Purim Humor and the Lessons of the Megillah
Why Too Kosher, or, Y2K?
Dan Messinger
I recently attended a kashrut conference, “Why it’s possible to be too kosher,” or, for short, “Why2K.” The conference, held in a posh hotel outside of Los Angeles, focused on a number of different aspects of keeping kosher in a non-kosher world. Representatives from the major movements attended: strictly kosher, kosher in the home [...]
Creating Community
Joan Leegant
Ladies & Gentlemen: Once again, as in random Purims past, we beg your indulgence as we interrupt the evening festivities. We are the consulting firm of Sturm & Drung and have once again been commissioned by this worship group to conduct vital institutional research. We will be reading to you this evening from a [...]
Sudan Introduction
From the merriment and absurdity of Purim, we travel halfway around the world to focus our consciousness and conscience on Africa’s largest country, Sudan. In this exclusive to Sh’ma, we offer an exchange between Nobel Laureate (and Sh’ma contributing editor) Elie Wiesel and President Bill Clinton. We hear, reverberating in the genocide of millions of [...]
Sudan’s Genocide and U.S. Indifference
Nina Shea
Our policy makers anguish over searing new reports about how the United Nations and the Clinton Administration failed the 800,000 victims of the1994 genocide in Rwanda, and how the international community should have acted to save thousands of Bosnian Muslims massacred in the UN-declared “safe haven” in 1995. Even as they offer their apologies, [...]
