By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO– It was just another sermon on a Friday night at my beloved congregation of elders here in Southern California—though I regard every opportunity to preach and teach as an honor and a privilege. Who should ever presume the license to stand before people who have to come pray [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — The New York Times has now published an article that carefully chronicles a disquieting, alarming social reality brimming inside the fundamentalist Jewish community of Brooklyn: adult members of the enclave who have reported the sexual abuse of youngsters on the part of rabbis, teachers, and other professionals are [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — When I closed my eyes to sleep last night, I reflected about President Obama’s thoughtful affirmation concerning the legal right of any two people to declare a marriage between them. I confess that while never opposing anybody’s right to marry anybody else, the long-standing, Jewish oligarchic tradition that [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Harry Belafonte, the musical legend and civil rights icon, first met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1956. King phoned the rising calypso star in New York, and according to Belafonte’s memoirs, said, simply: “You don’t know me, Mr. Belafonte, but my name is Martin Luther King Jr.” [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — President John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, delivered on an icy-cold, blue-skied January morning in 1961, is best-remembered for its iconic declaration: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Yet the final phrase uttered by the young leader [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — It was bad enough that Mariano Rivera, arguably the greatest relief pitcher in major league history, suffered a freak, batting practice-related, career-threatening knee injury on Thursday night. The fact that this happened to the consummate New York Yankee along the running track in Kansas City calls basic baseball [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — The violent, churning, musical, rebellious, and ultimately frightening 1960s came to a shocking and bloody coda 42 years ago today, May 4, 1970. In what remain cloaked and mysterious details, armed Ohio National Guardsmen suddenly opened fire, in the open air and under sunny skies, upon a [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — It is no surprise that one reads in today’s international headlines: “Leading candidate in Egypt presidential race calls Israel peace accord ‘dead and buried.’” [The New York Times]. Amr Moussa, running ahead in the polls, spoke to a large rally in southern Egypt. He took the opportunity [...]
Room 306: The National Story of the Lorraine Motel by Ben Kamin, Michigan State University Press, 2012, ISBN 97801061186-049-8; 186 pages including bibliography, $24.95. By Donald H. Harrison SAN DIEGO — As a modern parallel to the ancient Exodus, the march of African-Americans from slavery to freedom has thrilled Rabbi Ben Kamin’s Torah-loving soul. See [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO–I was born in a still-young Israel just a few years after its inception in 1948. My father and mother were there, however, as the British withdrew on May 14 of that year, lowering the Union Jack over the port of Haifa, and raising the stakes considerably for the 600,000 [...]
