holidays

Hanukkah isn’t for everyone. This has been true since its beginnings, as it celebrates victory in internecine military conflict and a triumph over assimilation. Even so, the majority of the 15 million…

Is American Hasidism in crisis? After successfully rebuilding its institutions after the war, Hasidism in America has flourished. And yet, its response to COVID and its newfound reactionary political…

The unsigned, midnight opinion dropped like a bombshell on Thanksgiving. Five ultraconservative members of the Supreme Court, including Amy Coney Barrett, issued an emergency opinion in Roman Catholic…

Readers of RD don’t need to be told that the image of “The First Thanksgiving” that Americans carry around in their heads is mainly the product of 19th century romanticism: Longfellow with a dash of…

Note: For readers directed here by the newsletter, we apologize for the incorrect link. Read How U.S. Conservatives Conjured the Jesus of Their Dreams here. — eds With less than a month before the…

“he North has as much to apprehend from abolition as the South…and it is time for conservatives every where to unite in efforts to suppress and extinguish it.” — George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All! or…

Warning: Spoilers ahead I dare say that nobody decides to watch the new Seth Rogen film An American Pickle as inspiration for the High Holidays. Like most people, my wife and I viewed it as a much…

On one of the most sacred days of observance in African American history, Juneteenth, the United Methodist Church has unveiled its Dismantling Racism Initiative. The goal of the plan is “to galvanize…

There’s never been a time in American history when this nation hasn’t been anti-black. This sober reality means that from the moment the nation declared its independence till now it has been rooted in…

In the wake of COVID-19 and its continuing casualties, we’re inundated with references to human sacrifices. Not since WWII have notions of human sacrifice been so prevalent in the public consciousness…