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Israel

Rabbi Creditor's Writings on Israel


Books
  
    
 

Just published: Israel Poems
Paperback: https://a.co/d/dLSVJqZ

"Rabbi Menachem Creditor's beautiful book, Israel Poems, evinces a deep love relationship with Israel and with the Jewish People. The poetry reveals an expressive and struggling Jewish soul, one that exhibits a keen sense of being a part of history, an appreciation of the holiness of simple day-to-day life in Israel, and yet, an understanding that nothing is simple. Rabbi Creditor's broken heart for post-October 7th Israel, for the Jewish People, and for each of us -- imbued with fear, and tinged with hope -- is a statement about where we are today as a people. His words are at once poetry and prayer, infused with echoes of our sacred literature. This poetry is a love letter to Israel, one that considers the meaning of "home," acknowledges pain and struggle, and looks toward an unknown and yet certain future. It is a love letter that many of us need right now." - Dr. Ora Horn Prouser, CEO and Academic Dean, Academy for Jewish Religion

“In this soulful writing, readers will find expression of feelings that they themselves hold deep inside. Rabbi Creditor evocatively blends the sacred with the mundane, echoes of the Jewish past with the blessing/challenges of a unique present, and the twin feelings of deep belonging and the yearning to belong of many diaspora Jews. This collection is a gift to so many of us, whose hearts are so filled with emotion during this painful time.” - Dr. Elana Stein Hain, Rosh Beit Midrash, Senior Research Fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America

Am Yisrael Chai (vols. 1 & 2) - 2024 - Am Yisrael Chai is an emergency response anthology of voices from all over the world, grieving and writhing from the horrors perpetrated upon the State of Israel on Simchat Torah 5784, October 7, 2023. Unfathomably terrible images are now forever emblazoned in our eyes, spread through social media where children have seen them as well. We bear witness. We must. This is a collection of testimony and recollection, response and prayer. In the immediate aftermath of trauma, one cannot be expected to be thoughtful, mindful, creative. And yet this collection of soulful and eloquent expressions of pain and Global Jewish Solidarity makes the choice of title for this collection even more clear, and emphatic: Am Yisrael Chai! (Review by JewishForward, JewishSF)

Fault Lines: Exploring the Complicated Place of American Jewish Zionism - 2021 - It can be very lonely to stand in the world as an advocate for multiple commitments many consider incompatible. One such hybrid stance is Progressive Zionism, deemed racist by many American Progressives and considered suspect (or naïve) by many American Zionists. Those zero-sum approaches of extremist politics and "cancel culture" make even less imaginable a better day for Israelis and Palestinians, for Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews, and for Jewish Republicans and Jewish Democrats. Zionism commits to Theodor Herzl's two-fold vision: securing the right of the Jewish people to a state of our own AND building a national home worthy of Judaism's multi-millennia ethical legacy. The diverse voices collected in "Fault Lines" explore the unique and often-lonely experience of American Jews within all the worlds they consider home. (Review by JewishInsider)

To Write of Love During War: Poems 
amazon.com/dp/B0CVHFLPGQ

The great Israeli poet Lea Goldberg (1911-1970) once said that "it is not only permissible for a poet to write a love poem in times of war, but a necessity." It is in that spirit that this volume of love letters from 14 poets to Am Yisrael, the Jewish People, emerged in the months since October 7, 2023, the worst day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. The poems in "To Write of Love During War" demonstrate with eloquence and raw emotionality the wounded heart, inspired defiance, and resilient spirit of the Jewish People in a very difficult time.

The Hope: American Jewish Voices in Support of Israel - 2014 - Jews around the world hold our sisters and brothers in our hearts at all times. We are a family that spans the globe and whose heart pulses with the hope of 2,000 years. The diverse American Jewish voices included in this volume all communicate one sacred truth: Am Yisrael Chai! The People of Israel Lives!  .(Review by NYJewishWeek)

Videos:


Among the Mourners of Zion
The Huffington Post​ (July 25, 2017)

Tears, Free-Flowing Tears
The Times of Israel (July 23, 2017)

My Souvenir Prophet
The Times of Israel (July 17, 2017)

Attacked from Within
The Huffington Post​ (July 11, 2017)

On the Outside Looking In: Reflections of a Jew Wounded by Israel
The Huffington Post​ (June 27, 2017)

A Very Bad, No-Good, Rotten Day for Zionism
The Huffington Post​ (June 25, 2017)

When it All Comes Together
The Times of Israel (June 20, 2017)

Anger in a Pre-Trump American Zionist: A Rabbinic Response to the Obama Administration’s UN Abstention
The Huffington Post​ (Dec. 28, 2016)

 My Zionism (audio)
offered at the East Bay Hadassah Annual Meeting (April 3, 2016)

Our Ancestors in Heaven Are Weeping
Rabbi Creditor's AIPAC Policy Conference 2016 Address (March 22, 2016)

Applause, applause, applause: Donald Trump isn’t the problem, we are
Times of Israel (March 22, 2016)

Opposing Trump at AIPAC Is No Partisan Stance — It’s Jewish and All-American Patriotism
The Jewish Daily Forward (March 21, 2016)

Success at the Kotel Comes at a Cost
Times of Israel (February 2, 2016)

 Black Lives Matter and the Beauty of Israel: Working on Both With One Soul
Huffington Post Politics (Nov. 25, 2015)

 A Real Response to Israel-Hatred: Love
Huffington Post Politics (Oct. 22, 2015)

Praying for Israel During Troubled Times
Huffington Post Politics (October 14, 2015)

 This is Not a Million Man March
Times of Israel (October 12, 2015)

 Falafel Hebrew, Crackling Tanks, and Burning Coals
Times of Israel (July 13, 2015)

 'A girl named Jerusalem: Seeking Asylum in Tel Aviv
Times of Israel (July 7, 2015)

Too Busy Protecting Israel from Delegitimization to Protect Ourselves from Israel's Delegitimization of Us?
Times of Israel (July 5, 2015)

For Zion's Sake I Will Not Keep Silent 
Huffington Post (March 17, 2015)

 We Cry as Family
Times of Israel (November 18, 2014)

 Ferguson is Not Gaza
Huffington Post Politics Blog (October 15, 2014)

The Burdens of Memory
Times of Israel (October 6, 2014)

A Battered People Once Again
Times of Israel (August 27, 2014)

 Ferguson and Israel
Huffington Post (August 21, 2014)

Never Again is Right Now
Times of Israel (August 20, 2014)

Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace
Times of Israel (August 9, 2014)

Only Then Will the Jewish Soul Know Comfort 
YouTube (Aug. 7, 2014)

Toward Jewish Healing and Post-Tisha-Be'Av Re-entry into the Universe
(August 5, 2014)

 My Response to the Terror of Missiles and the Terror of Words
Times of Israel (August 4, 2014)

Comfort Our People, Compassion for All God's People
(with Rabbi Michael Adam Latz)
Huffington Post (July 30, 2014)

 Do We Stand With Israel?
Huffington Post (July 28, 2014)

The End of Theory
Times of Israel (July 22, 2014)

 I'm Done Apologizing for Israel
Huffington Post (July 21, 2014)
(republished by the Jewish Daily Forward July 23, 2014)

 Evil and the Image of God: A Response to Dr. Daniel Gordis
(July 18, 2014)

What do I Pray for Now?
(July 15, 2014)

A Prayer for These 90 Seconds 
Huffington Post (July 10, 2014)

The Jewish People Lives
Huffington Post (July 8, 2014)

 A Jew in the World
Huffington Post, (July 2, 2014)

”אנחנו הקונסרבטיבים נאבקים למענכם, עמדו גם אתם לצידנו“

 Maariv (June 10, 2014)

Healing Our Abused Jewish Soul
Jerusalem Post (June 2, 2014)

 A Rabbinic Comment on Messianic Politics
Huffington Post (January 22, 2014)

Reclaiming Zionism
Huffington Post (July 8, 2013)

 I am Not Free When My Sister is Silenced
Women of the Wall (July 8, 2013) 

A Prayer, Upon Completing My Term as CoChair of Rabbis for Women of the Wall 
Women of the Wall (April 28, 2013)

Sermon on the Mount: A Midrash on the Akeidah
Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility (August, 2011)

Upon the Death of an Enemy
(May 2, 2011)

Zionism Also Needs to Come from the Left - Right?
The "J" (Nov. 4, 2010)

The Narrowing of the Israeli Mindset
The "J" (March 4, 2010)
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