
If We Are Not for Ourselves
Jewish self-defense, communal responsibility, and the danger of outsourcing our survival
Rabbi Abraham became Beth El’s Rabbi in 2011. He and his wife, Pamela Berkowitz, married in 2023 and have two children, Naama and Leor. He holds degrees from JTS and the Univ of Baltimore and serves on multiple boards.
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Jewish self-defense, communal responsibility, and the danger of outsourcing our survival

How American synagogues can remain open, warm, and unmistakably Jewish in an age when security is no longer temporary.

California didn't invent this question. It just reopened it.

I do not know him.

Why Jewish Self-Determination Is More Than a Formula

Before death, we need the courage to speak. After death, we need the courage to listen.

Judaism has an entire technology for facing death. We’ve stopped using it.

Antisemitism is dangerous. The willingness of decent people to explain, excuse, and tolerate it is more dangerous still.

It is easy to condemn antisemitism. The harder test is whether you will stand with Jews when Jewishness itself becomes politically inconvenient.

Fifteen thousand votes, sixty five million dollars, and a story written before the ballots were counted.