Death to Fanatistan!

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

How I returned

By Rob Eshman

But as much as she loves the pulpit, Naomi, like me, finds the modern synagogue problematic. She believes that Judaism offers people a sense of purpose, a mission to heal society and a fulfilling spiritual path, but that too often standard synagogue services don't attract or inspire Jews, much less compel them to commit to a community.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Joon

By Rob Eshman

Since 1978, Iranian Jews have injected into a stable, maybe even staid Jewish community talent, industry, a profound connection to their Jewish roots and a desire to have a positive political and social impact on the city. They have energized a Jewish community that could always use invigorating.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

First Impressions

By Rob Eshman

Then I asked Çakirözer, from Turkey, what he liked best about America. He said it was something he had never seen in his country, and never seen in all the countries to which he'd traveled. Yet it was something that said a lot about the core values of a rich and prosperous nation.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The Great Awakening

By Rob Eshman

The Rev. Rick Warren of Saddleback Church will hold back-to-back public conversations this Saturday, Aug. 16, with the two presumptive presidential
candidates, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain. The conversations, on the topic of "Compassion and Leadership," will be broadcast at 8 p.m. on CNN

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Eating Bambi (recipe included)

By Rob Eshman

Most of the anti-Semitic mail I get these days doesn't concern Israel, Hollywood or even the threat of a nuclear war in the Middle East -- it's about meat.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Sell it, Sam

By Rob Eshman

First they came for the Outdoor section, and I said nothing. Then they combined and demoted the Opinion and Book Review sections, and I said nothing.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Defending Identity

By Rob Eshman

Natan Sharansky's previous book, "The Case for Democracy," changed the world. It inspired a generation of U.S. policymakers and influenced President George
W. Bush in his decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein. So when Sharansky's second book, "Defending Identity," came out this month, I thought I'd better read it, quick

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Take back L.A.

By Rob Eshman

I love Los Angeles, but let's face facts: We're fast becoming a second-rate city. Public safety is broken. Jews in Los Angeles were rightly outraged in June when Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza killed one Israeli in Sderot. But in one weekend of that same month, 14 Angelenos were murdered in gang-related shootings.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Boys to men

By Rob Eshman

It turns out, see, that I am endangered: I am a non-Orthodox Jewish man engaged in Jewish life.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Kaddish for Carlin

By Rob Eshman

Everybody keeps asking me whether George Carlin was Jewish. "I heard he was related to the Karlin-Stoliner rebbe," a colleague said.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Hi-Lo

By Rob Eshman

What you get instead is a God's eye view of the Holy Land: close enough to see day-to-day life, far enough not to get involved -- just like God.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

In Sderot

By Rob Eshman

Signs of Israel's military readiness are everywhere near Gaza -- the military base at Nahal Oz, with its rows of dust-caked tanks and rooms of advanced surveillance equipment, the high-tech spy blimps floating like hard white clouds above the border

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Free at last!

By Rob Eshman

Last Sunday night in an amphitheatre outside Jerusalem, I had a flash of insight into how to get disaffected Jews excited and involved in Jewish life: Make it free!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Wednesday with Ben

By Rob Eshman

Theodicy and ALS

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Polished Diamonds

By Rob Eshman

One of the benefits of the creation of the State of Israel is the creativity and industry of the Israeli people ... living in Los Angeles.


Yes, the Zionist ideal is that all Jews would move to Israel, and those born there would grow up to be proud citizens of a noble land, etc., etc.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Stations of the Six-Pointed Star

By Rob Eshman

The two greatest Jewish inventions of the 20th century are, to my mind at least, Hollywood and Israel.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Genocide 2.0

By Rob Eshman

In Washington and abroad, longstanding Jewish organizations added their voices of protest against the genocide in Darfur.

But guess what: It's not enough.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Hate in Translation

By Rob Eshman

Book review of Matthais Kuntze's "Jihad and Jew Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11" (Telos Press, 2007).

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Dear Senator Obama

By Rob Eshman

Friday, March 7, 2008

Now or later

By Rob Eshman

If Israel relaunches its invasion of Gaza, no one should blame it. A country must do everything it can to protect its citizens from constant attack. I know it's been said, but it bears repeating: No other country in the world would countenance even a single missile crossing its borders and landing on its citizens. Much less 7,000 missiles.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Nazi in the hot tub

By Rob Eshman

It turns out there is something eternal and topical about the ancient wedding ritual of breaking the glass at the wedding, of the Jewish reality being forever black and white, of the Nazi in the hot tub.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

The message

By Rob Eshman

Thank you. That's the profound message of this column: Thank you. The instigators, organizers and volunteers who brought Limmud to Los Angeles last weekend deserve our gratitude for challenging one of the long-held orthodoxies of the L.A. Jewish community: There is no Jewish community.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

We just disagree

By Rob Eshman

As I wrote here three weeks ago, I am a supporter of CAMERA and its mission. They do good work. But I believe they were taking the wrong tact in trying to tell a local church with a long history of support for Israel and Jewish causes whom it should and shouldn't listen to. CAMERA and I disagree on only one thing: tactics.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Get it done

By Rob Eshman

About 15 years ago some stick-like things began appearing on the hard, ugly stretch of Venice Boulevard from where it crosses Lincoln and continues to the beach.

The sticks were trees, but pitifully thin, with trunks a woman could wrap her fingers around and no more than a handful of leaves. Cynical locals like myself were certain the trees would end up stolen, vandalized or turned into a homeless person's campfire.