An indelible film, ‘Shoah’ also reflects an extraordinary artist

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on April 11, 2012

Surely the most unpromising premise for a film ever conceived is this: Nine and one half hours of people speaking in languages you do not understand about mass murder. Yet �Shoah� offers an experience unlike any other film, and its creator has written a memoir introducing us to the extraordinary man responsible for its existence.

Wolpe vs. Beinart

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on February 13, 2012

Announcing his new book in a hucksterish email to J street members, Peter Beinart details the truths vouchsafed to him and his fellow enlightened acolytes. A brief sampler:

Christopher Hitchens, David Wolpe, Sam Harris, Brad Artson on the Afterlife [VIDEO]

Published on February 25, 2011

Is there an afterlife?

Friday the Rabbi Eats Tofu [RECIPE & SLIDESHOW]

By Rob Eshman
Published on March 5, 2010

LA Unity Mission

By Rob Eshman
Published on October 28, 2009

Disraeli: The curious case of England�s Jewish prime minister

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on December 31, 2008

Disraeli: The curious case of England’s Jewish prime minister

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on December 25, 2008

Benjamin Disraeli was born Jewish, baptized as a boy but (mostly) considered himself to be Jewish. He famously proclaimed to Queen Victoria -- who began by hating him and ended adoring him -- that he was the "blank page" separating the Old and New Testaments.

Facing God, and the challenge of individual conscience

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on November 26, 2008

A Moderate Proposal

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 20, 2008

The start of the event was running late -- did I mention it was a Jewish event? -- and midway through our green room conversation, Hitchens pulled out a small bottle of Johnnie Walker Black. He emptied it into a 16-ounce clear-plastic cup and drizzled in some Crystal Geyser spring water. And he began sipping.

Yom Kippur 5769: The Art of Forgiveness

By Jane Ulman
Published on October 1, 2008

In Jewish tradition, the act of seeking forgiveness from someone we have harmed is clear and specific.

Rabbi Wolpe fights cancer battle; Terror victim becomes advocate for others

Published on September 21, 2006

Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple informed his congregation by letter this week that he was recently diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma; Anna Krakovich survived a suicide bomb attack to become a response team leader for SELAH; Salman Rushdie speaks out as pro-Israel Muslim; Israeli and American staff and campers at the Union for Reform Judaism's Camp Newman collaborated on recording a song titled "Kol Yisrael (We Are All Connected)."

The Spin on Spinoza—Rebel or Traitor?

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on May 25, 2006

"Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity": Traditional Judaism feared and distrusted this child of the enlightenment. Although prominent Jewish thinkers, from Moses Mendelssohn to Solomon Maimon to modern Zionists, have claimed him as their own, every deliberation on Spinoza wonders -- is he a Jewish thinker?

Community Briefs

By David Finnigan
Published on December 22, 2005

Rabbi David Wolpe has removed himself from consideration for the job of leading the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York. Wolpe, of Sinai Temple in Westwood, had been widely considered a front-runner for chancellor at JTS, the central institution in Conservative Judaism.

Wolpe Out of the Running

By Amy Klein
Published on December 8, 2005

Rabbi David Wolpe has removed himself from consideration for the job of leading the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York. Wolpe, of Sinai Temple in Westwood, had been widely considered a frontrunner for chancellor at JTS, the central institution in Conservative Judaism.

Letters to the Editor

Published on February 17, 2005

Letters to the Editor.

Learning From the Debate

By Julie G Fax
Published on May 10, 2001

Rabbi David Wolpe keeps the hundreds of "Exodus letters" he's received in two piles on his desk: for and against. And given the still-swirling controversy over his speech on Pesach, even he is surprised that the grateful and congratulatory letters outnumber the negative ones 20 to 1.

Jewish Big Time

By Marlene Adler Marks
Published on May 3, 2001

A month after Passover, the winds have not yet died down from the "Wolpe Hurricane."

Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Westwood caused a stir when he asserted, in earshot of a Los Angeles Times reporter, that the Exodus story can still inspire us even if, as some archaeologists assert, the story of the liberation from Egypt is not true. Rabbi Wolpe's remarks ended up on the Times' front page during Passover and became grist for sermons and Torah study all over town.

A Message From David Wolpe

By David Wolpe
Published on April 19, 2001

It's a well-known fact that millions of Jews have doubts about the literal veracity of Bible stories. On April 8, 9 and 15, I gave a series of sermons that emphasized the following point: faith is independent of doubt. I wanted the millions of doubting Jews to know that they can still be faithful Jews and live a life of meaning and mitzvahs.

The Lessons of Yom Kippur

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on October 5, 2000

Today you die. No one pronounces that horrible sentence on Yom Kippur, but it is true. Yom Kippur reenacts death. We wear white, like the shrouds we will one day be buried in. We do not eat, wash, procreate; we are as corpses. We recite the "Unetaneh Tokef," filled with graphic, even gruesome images about our death.

Learning From Loss

By Diane Arieff
Published on September 23, 1999

When painful loss occurs in our lives, we want to make some sense of it: Why did she get so sick? Why did I lose my livelihood? Why can't we conceive a child? Why did he die? In his new book, "Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times" (Riverhead Books, $23.95), David Wolpe, author and rabbi of Sinai Temple in Westwood, begins by asserting that during periods of great pain, we tend to ask the wrong questions. Whether consciously or not, we search in vain for an answer to the plaintive "why" in order to gain some measure of control over what has made us so powerless.