Three generations of Olans (l-r): Levi; his daugher, Elizabeth; and his father, Max. Image courtesy of Joshua Hirsch.
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Three Generations
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Bigotry is an insult
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Beginning Our Fifth Year!
The “Rabbi Levi A. Olan: Conscience of the City” blog began in April 2018. To celebrate the completion of four years of weekly (and sometimes more often) blogging and our upcoming 275th post, the writing …
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Religion – Opiate or Stimulant
“It is the ‘Gotterdammerung’, the Twilight of the Gods!” The first half of the title to Rabbi Olan’s March 17, 1968 radio sermon is a direct reference to Karl Marx’s famous words, “Religion is the …
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God and Auschwitz
“Somehow life and religion can never be the same after Auschwitz.“ In the light of intense human cruelty and suffering, it is natural to ask “Where is God?” and “Why doesn’t God intervene?” Is God …
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The Man With an Alibi
“To be human is to be personally responsible for a good measure of one’s life.” On February 4, 1968 Rabbi Olan returned to a theme that he preached many times: the reciprocal relationship between freedom …
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Dictatorships, responsibility, liberty
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What Do You Want From God?
“If we could meet God, we might ask Him the same question which Jeremiah put to Him. Why do the righteous suffer and why do the wicked prosper?” It is not an uncommon thought that …
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Laughing at God
“We always have a great need for a faith which tells us that the impossible is possible.” Miracles were the topic of Rabbi Olan’s December 3, 1967 radio sermon. The “Laughing at God” title is …
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The Just and the Unjust War
“…honest men must speak and speak loudly when a crucial moral issue is at stake.” If today’s deeply divided national outlook concerns you, it should. If you think that the rigid polarization of the United …
Rabbi Levi A. Olan: The Conscience of the City 