Giving Is What Makes A Nation Great.

In Thinking About Religion And Society In The 21st Century, We Should Broaden The Conversation About Faith From Doctrinal Debates To The Larger Question Of How It Might Inspire Us To Strengthen The Bonds Of Belonging That Redeem Us From Our Solitude, Helping Us To Construct Together A Gracious And Generous Social Order.

Anti-semitism Is Best Understood As A Virus. It Has No Logic. Jews Were Hated Because They Were Rich And Because They Were Poor; Because They Were Capitalists And Because They Were Communists; Because They Held Tenaciously To An Ancient Faith And Because They Were Rootless Cosmopolitans, Believing Nothing. Hate Needs No Logic. It Is A Sickness Of The Soul.

The Jewish Festival Of Freedom Is The Oldest Continuously Observed Religious Ritual In The World. Across The Centuries, Passover Has Never Lost Its Power To Inspire The Imagination Of Successive Generations Of Jews With Its Annually Re-enacted Drama Of Slavery And Liberation.

When Everything That Matters Can Be Bought And Sold, When Commitments Can Be Broken Because They Are No Longer To Our Advantage, When Shopping Becomes Salvation And Advertising Slogans Become Our Litany, When Our Worth Is Measured By How Much We Earn And Spend, Then The Market Is Destroying The Very Virtues On Which In The Long Run It Depends.

Jews Read The Books Of Moses Not Just As History But As Divine Command. The Question To Which They Are An Answer Is Not, "what Happened?" But Rather, "how Then Shall I Live?" And It's Only With The Exodus That The Life Of The Commands Really Begins.