Holocaust Memorial Day Tuesday will be Holocaust Memorial Day, and I am uneasy for a number of reasons. First, I do not like the word Holocaust. Second, I am uncomfortable with this framing of Jewish memory. Third, I am deeply sceptical. Let me explain. The choice of the word “Holocaust” over the Hebrew Shoah is not neutral. The Greek root of the term, holokauston, means a “burnt offering” — a sacrifice consumed on an altar. That religious undertone introduces a dangerous nar

"Why We Looked Away" I do not believe that the task of a Rabbi is to preserve the Torah. I do not think that our primary responsibility is to guard it or protect it from contamination. The Torah does not need to be saved from history, from politics, from moral conflict, or from the messiness of human life. If anything, the Torah exists precisely to be brought into that mess. There is the mitzvah of returning a lost object (Deut. 22:1). But this is not a commandment limited to