2009-11-23T17:32:17Z Rabbi Brad Hirschfield looks at the uses and abuses of religion in pop culture tag:newsweek.washingtonpost.com,2009:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield//643 Copyright (c) 2009, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive 2009-11-23T17:32:17Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-23:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/11/why_jews_should_celebrate_than.html

This should be obvious. What's not to like about Thanksgiving? But for many Orthodox Jews it's not so obvious - a fact which speaks volumes to the thinking of many in that community. But what really makes this question interesting is that how one answers, regardless of one's religious affiliation, is the way in which the answer reveals how one thinks about Jews living in a largely non-Jewish culture. And ultimately, the same can be...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-11-16T21:31:27Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-16:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/11/an_ugly_use_of_psalm_109_on_go.html

What's going on at Google is often a good way to get a handle on what's going on in America. Trends in search terms are signals of trends in the culture, and today brought some very bad news. Any time the citizens of a state, particularly a democracy, invoke their faith to pray for the demise of those they oppose politically, we should be concerned. When the call for such prayers becomes one of the...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-11-12T19:04:30Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-12:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/11/maureen_dowds_metaphors_of_hat.html

I have no reason to believe that New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd hates Jews, but after reading her November 11 column, many people are asking, and not without some justification. In writing about Goldman Sachs, the famously/infamously successful investment bank, Dowd dredged up ancient and dangerous motifs that have inspired hatred of Jews for 2000 years....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-11-10T14:54:31Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-10:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/11/john_muhammad_execution_at_9_t.html

John Allen Muhammad, known as the D.C. sniper, will be executed tonight in Virginia. Muhammad, along with his protégé Lee Boyd Malvo, murdered 10 and terrorized millions for weeks, until he was captured in the fall of 2004. And when he dies tonight, there will likely be those outside the prison cheering the fact that "he's getting what he deserves" and an equal number of people protesting his "murder" by the state. Are either of...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-11-10T14:00:36Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-11-06:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/11/fort_hood_massacre_no_indictme.html

With 13 dead, 30 wounded and a Muslim officer who shouted 'Allahu Akbar' as he opened fire on them, we must do three things: first, most importantly, we must care for the injured, support their families, and comfort the mourners. Second, we must fight all efforts to use this tragedy to cast aspersions upon an entire tradition and all of its followers. And third, we, and more importantly those followers, must ask tough questions about...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-10-28T12:38:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-27:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/10/can_you_be_good_without_god.html

Starting this week, millions of New Yorkers will be told, 'yes' as adds begin appearing in New York City subways which tell them so. Following past campaigns in Dallas, Chicago and other locations around the nation this advertising campaign for Greg Epstein's book of the same name, is clearly meant to provoke, not educate. And that is truly a shame for everybody but Mr.Epstein and his publisher. Given the fact that we are the most...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-10-22T15:22:38Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-22:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/10/stupidity_not_hate_in_the_sout.html

Two South Carolina Republican officials have apologized for defending U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint by likening him to Jews who "take care of the pennies." Edwin Merwin and James Ulmer, Chairman of the GOP in Bamberg County and Orangeburg County respectively, wrote in to the Orangeburg Times to explain why Senator DeMint deserved praise for not bringing home as much pork as some of his detractors would like. And you have to love the fact that...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-10-19T13:37:22Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-09:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/10/obamas_nobel_peace_prize_misun.html

When I first read that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, it was in a 5 a.m. email from a friend, not a fan of the President's, and I assumed my friend was joking. Reading this morning's Washington Post, I realized three things: he was not, the judges were misguided and/or misunderstood at best, and that their decision may actually make a mockery of an otherwise noble prize....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-10-02T12:15:54Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-10-01:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/10/in_god_we_trust_now_engraved_a.html

After much politicking by the Congressional Prayer Caucus, the words "In God We Trust" are now engraved in big gold letters at the Capitol Visitor Center. Good or bad, it got me thinking about what it is we supposedly trust God for. As far as I can tell, historically the term refers to our trust in God's protection of our nation. But what does it mean for a nation to be protected by God?...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-09-24T12:56:05Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-23:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/09/westboro_baptist_church_and_ot.html

Despite the attitude of many Jewish leaders, I am not certain that ignoring this famously hateful church group at Westboro Baptist Church is the best way to go. Members of Topeka, Kansas, congregation will be in New York for a variety of activities, including planned protests at numerous Jewish institutions. Among the stops on their tour d'fear and hate is Temple Beth El on Long Island, where a memorial service will be held Thursday for...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-09-14T16:37:47Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-14:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/09/protecting_religious_freedom_f.html

"Two Christian girls. Two sets of distraught parents. And two state courts smack in the middle of it." That's how William McGurn begins his Wall Street Journal coverage of two cases that could not be more dissimilar. And if we cannot make the proper distinction between the two, we are all in trouble. It may be due to aggressively activist courts prepared to strip parents of their rights to shape their kids' religious upbringing, or...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-09-11T14:57:45Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-11:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/09/september_11_2009.html

We have discovered the limits of our collective national memory. It's about eight years. There was almost nothing about 9/11 in the news until this morning, and even today's headlines in the nation's leading papers reflect the sense that we have moved on, that if anything, we are remembering an event that not only occurred in the past, but is no longer a real part of our present....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-09-02T16:31:01Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-09-02:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/09/ww_ii_remembered_as_yom_kippur.html

Seventy years ago this week, German gun boats began both their shelling of the Polish military base at Westerplatte and the Second World War began. Why we still have ceremonies marking this event and what they tell us about contemporary politics is worthy of a careful look, both for the promise and the peril they portend....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-08-26T18:05:52Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-08-26:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/08/did_god_cause_bernie_madoffs_c.html

Despite denials by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, stories continue to circulate that Bernie Madoff has cancer. Sadly, but not surprisingly, more than a few people have suggested that he is getting what "he deserves" and that this is his "punishment from God". Such comments, and the theologies which support them, while viscerally satisfying for many, actually make God very small. They imagine a God whose frame of reference is no larger than our own,...Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield 2009-08-26T18:05:11Z tag:washingtonpost.com,2009-08-26:/onfaith/brad_hirschfield/2009/08/the_biblical_and_rabbinic_root.html

Hailed by many as perhaps the greatest senator of the 20th century, Ted Kennedy died today following a 15-month-long battle with brain cancer. I don't know if he really was the greatest senator, but he was a model of how to combine passionately held views and genuine civility toward even those with whom he passionately disagreed. In a world of increasingly mean-spirited politics and polarizing politicians who sit on both sides of the aisle, Mr....Please click on the title to continue reading this entry.

Brad Hirschfield