Editorial Archive

Returning to a Better World

October 10, 2008
by Daniel E. Levenson

Yom Kippur is a day on which we stand alone before God at a kind of crossroads – behind us lie all of the experiences of the previous year, both good and bad, while ahead of us is an unknown path, the coming year, the future.  It is also a day which brings Jews together, to offer prayers of repentance and express our deeply held desire to be inscribed for another year in the book of life. As with any other form of ritual or observance, I find that I have many more questions than answers - What is the purpose of Yom Kippur, I’ve often asked myself, why do we need to spend a day, once a year, fasting and considering past transgressions? What is it about setting aside this time that can make a difference in my own life and community?

Thoughts on Justice

September 6, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

In Pirkei Avot there is a curious passage in which Hillel is walking along and sees a skull floating on the water. He addresses the skull in an even stranger manner, saying “Because you drowned others, they drowned you; and those who drowned you will be drowned eventually.” This comes between two sections in which Hillel is quoted on seemingly different matters, relating to leadership, education and the value of avoiding excess materialism. Leaving aside, for now, the location of this passage, which seems strange in and of itself given that the topics which surround it seem to have little to do directly with justice or death, I’d like to take a minute to look at what the editors of Pirkei Avot might be trying to tell us here.

A Third Temple?

July 9, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

I have always been curious about the role of the idea of the temple in a modern Jewish context. Clearly we derive many of our customs and religious practices from the days when the temples stood, both from actual practices conducted in the temple service, and from the larger Jewish culture that existed at the time, so I was particularly interested to read an article in Haaretz about a group of people who are not only eagerly anticipating the building of a third temple, but are hard at work creating (or recreating) all of the physical trappings of priestly culture, from incense burners to custom tailored robes for those who claim familial descent from the kohanim.

Redeeming the Captives

July 3, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

In the summer of 2006 Hezbollah launched a violent assault from Lebanon, killing several Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two others during a border incursion that sparked Israel’s most recent war of self defense. The capture of these two young men, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev was international news and a clear sign that Israel could not trust either the Lebanese government or the small group of UN observers charged with keeping the peace along its northern border, to prevent hostile actions by Hezbollah.

Choosing Our Communities

June 25, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

What makes a community is something we think about a lot here at the New Vilna Review. It is a question that goes back to Revelation and beyond, when Moses, as the leader of an often unhappy group of former slaves, embarked on a 40-year sojourn in the desert. We see these challenges virtually everywhere in the narrative of the Israelites wandering – they are constantly complaining, pointing out how much easier things had been in Egypt and at times directly challenging the authority of Moses and of God. When it comes to prayer, we know that we traditionally need a group of 10 – a minyan – to constitute a “community.” I had always wondered where this number had come from and was happily surprised to notice a footnote in the Chumash I was perusing this past Shabbat. It mentioned that one of the roots of the designation of 10 individuals as constituting a minyan comes from Parsha Shelach, in which god calls the 10 spies who return from scouting the land (and lie about it) a “ wicked community.”

Boston’s Jewish Past

June 18, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

Many people have asked me in the last few months how I came up with the name for this online Jewish publication. It’s a good question, and I have in fact had a few people who wanted to know more about us simply because the word “Vilna” is in our name, and it piqued their interest because they had relatives in Vilna (or in a few cases, had actually come from Vilna themselves). The idea for the name “New Vilna Review” came to me while I was reading a biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel, and in this volume, the Jewish world of pre-World War Two Vilna was described in vivid detail as a vibrant landscape of Jewish learning and culture, with groups ranging from socialist Zionists to traditional orthodox rabbis and their followers. When the Nazis came to Vilna, however, most of this was completely destroyed.

A Responsibility to Act

June 9, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

The images in the film are graphic and disturbing: dead bodies, burned-out villages, a child wandering aimlessly. They are images of the Darfur region of Sudan, where a genocide is taking place. I recently saw these images when I attended a screening of the film “Sand and Sorrow,” co-sponsored by the New England office of the Anti Defamation League and American Jewish World Service. AJWS president Ruth Messinger was in attendance at the event, which was held on June 5th at Cloud Place in Boston. Ms. Messinger introduced the film and then answered questions afterwards about the situation in Darfur and the steps AJWS is taking to try and help bring peace to the troubled region. “The film is provocative,” Ms. Messinger said, “but not as provocative as what is happening on the ground.”

Books and Blintzes, Thoughts on Shavuot

June 5, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

While many (perhaps most) American Jews today may not be too familiar with the holiday of Shavuot, it is in fact, a major Jewish holiday which celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, no small event in the history of the Jewish people. Whether you think that God dictated the torah to Moses verbatim, or that it was pieced together by a number of different authors over the centuries, or something in between, the idea of setting aside a time to remember the arrival of this gift seems like it should occupy a more central place in modern Jewish life.

Arks, Blogs and Global Warming

May 28, 2008

Ever since I can remember, I have been aware of the natural world. Some of my earliest memories are of times spent outdoors – I have one particularly vivid memory of standing on a boardwalk in a wetland with my father when I couldn’t have been more than 5 years old, looking at Skunk Cabbage, a large leafy wetland plant that smells much like it’s namesake when one of the leaves is torn. When I first began to write for publication, my focus was on the outdoors and environmental issues, and as the child of two dedicated recyclers, environmental issues are never far from my mind.

The Place of Hebrew in Jewish Life

May 20, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

One of the educational goals of all Jews who care about their history and culture should be to learn Hebrew, and I don’t mean just enough to become bar or bat mizvahed, either. As my parents would no doubt be able to attest, Hebrew School was not exactly my favorite activity as a child, in fact, I would guess that I probably spent more time figuring out ways to avoid having to go, than I actually spent in class.

Questions of Identity: Present, Past and Future

May 13, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a unique and thought-provoking conference at Harvard University. Entitled “New Approaches: Home, Nation and Landedness in Modern Jewish Identity,” the conference brought together faculty and graduate students in Jewish studies from across the country for two days of talks, presentations and informal conversations at Harvard Hillel.

What is Prayer?

May 8, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

For me, the idea of prayer has always seemed a little strange. I mean, after all, if god really is omniscient, then he/she/it must already have a pretty good idea of what’s going on here in the world, including what people are thinking and feeling. I would say that up until the last few years if someone mentioned praying I would think either of last ditch efforts to produce divine intervention on behalf of my performance on a final exam in college, or of what I had heard on the high holidays in shul. I have given the subject a lot more thought, however, over the last few years, both from what I might term a “spiritual” as well as a “critical” perspective.

Another Step Toward Putting the World in Order

April 15, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

It seems like even Jews who do not make it to services on Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashanah somehow still seem to make their way to a Seder, a concept that I have always found very interesting. Passover Seders are also a time to share Jewish culture with non-Jews who might be curious about Passover for a wide variety of reasons.

Brandeis Takes an Important Step For Israel Studies

April 7, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

Looking at the calendar of events in the Jewish community around Boston I am struck by the sheer diversity and number of happenings taking place. Although I was unable to make it to all of the great events going on around Jewish Boston this Sunday, including the ADL’s Nation of Immigrants Seder which sounded fairly intriguing, I did find my way to a conference at Brandeis on Israel.

Anti-Israel Propaganda?

March 30, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

The traveling exhibit “Breaking the Silence,” which is presently on display at Harvard University Hillel, has been, to say the least, controversial. The series of photographs, testimonials from former soldiers, video presentations and other items highlights the negative aspects of the way that the Israeli Defense Forces carry out border control operations and security operations within the territories.

Increasing Security

March 23, 2008

by Daniel E. Levenson

We all know that the world can be a dangerous place; all one has to do is open up a newspaper (or go online) on any given day to read about the latest acts of violence taking place around the world.