Reviews of Books & Films
Who Am I? The Perplexing Nature of Jewish Feminist Identity
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A review of Three Groundbreaking Jewish Feminists Pursuing Social Justice, Sharon Leder, Hybrid Global Publishers, 2020
Politics & Society
Ethel Rosenberg: A Personal Perspective
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Tikkun supports diverse viewpoints. Here is a unique and personal perspective on Ethel Rosenberg, and the new book about her.
Justice for All
The Trial of the Chicago Seven
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The Intersection of Memory and History: A Review of “The Trial of the Chicago Seven”, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, Netflix
35.1 Spring/Summer
Spiritualized Socialism and Socialist Humility
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Martha Sonnenberg helps bring clarity to what socialism actually means and re-envisions a new psychological and spiritually infused socialism.
Making the Impossible Possible
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“Tales From the Loop” is a new series that provides a timely meditation on how we, in the midst of surrealistic circumstances, find meaning in our lives.
Arts & Cultural Critique
“Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”: A Review
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Martha Sonnenberg reviews “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese,” a film that plays with our sense of truth, fiction, reality, time, and memory.
Politics & Society
Transcending Trauma
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Martha Sonnenberg reviews Rabbi Tirzah Firestone’s new book Wounds into Wisdom and argues that it helps us recognize “the ways in which we and others are affected by trauma, and what this may mean for healing the world.”
Graphic Eugene Debs
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Martha Sonnenberg reviews this new graphic biography of Eugene V. Debs and argues that the book’s strength lies in how it connects social theory to political activism.
Justice for All
Missing Shulamith and the Dialectic of #MeToo
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Martha Sonnenberg grapples with the present-day #MeToo movement and the 1970 version as articulated by Shulamith Firestone in The Dialectic of Sex to help us envision a transformative movement.
32.3 Summer
Transformative Language in the Desert, a review of Moses: A Human Life, by Avivah Gottleib Zornberg
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Aviva Zornberg’s ‘Moses: A Human Life’
2017
Kaddish for Che
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I HAVE BEEN THINKING a lot about Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary who, in his death perhaps even more than in his life, has achieved an iconic status. Three reasons underlie these thoughts. First, the recent opening of U.S. policy on Cuba and a photograph of a street mural of Che my husband took on a visit there late last year. The mural is faded, its paint chipped, and the wall on which it is painted is exposed and crumbling.
Physicians and Torture Medical Teshuvah for a Profession in Need of Healing
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TESHUVAH, or repentance, in the Jewish tradition, is most often practiced during the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but is, in fact, appropriate at all times. While doing my own personal work in this regard, I was led to turn my attention to my profession, that of medicine and health care.
2015
Jacob Chose Hospice: A Critique of Invasive End-of-Life Care
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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by Atul Gawande
Metropolitan Books, 2014
What does the Torah have to say about end-of-life care? Its most striking story on this topic appears in the last four chapters of Genesis, which describe the hospice death of the Jewish patriarch Jacob. After Jacob became ill, he summoned his children and grandchildren, and requested burial in the Caves of Machpeleh, alongside his parents (Isaac and Rebecca) and his grandparents (Abraham and Sarah). He gave blessings to his sons, and “when Jacob finished instructing his sons, he drew his feet onto the bed; he expired and was gathered to his people” (Gen. 49:33). He suffered no invasive medical interventions, he was surrounded by his family and was able to bless them, and he died a peaceful death.