Humble Uncertainty: A Narrower Path to a Greater Hope

The first time that I encountered the phrase “Jesus saves” was in 1969 when I was 11 years old. It appeared in the form of graffiti spray painted on a railroad trestle over the Arcadia Soda Shop on South Columbus Avenue where my friends and I would hang out after playing basketball. It didn’t take…

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How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Reviewed by Paul L. Saal It is not often that I am afforded the opportunity to write a book review with the potential of being longer than the actual book I am reviewing. Though I write this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss can be characterized by its brevity. Bound in a…

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Messianic Jewish Communities by Design: Open Doors and Reserved Seating

Discussing community definitively within 21st century Western culture is both an elusive and daunting task. Narrowing this exploration to Messianic Jewish congregational structures feels almost insurmountable. To do so will require an approach that is both descriptive and prescriptive. It must consider the host culture, the unique historical time, and the nature of the constituency,…

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Prophetic Peace: Judaism, Religion, and Politics, by Alick Isaacs

Reviewed by Paul L. Saal What do Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Martin Buber, and Joseph Soloveitchik have in common? They are all Jewish or of Jewish ancestry. They were each academics and philosophers of sorts. Buber, Heschel, and Soloveitchik were all religious, the latter two were rabbis, the first two mystics. Wittgenstein…

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Queer for Jesus: A Messianic Jewish Perspective

Concerning Alternative Sexuality and the Ethics of Identity I am aware that I could have chosen a less provocative title for this presentation. This was a working title that reminded me of an event which occurred over a decade ago and lasted for better than a year. It caused me to re-imagine my relational categories.…

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It’s Not Your Meat

This past summer in my capacity as Northeast Regional Director of the UMJC Iwas visiting Camp Ohr L’Dor, a Messianic Jewish teen camp about an hour north ofNew York City. While speaking to a group of teen girls that had just returned from a camping and canoeing trip I inquired how they enjoyed the food…

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