The Solomon B. Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah marked its twenty-fifth anniversary at the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in Atlanta this past March 21. As always, the meeting featured presentations by speakers on a chosen theme. This year, the theme was the very timely topic of immigration: what insights does Jewish law offer to liberal Jews seeking to influence, change, or critique the immigration policies of the counties in which they live? The presentations will eventually be available in written form at the Institute’s website. Continue reading Immigration and Jewish Law: The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Meeting of the Freehof Institute
Monthly Archives: March 2017
Where the Buck Stops
Now that the majority party in the U.S. Congress has introduced its replacement for the Affordable Care Act – a “replacement” in the sense that it replaces federal insurance subsidies with a new form of individual tax credits – perhaps we should revisit the issue we addressed in our last post. There, we argued that, in the view of the halakhah, “the provision of affordable care to the entire community is very much the responsibility of the community itself, acting through its government.” The newly-proposed plan appears to take a major step away from that goal and for that reason must be judged deficient from a halakhic perspective. Continue reading Where the Buck Stops