_irvine_11_li.html Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:58:54 -0500 People in the streets, Mubarak on the edge of collapse, Egypt's magnificent National Museum vandalized, looting rampant and no clear path to a better future. That's Egypt today. And while it's easy to wax eloquent about the "democracy movement" coalescing in Egypt, it's not clear that what that movement will bring in its wake, should it be successful in ridding the nation of Hosni Mubarak, will necessarily be better than what Egypt has had for the past 30 years. And as one who ran afoul of Egypt's security apparatus, that's not a claim I make lightly. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/crisis_in_egypt_a_spiritual_pe.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/crisis_in_egypt_a_spiritual_pe.html Religion & Politics Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:40:08 -0500 Yellow Stars of David are displayed in an exhibit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. Thursday will mark the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is designated by the United Nations General Assembly to commemorate the victims of Holocaust. On Jan. 27, 1945 the largest Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland was liberated by Soviet Red Army. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner) January 27th marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day, established by the United Nations in 2005 to remember past crimes with an eye toward preventing them in the future. The date chosen, January 27th, coincides with the date in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most deadly of the Nazi death camps. Raising questions about a goal as laudable as preventing future genocides is always difficult. Raising questions about how we remember the Holocaust is about as safe http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/united_nations_international_h.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/united_nations_international_h.html Wed, 26 Jan 2011 23:05:24 -0500 Who do you consider to be a member of your spiritual family? Who are your brothers and sisters? What is your relationship to those who are not? Events last week in Alabama evoke all these questions - questions which need to be asked in our ever-shrinking world, one in which we seek greater closeness with some and greater distance from others. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/governor_bentleys_brothers_and.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/governor_bentleys_brothers_and.html Religion & Politics Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:00:58 -0500 In a world of increasingly ugly conversation, let alone action, fueled by faith, Paul Raushenbush, religion editor at the Huffington Post, published a fascinating piece on the difficulty of intra-religious dialogue. Yes, intra-religious, not inter-religious. As Raushenbush acknowledges, the conversations we have with those within our respective spiritual communities are often far more difficult than those we have with members of other communities. As the article acknowledges, it is precisely because we are more connected to those who share our religious affiliations that we seem to struggle harder when differences arise. To paraphrase Raushenbush, when it comes to religious conversation, our expectations of sameness or difference are at least as determinative as the degree to which we actually agree or disagree with one another. In other words, precisely because we expect to agree with those within our community, we find it especially painful when we discover that we may not http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/how_messianic_hopes_create_bot.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/how_messianic_hopes_create_bot.html Interfaith Issues Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:15:30 -0500 Ask a question and check out Rabbi Hirschfield's 1:30 P.M. live video Q & A. Sarah Palin describes those who have blamed her for Jared Lee Loughner's Tucson shooting spree as guilty of spreading a blood libel. Ms. Palin said that "Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn." http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/palin_plays_the_jew_and_she_ma.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/palin_plays_the_jew_and_she_ma.html Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:10:46 -0500 Congressional staffers observe a moment of silence in honor of the Tucson shooting victims. Six people died and 14 were wounded, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Violence, like the weekend shooting in Arizona, is scary. Random violence, like the death of nine year-old Christina Green who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time this weekend is particularly terrifying. In the face of such terror, we seek reasons and explanations. We want to know who and what is to blame, hoping that if we could figure that out and make it go away, we would be free of such horrors as the mass murder which occurred in a Tucson shopping center just 48 hours ago. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/after_tucson_whos_to_blame_is.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/after_tucson_whos_to_blame_is.html Spirituality Mon, 10 Jan 2011 13:06:48 -0500 Anger at God is nothing new. In the Hebrew Bible, anger goes back at least as far as Abraham, who, according to Genesis 18:23, was angry at God for God's readiness to destroy the innocent people of Sodom along with those who were guilty. One could also argue that it goes back even farther, to the story of Cain found in Genesis 4:5. But however far back the notion of getting angry at God can be traced, it is also the topic of a newly released study by Case Western Reserve University psychologist, Julie Exline. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/getting_angry_at_god.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2011/01/getting_angry_at_god.html Mon, 03 Jan 2011 09:52:22 -0500 Just hours after affixing his signature to the repeal of the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy which barred openly gay men and lesbians from serving in the military, President Obama admitted that he still opposes same-sex marriages. Saying that his "feelings (about the issue) are constantly evolving," the president admitted this apparent contradiction in his convictions, remarking that he struggled with the duality in his positions. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2010/12/dadt_same-sex_marriage_and_oba.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2010/12/dadt_same-sex_marriage_and_oba.html Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:41:55 -0500 Year-end figures show that executions are down 12 percent nationally, from a total of 52 in 2009 to 46 in 2010. This continues a trend dating back to the year 2000 when 85 people were executed under the death penalty laws of the states in which they resided. As Illinois approaches an important vote on its own death penalty statute, there is an opportunity for all of us to consider how to contribute to this national trend. http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2010/12/executions_are_down_a_jewish_r.html?wprss=onfaithbrad_hirschfield http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2010/12/executions_are_down_a_jewish_r.html Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:38:11 -0500