Jeffrey Salkin, Religion News Service Journalist Profile

Articles

Trump supporters should revisit 'The Great Gatsby'

1 week ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — “I think that your house was where Tom and Daisy Buchanan lived.”So said the late author Kurt Vonnegut when he attended a benefit for the American Civil Liberties Union at the home of friends in an old mansion in Sands Point, New York, on the north shore of Long Island. Sands Point had a starring role in “The Great Gatsby.” It was East Egg, where Tom and Daisy Buchanan lived. Jay Gatsby lived across the bay in West Egg, which was Kings Point. Vonnegut was pretty sure F.
55 years later, we must remember Kent State to not repeat it

1 week ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — “There’s no place in this world where I’ll belong when I’m gone,” sang the late folk singer Phil Ochs in “When I’m Gone.”I found myself singing it as I walked through the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, and its neighbor, the Bob Dylan Center. Both are worth a trip to Oklahoma. The Guthrie Center houses archives on the life and legacy of Ochs, who had a formative influence on my life. He died far too young and far too tragically.
Israel is about hope

2 weeks ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — Let me tell you the story of a Jew from Ukraine. His name is Naftali Herz Imber, and he was born in 1856. In 1878, he wrote a poem — “Tikvateinu,” “Our Hope”:Our hope is not yet lost,The ancient hope,To return to the land of our ancestors;The city where David encamped. As long as in his heart within,A soul of a Jew still yearns,And onward towards the ends of the east,His eye still looks towards Zion. In 1882, Imber emigrated to Palestine. People fell in love with his poem.
When did October 7 really begin?

2 weeks ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

Trigger warning: This post contains references to sexual violence. To quote the song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — the title song of their album “Deja Vu” — “We have all been here before.” Or, even, Yogi Berra: “It’s deja vu all over again.”Ever since the horrors of October 7, 2023, Jews have been wondering: What did that moment remind us of? Yardena Schwartz has an answer; check out our podcast interview with her. October 7 reminds Jews of what happened in Hebron on August 24, 1929.
80 years later, we still lack pop music remembering the Holocaust

3 weeks ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — “To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric” is the famous quote by Theodor W. Adorno. The question for me today on Yom Hashoah, the 80th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust: Is it still barbaric to make music about it? My two great passions are Jewish history and popular music. Over the decades, the greatest moral struggles of our time have been set to pop music, issues like war, civil rights and the environment among them. What about the Holocaust?
Why Pope Francis mattered for the Jews

3 weeks ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

To quote Shakespeare, writing of the death of the Thane of Cawdor in “Macbeth”: “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it.”So it was with Pope Francis, who died on the day after Easter – a day that celebrates not only the Resurrection, but the ultimate triumph of life over death. For those who saw the film “Conclave,” it is now a matter of life imitating art, as we wonder who will succeed Francis on the throne of St. Peter. This rabbi weeps with his Christian friends.
'The White Lotus' was more religious than you think

4 weeks ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — For me, and for many others, watching the third season of the acclaimed HBO/Max series “The White Lotus” was a religious experience. What drew me to the series — enough for it to have become my ritual obsession? More than the exotic locations, it was the characters — wealthy, pampered, but none of them truly understanding how their financial comfort barely conceals their emotional and psychological discomfort. There was the ubiquitous trademark plot device.
The Passover attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro was an attack on all Jews

1 month ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — This is the question that begins the Passover seder: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”Oh, it was different alright. The matzah crumbs were still on the dining room table, and the wine-stained Haggadot were stacked in the corner when an arsonist attacked the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, endangering the lives of Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family. Luckily, no one was injured, though there was extensive damage to the building.
Who are you calling a wicked child?

1 month ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — Tomorrow evening, Jews all over the world will sit around their tables for the Passover seder. They will hardly be alone. Not only will the generations accompany them, so will four distinct children in the Haggadah: the wise one, the wicked one, the simple one and the one who does not even know enough to ask. Just guess which one is my favorite. You got it: the wicked one (rasha). They are the one that I would want to hang out with.
Like the Haggadah rabbit, Jews are stuck in the net this Passover

1 month ago | religionnews.com | Jeffrey Salkin

(RNS) — How do you start a Seder for this year’s Passover? I am glad you asked. This is the order of the blessings:Yayin: The blessing over the wine. Kiddush: The sanctification of the festival. Neirot: The candle lighting for the festivalHavdalah: The blessing for Havdalah, which makes a distinction between the holiness of Shabbat and the holiness of PassoverZman: The blessing for this particular time of the year — popularly known as the Shehecyanu.