A time of year that helps teach us why Jerusalem is so important By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of July 10, 2009 / 18 Tammuz 5769 Jerusalem. Just the sound of the word should set off … more

Sefer Bamidbar to the Founding Fathers By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of July 3, 2009 / 11 Tammuz 5769 In Hebrew it is called Bamidbar. Translated, that would mean desert, but we know this … more

Reviewed by Alan Jay Gerber Issue of June 26, 2009 / 4 Tammuz 5769 Let me start by saying that this is a very informal, somewhat irreverent book –– zany at times about subjects that are … more

How to make this summer a worthwhile reading experience (part two) By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of June 19, 2009 / 27 Sivan 5769 With Father’s Day on Sunday, I thought that it would be … more

How to make this summer a worthwhile reading experience (part one) By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of June 12, 2009 / 20 Sivan 5769 With the advent of summer, I am once again presenting a list … more

Issue of June 5, 2009 / 13 Sivan 5769 Reviewed by Alan Jay Gerber With the Shavuot holiday past, we now come to the second cycle in the weekly study of the Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the … more

A tribute on the Yahrtzeit of King David By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of May 29, 2009 / 6 Sivan 5769 In the introduction to his classic translation of the Psalms, Rabbi Avraham Davis stated … more

No book so completely unites the dispersed people of Israel. If any single volume can tell us what it means to be a Jew, it is the Siddur which embodies the visions and aspirations, the sorrows and joys of many generations … more

By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of May 15, 2009 / 21 Iyar 5769 Some years ago while teaching a course on the Holocaust in English literature at Brooklyn’s F.D.R. High School, one of my … more

By Alan Jay Gerber Issue of May 8, 2009 / 14 Iyar 5769 “Ish imo v’aviv tira’u …You shall each fear your mother and father.” This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Should you by any … more