Amcha (The “New American Haggadah” and Liberal Folk Judaism)

Reblogged from jewish philosophy place:

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From what I hear, the New American Haggadah edited by Jonathan Safran Foer and Nathan Englander is selling like hotcakes. Who knows? It might very well knock the Maxwell Haggadah off its perch to become the new American Haggadah of the twenty-first century. And why not? It’s a much more visually sophisticated, neo-traditional text. I think it might end up saying a lot about the liberal milieu of American Judaism and American Jews, and its seriousness.

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Excellent essay on the state of American Judaism, a healthy counterbalance to the hypochondriacal anxiety about the decline of Jewish identity.

Oedipal Jews: Making Sense of Intermarriage through the Haze of Illusions and Fear

1. Why Does Intermarriage Matter?

Some explosive antagonisms in the Jewish community simmer below the threshold of expression or even conscious awareness.  On occasion, these conflicts erupt in a public forum, revealing pain and loss, complex struggles and confused affinities.  The debate rages for some time, fueling clashing perspectives, voices of wisdom and yelps of hatred.  Then passions subside, and we return to the choreographed normalcy of daily life, hoping to forget our latest glimpse of the heart of darkness.  But, over the centuries, we’ve learned the value of remembering.

Remembering Joseph Campbell

No author has taught me more about mythology than Joseph Campbell, the author of The Masks of God, The Hero with a Thousand Faces and many other books that collectively represent a big bang of sorts in the world’s intellectual history. Here, I wanted to highlight one of the important ideas in Campell’s work, focusing on the parallels between dreams and myths.