Rabbi Landsberg's Blog

Not a Rosh HaShana greeting...

Some stories invoke a revulsion that challenge me in my commitment to all Jews... I want to give you a warning: the story and most certainly the video of Jewish neo-Nazis in Israel is upsetting. If you can, do watch the video. Here is the link to the BBC's coverage and video clip (other coverage from Haaretz is here and Ynet here)

On another macabre note, the New York Times relieved me of my ignorance of Stalag literature. This is the literary phenomenon of Holocaust pornography. There is indeed much to say, but I will let you draw your own conclusions. Read it here.

Where Were You on Shabbat?

While in Jerusalem this July--while the children were in Toronto with Adam--I had the opportunity to read a book.  Since Efi, Noa and Elie were born, I have read innumerable articles, magazines, periodicals and "board books" (which usually involve Elmo, it seems), but books luxuriated over end to end are not so common for me.  I immersed myself in the world of German Jewry prior to 1933 in the lovingly empathetic work by Amos Elon, The Pity of It All.  Elon describes this history without damning German Jews for not knowing the course that history would take; he presents them on their own terms, with their own strengths, blindnesses and in all their diversity.  I do highly recommend it.

I thought of this as I read a piece in the German newspaper, Spiegel Online International, about the re-opening of Germany's biggest synagogue this past Shabbat.  It is an interesting but inevitably disconcerting portrayal of the state of Jewish life in Germany and the relationship between the Jewish community and a very difficult past.  Read it here.