An Israel Update

By Rabbi Michael Holzman

Over my years at Rodeph Shalom I hope that I have been able to communicate my somewhat complicated relationship with Zionism and Israel.  While I certainly call myself a Zionist and believe firmly that there needs to be a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, I am also pained and frustrated with the recent direction of the state.  That pain comes from what I see as the corrupting influence of Israel’s amazing military and economic power.  Setting this power against past and current threats to Israel’s very existence is a recipe for confusion, ethical-lapse and the abuse of the other.  And now throw in the intransigent position of the greater Arab world and the particulars of Palestinian politics and that recipe becomes a potent cocktail for disaster. Continue reading

Supplementary Security Income & Today’s Economy

By Rabbi Michael Holzman

Every year when our elected officials have to pay the bills they make choices.  In a year when tax revenues are way down, they must wrestle with their decisions.  In Pennsylvania, this year, the choices were brutal, and the budget process drawn out.  What finally emerged was grim:  a substantial cut in the state contribution towards Supplemental Security Income. Monica Yant-Kinney reported this on January 24, 2010.  So, in case you are keeping score, in the same year that President Obama is cutting 47% of the federal contribution towards unemployment and 25% towards child support, the state of Pennsylvania is cutting their share by 20-25% as well.  All of this in a down economy, which means these funds are more necessary than ever before.Continue reading

(Another Reason) Why I love what I do.

Boy is it cold out there.  For me, a Miami boy, this is skin-peeling cold.  I know because I just walked four blocks up Broad Street in this wind.  I was walking to visit my friend Josh at the Red Shield Shelter.  Josh is the Business Manager at the shelter, a residence for homeless families, and he is responsible for tracking the residents’ savings.  Each resident is working towards finding an apartment or home of their own, and as they search, they are required to save part of their income (whether that income is from actual labor, or from disability, veterans or other sorts of social welfare benefits).  Residents therefore have a savings goal.  This goal is one of the keys to their future independence.

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Returning to the “Empty Nest” after College Drop-off

Rabbi Michael G. Holzman

As I drove into the synagogue today, following my usual route down Broad Street, I entered the annual traffic jam called Temple University Drop Off.   What a mess.  But it reminded me of the excitement, anxiety, joy and sadness this day evokes in many families.  It also reminded me of a Jewish text.

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Fasting for Darfur

On my door I have a “Stop the Genocide” sticker. It’s been there for over three years now, and the war in Darfur drags on. So why am I fasting on what seems like a random day in August 2009 for this cause? Why not let it simmer on the back burner where it has been since a group of us traveled to DC for the Save Darfur rally?

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Zionism vs. Anti Zionism

What are Zionism and Anti-Zionism and why a standard of universal ethics is an inherently Anti Zionist position. I plea for some lefty intellectual Anti Zionist out there to answer the question, “What happens to the Jews the day after one-man, one-vote includes 6 million Palestinians and only 5.3 million Jews?”

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