Osnat Barzani: Her Dove, Her Story and Her People

Many historical figures were reputed to be great beauties, from Helen of Troy and Cleopatra to Marie Antoinette. Many historical figures were reputed to be great scholars, from Plato and Aristotle to Adam Smith. We know more of the latter because knowledge and wisdom are more easily preserved than appearance. She should be better known […]

Kill the Indian/Jew, Save the Child

There is a sad children’s story about a Czarist Russian soldier who threatened an elderly, terrified Jewish man. The brutal soldier rolled up his sleeve to administer a beating, revealing an ugly scar on his forearm. The old man looked at the scar and froze. “Yossele?” he said to the soldier. “Huh? Who’s Yossele?” Tears […]

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year (we hope) It’s the five thousand, seven hundred and eighty second birthday of that fourteen-billion-year-old ball of rock and water we call home (see Happy Quantum New Year for the math). The day is relevant to all humans, not just the Jews. After a year like 5781, everyone should take it seriously. […]

COVID: The Questions Stand

Though answers may change, many questions stand. Dr. Anthony Fauci made an important statement about the fluid responses to the Wuhan virus. “So when you hear someone say something at one point and then two or three months later, if you stick with what you said at the original time when you had one-fifth of […]

Beauty and Wisdom- The Character

There’s an ancient story about a man who was walking down the road when he encountered a great sage, whom he greeted with great respect. The rabbi replied “You worthless, ugly person. Are all the people of your city as ugly as you?” The man rebuked him, saying “I don’t know, but you should say […]

Sexy Cuties: Art or Abomination?

This is the first in a series of posts introducing characters from the novel Quantum Cannibals Alex is a secondary character in Quantum Cannibals. He’s a renowned poet whose wife tells a friend “Alex likes young men and boys.” The character was inspired by the pederasty of beat poet and cultural icon Allen Ginsberg. He […]

Two Plus Two Equals Five: the Miracle of Limited Understanding

1921-22, among the Iglulik Eskimo (Inuit): “I once went out to Aua’s hunting quarters on the ice outside Lyon Inlet… For several evenings we had discussed rules of life without getting beyond a long and circumstantial statement of all that was permitted and all that was forbidden. Everyone knew precisely what had to be done […]

new book: Zionism- An Indigenous Struggle

I am pleased to announce that a new book ZIONISM- AN INDIGENOUS STRUGGLE, co-edited by Machla Abramovitz and me will soon be published by the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR) and RVP Press. This one is non-fiction, but reflects the same interest in aboriginal cultures, exile, and return that lie at the heart of […]

“Yuck, Leonard Cohen Kissed Me”

She told me Leonard Cohen gave her an unwanted kiss. I didn’t know what to do. Should I suggest she go to the officials? Take her to a therapist? Well, Leonard was an official, a counselor, so there was no point going that route. Using all the wisdom my seven-year-old mind could summon up, I […]

Mocking the destruction of the Temple

The Jerusalem Talmud teaches “The generation in which the Beit Hamikdash, the Temple, is not rebuilt is to be regarded as though the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed in that generation.” Can we establish a corollary that those not working to rebuild it are furthering, or at least mocking the destruction? Those who fast and sit […]

We, the Accused

Holding the Victim to Blame Whenever there is a terror attack against Israel, the world media finds some way to make Israel the accused, whether for provocation or retaliation, for people dying or failing to die, for killing the terrorists, or failing to kill them. This is not a new phenomenon. Two thousand years ago, […]

You Have to Ask the Right Question

Q: Was it morally wrong for the United States and Canada to imprison their citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II, and confiscate their property? A: It was a horrible illegal act, discriminating against people solely because they looked different. Italians and Germans, whose ancestral homelands were also the enemy, were not locked up. […]

Indigenous Jews, Indigenous People

I’ve spent a lot of time living and working with Indigenous people. I spent a winter in the boreal forest with Indians, five hundred kilometers from the nearest road or telephone. My wife and I spent a winter in an Eskimo village. I’ve eaten raw walrus, raw beluga whale (while it was still alive), beaver, […]

Paris: A Fool’s Paradise Is a Wise Man’s Hell

A Fool’s Paradise Is a Wise Man’s Hell ? Thomas Fuller The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen incredible progress in science, technology, art, philosophy, morality, and more. Not only that, but we can access all that knowledge and wisdom from a device we carry around in our pockets. We have even transcended modernity according […]

Rabbi Elimelech ’s Prayer of Fire

Monday, October 5, 2015 (Shemini Atzeret, 5776) is the twelfth anniversary of the death of my father, the renowned author and lecturer, Yehuda Elberg. His novels and short stories were published in Yiddish, Hebrew, English, French, German and Spanish. He was Scholar In Residence at Oxford University, and took part in summer programs in the […]