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Issue 6.6: Holocaust and Catastrophe

On April 7, 1959, the Knesset of the State of Israel passed a law establishing the twenty-seventh of Nissan as the day on which to memorialize the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The concept of a memorial day is not new to the Jews. Our calendar is filled with days dedicated to remembering our past. Thus, dedicating this day “to remembrance of the catastrophe of the Jewish people caused by the Nazis and their aides”is meaningful, if not particularly unexpected.  Read more →

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Latest Articles

In Defense of the “Shocking” and “Anti-Traditional”: A Response to Elliot Resnick

By Nathan Hyman | Comment ()
In the last issue of Kol Hamevaser,[i] Elliot Resnick claimed that the pedagogical approach of Yeshiva College’s Bible department is seriously harmful to students. He accuses the department of destroying students’ core beliefs and leaving them confused. On this basis, he argues that the ... Read more →

Yeshiva College, Please Tolerate Benei Torah

By Judah Diament | Comment ()
I thank Elliot Resnick for bringing to the fore the issue of academic Bible at YU. While it has been a gnawing issue for many students for decades, he is to be complimented for taking the time to raise it in a public forum. Mr. Resnick argued for shutting down the Bible department, or, ... Read more →

The Presence of Narrative and the Poland Trip

By Gavriel Brown | Comment ()
Deep within the quiet back rows of the Okopowa Street Cemetery in Warsaw stands a dignified monument to members of the Bund, a Jewish secular socialist movement, who died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.[i] The relief inside the stone shows a robust amateur soldier, a rifle in one hand, a ... Read more →

The Wartime Activities of R. Barukh Rabinowicz

By Akiva Weisinger | Comment ()
Recently, I came across a startling paragraph in Yeshayahu Jelinek’s The Carpathian Diaspora: The Jews of Subcarpathian Rus’ and Mukachevo, a book chiefly dealing with the history of the Holocaust in the Carpathian Mountains.[i] In the midst of a paragraph describing his general ... Read more →

A Late Twentieth-Century Pogrom, Made in the USA: What We Talk About When We Talk About the Crown Heights Riot

By Chesky Kopel | Comment ()
The Events On the evening of August 19, 1991, the Lubavitcher Rebbe departed Crown Heights on his weekly visit to the graves of his wife and his father-in-law, the Frierdiker (Previous) Rebbe, in the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens. The Rebbe’s motorcade included, at this point in his life, ... Read more →

An Interview with Simon Goldberg

By Staff | Comment ()
Note to Readers: Simon Goldberg graduated from YC in 2012 with a major in History. He is the founder of the Student Holocaust Education Movement (SHEM) at YU, and, for the past four years, has served as the Executive Director at Triangles of Truth, a non-profit organization that aims to honor ... Read more →

Eliezer Berkovits’ Post-Holocaust Theology

By Yoni Zisook | Comment ()
Faith After the Holocaust is Orthodox rabbi and theologian Eliezer Berkovits’ most comprehensive and systematic work on the Holocaust.[i] It describes both his major Jewish theological contribution to the study of God and evil and his response to the abundance of post-Holocaust literature ... Read more →

“Nose be-Ol Im Havero:” A Burden Worth Carrying

By Mordechai Shichtman | Comment ()
I am lonely. Let me emphasize, however, that by stating “I am lonely” I do not intend to convey to you the impression that I am alone. I, thank God, do enjoy the love and friendship of many. I meet people, talk, preach, argue, reason; I am surrounded by comrades and acquaintances. And yet, ... Read more →

On Torah Values and the Courage to Rebuild: A Review of The Legacy

By Kimberly Hay | Comment ()
Reviewed Book: R. Berel Wein and R. Warren Goldstein, The Legacy: Teachings for Life from the Great Lithuanian Rabbis (New Milford, CT and Jerusalem, Israel: Maggid Books, 2012).  Available for purchase at www.korenpub.com/EN or via Amazon.com.   “Lithuanian Jewry is no more,” writes ... Read more →

Editors’ Thoughts: The Technological Revolution and the Jew

By Adam Friedmann | Comment ()
  The production of technological works entails reconstructing the natural world for use against itself. Where once there was a rocky plane, now there is a walled city separating its inhabitants from the outside. Where once there were disparate natural resources, now there are machines that ... Read more →

Letter to the Editor

By David Khabinsky | Comment ()
Dear Editors, In the last issue of Kol Hamevaser, the article entitled “Our Side of the Mehitsah: An Open Letter,” written by Davida Kollmar, was beautifully and tactfully written. It touched upon many issues of women’s roles in the synagogue and expressed many concerns that I share with ... Read more →

Shut Down the Bible Department

By Elliot Resnick | Comment ()
Shut down the Bible Department?  What can be wrong with teaching Bible in Yeshiva College? Unfortunately, a great deal. For better or for worse, the overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews grow up believing that Moshe wrote every word of the Torah as dictated by God. They also believe Moshe ... Read more →

In Memory of Three Great Jewish Visionaries

By Chesky Kopel | Comment ()
When the prophet Eliyahu ascended to heaven in a mighty whirlwind, drawn by horses and chariots of fire, his disciple Elisha bore witness to an event at once magnificent and unspeakably traumatic. Elisha remained on earth, bereft of his beloved teacher, and cried out, “Father, father! The ... Read more →

An Interview with Rabbi Dan Marans

By Adam Friedmann | Comment ()
  Rabbi Dan Marans is the executive director of the Zomet Institute.  Zomet is a non-profit, public research institute dedicated to seamlessly merging halakhic Judaism with modern life.  For over thirty years, Zomet’s staff of rabbis, researchers, and engineers has devised practical and ... Read more →