Friday, September 4, 2026

Rosh Hashanah 5787

Dip Your Apple In The Honey: It's Rosh Hashanah! And, as we begin a New Jewish Year, please remember - as Rabbi Adam Rosenbaum of Denver, CO; of Livingston, NJ; and now, once again, of Charleston, SC has taught us -

There is hope for the world.
There is hope for your life.

The way it is now is not the way it must be. 



Abq Jew warmly invites you to check out
this now-classic Rosh Hashanah hit from 5772:
Dip Your Apple!


No apples, pomegranates, babies, or smartphones
were harmed in the filming of this video.
Please don't feed babies honey.

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Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Abq Jew knows (and knows you know), are special times for our Jewish hearts, minds, and souls.

The Ein Prat Fountainheads have - as always! - touched our hearts. 

Now, here is something that will touch our minds and souls.

Dara Horn

From award-winning author Dara Horn, a masterful
new work of nonfiction that boldly confronts
and dismantles the myths and lies that have
spread antisemitism from ancient times
until today —and then offers an audacious
but achievable vision for the future.

Jewish Insider


Dara Horn’s shocking new title hides a serious argument about fighting antisemitism
Five years after 'People Love Dead Jews,' the novelist's new book reframes Jewish hatred as a lie about destruction — and tells Jews they don't have to accept it 
by Gabby Deutch

If you thought People Love Dead Jews — Dara Horn’s 2021 essay collection examining society’s reverence for remembering deceased Jews while failing to support the living ones — was an awkward book to read in public, just wait until you get your hands on Horn’s newest title: The Final Solution to the Jewish Question.

Horn, a celebrated novelist who has become the bard of contemporary antisemitism since Dead Jews was published five years ago, is in on the joke; she likes to say that both titles make great beach reads because no one will dare sit within several feet of you. (Her dad even made a custom People Love Dead Jews beach towel for her to test out the theory.) 

But despite borrowing its title from the name of the Nazis’ infamous plan to rid Europe of its 11 million Jews during World War II, Horn’s latest book, which will be published on Sept. 1, is not a Nazi manifesto.

Instead, the title of Horn’s new book serves as an eye-catching, subversive dog whistle that is meant to pique the interest of antisemites — while also serving as a cheeky summary of Horn’s goal of actually trying to come up with a solution to the wave of antisemitism that has swept the world in recent years. 

Read More

Times of Israel

Dara Horn tackles enduring antisemitic lies head-on with optimistic ‘Final Solution’  
Inundated by readers sharing painful personal experiences, author of ‘People Love Dead Jews’ parses the hateful phenomenon and proposes an innovative educational fix
by Renee Gert-Zand

For centuries, argues author Dara Horn, people have tried to gain or maintain power by employing the lie that Jews are responsible for destroying whatever a society, government, or institution values most.

Tyrants, totalitarian regimes on both the right and left, and conformist societies in particular, have employed this lie, Horn says, because they are threatened by Jews — and by Judaism’s long history as an anti-tyrannical, countercultural tradition.

It is the central argument of Horn’s new book, “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” which was released September 1. The title is every bit as provocative as that of her 2021 bestseller, “People Love Dead Jews” — and its cover is sure to draw attention in bookstores and on social media.

With its direct reference to the Nazis’ nearly successful extermination of Europe’s Jews during World War II, this collection of related essays is, unsurprisingly, about antisemitism. But its subtitle, “A Love Letter to the Living,” hints from the outset that things are not all doom and gloom.

Read More

Hold tight

L'Shana Tova Tikatevu –
May you be inscribed for a good year!

Rosh Hashanah

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

Fall 2026 @ OASIS Abq

 Great Courses of Jewish Interest

Star of David

Abq Jew is pleased to inform you that
OASIS Albuquerque has just announced
their Fall 2026 line-up of classes!
Registration opens on

Wednesday September 2
but you can Wish List your selections now.

OASIS Abq

OASIS Albuquerque Executive Director Scott Sharp and his staff continue to bring you new and interesting class offerings, and continue to make sure there are courses of Jewish interest.

OASIS Abq

This session's courses and instructors include,
but are by no means limited to:


The Season of The Great Ingathering
Monday September 28  @ 2:00 - #185
Instructor: Paul Citrin
What It Is: Sukkot, sometimes referred to as Tabernacles, is the season of the most varied and abundant harvest in the Land of Israel. Over the centuries, it has been a celebration of the material rewards of hard work, a time for renewing community, studying sacred texts, caring for the poor, and reaffirming deeply held values. The class includes biblical and Talmudic texts, explores Ethical Wills as a form of personal harvest from ancient times to today, and offers hands-on engagement with key ceremonial objects used in the holiday. Note: This talk is given at Congregation Albert, inside the congregation’s Sukkah.

AntiVax AntiJew

Antisemitism and Anti-Science
A Deadly Overlap
Monday October 26 @ 10:00 - #200
Instructor: Jack Shlachter
What It Is: The anti-science movement involves the “rejection of mainstream scientific views and methods or their replacement with unproven or deliberately misleading theories, often for nefarious and political gains.” It has appeared in the guise of climate change denialism and anti-immunization, and it can be seen historically in opposition to advances in psychology and physics. This class examines five modern examples of the deadly convergence of antisemitism and anti-science.

Notorious RBG

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Notorious RBG
Tuesday October 27 @ 12:30 - #158
Instructor: Dianne R Layden
What It Is: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September 2020, is celebrated for her work as an attorney, federal judge, and Supreme Court justice, notably on behalf of gender equality. Through narrative, handouts, and slides, this lecture reviews Ginsburg’s early life, family, friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia, love of opera, and visits to the Santa Fe Opera in 1995-2018, which she called the finest summer opera company in the world.

What Our Fathers Did

What Our Fathers Did
Friday November 20 @ 12:30 - #131
Friday At The Movies
What It Is: A bracingly rigorous examination of inherited guilt and pain, What Our Fathers Did explores the relationship between two men, each of whom are the children of very high-ranking Nazi officials but possess starkly contrasting attitudes toward their fathers. 


The film was written and is hosted by eminent human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, who became fascinated by its central figures, Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter, while researching the Nuremberg trials. The film comes to a climax when they travel to Lviv in Ukraine, where it becomes clear that Frank and von Wächter’s Nazi fathers were responsible for the annihilation of Sands’ own Jewish grandfather’s entire family. What Our Fathers Did is a compelling examination of brutality, self-deception, guilt and the nature of justice.

Mt Sinai

Synchronous Sin & Synesthesia at Sinai
Monday November 23 @ 10:00 - #188
Instructor: Jack Shlachter
What It Is: The Biblical text describing the revelation at Mount Sinai can be literally translated as “The entire people saw the thunder and the flames and the sound of the shofar…” People with synesthesia experience involuntary stimulation of one sensory pathway when another is triggered. We explore synesthesia, learn about a few famous synesthetes, and examine this verse from a range of sources in Jewish texts.

Oasis Albuquerque


Support Abq Jew


Wednesday, August 19, 2026

A 76-Trombone Milestone

Celebrated By Musical Fans Everywhere: Abq Jew here reminds his loyal readers (who, of course, do not need to be reminded) that it was just about twelve (12) years ago that Abq Jew turned 64 (see For Vera, Chuck & Dave). 

76 Trombones

Yes, that makes this the completion of the magical 76th year. And Abq Jew must celebrate (he must! he must!) with just a snippet from Meredith Willson's The Music Man, one of the very few (only Adolph Green and Betty Comden's Singin' In The Rain and Frank Loesser's Guys and Dolls comes to what is left, after all these years, of Abq Jew's mind) perfect musicals ever!


As Abq Jew once again reflects on what he has (and has not yet) accomplished
during his 76 trips around the sun, he keeps in mind what his father,
 
Richard W Yellin, of blessed memory, would have said
on his upcoming 102nd birthday: 

More Mad About Mozart

"When Mozart was your age,
he had been dead for 41 years." 

Newport Pier

As for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -
he lived but 35 years, 10 months, and 9 days.
He was privileged to see 13,097 sunsets,
 but not one of them in Rhode Island.


Marc Yellin Gift

The insightful New Mexico Jewish Journal was recently kind enough to fully acknowledge Abq Jew's modest contribution to Jewish life in the Land of Enchantment. (The New Mexico Jewish Historical Society also published a condensed appreciation in the Summer 2026 issue of The Legacy.) 

Thank you, Diane Joy Schmidt and Dianne R Layden!

To which Abq Jew can only add - and this very blog post shows - 


Sunday, May 17, 2026

Shavuot 5786

Counting and Counting: Several thousand years ago, all Jews then living, all Jews ever born, and all Jews ever to be born gathered beneath Mount Sinai to hear God speak to us. 

We celebrate this wondrous event every year on the Holiday of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, exactly forty-nine full days (which are, as we know now, seven full weeks) after the Holiday of Pesach.

Jerusalem

And we recongregate to celebrate Shavuot just one week after we all celebrated Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day).

Shavuot (שבועות‎) occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan. This year, Shavuot begins on the evening of Thursday, May 21. The festival days are Friday and Saturday, May 22-23.


Hag Sameach, Albuquerque!
Good Yontif, New Mexico!
Hag Sameach & Shabbat Shalom, Israel!

Hebrew Calendar

About The Calendar

This year, Shavuot Day 2 falls on Saturday, May 23. But in ארץ ישראל (The Land of Israel) - Shavuot ends when Shabbat begins, on Friday night. So in Israel, they'll be reading Nasso on Shabbat, while we in חו״ל (Outside The Land) will be reading Shavuot Day 2.

Which also means that thereafter, the Parsha of the Week will not be the same in Israel as it is elsewhere; Israel will be one week ahead. And it will stay ahead until Saturday July 4, when we join up again for Pinchas.

This, in turn, puts us in sync for שׁבּת חזון, The Sabbath of Vision, so we can observe תשׁע בּאב (Tisha b'Av) together as one.

Hebrew Calendar Facts

In the meantime, Facebook's 
Hebrew Calendar Facts was proud and probably correct to tell us in 2023:

This year, Shavuot is on the Friday before Memorial Day (in the US), leading to a 4-day weekend. This has previously happened twice since Memorial Day was established as a federal holiday on the last Monday in May (in 1971): in 1982 and 1996. After this year, it will happen again in 2026, 2050, 2053, 2077, and 2080.

The configuration we've seen more in recent years is Shavuot starting on the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend (and continuing through the Monday for 2-day people), which happened in 1985, 2012, and 2015, and will happen again in 2039, 2042, 2066, and 2069.

The extra-rare one is when Shavuot starts on Sunday night, so (the first day of) Shavuot is on Memorial Day itself. This happened in 1974 and 2001, and we won't get it again until 2099 and then 2123. This is rare because Monday is the rarest day of the week for Shavuot (out of the days of the week that are possible).

And one person commented: In 2025, Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) will fall on Memorial Day.

This year, Memorial Day closes our four-day weekend. 

Memorial Day

Memorial Day
Not just sales, barbeques, and pool parties.
Real sacrifice for real freedom.