Archive
Crossposted to Jewschool God bless the supreme court of Israel. They aren’t always as daring as I want them to be, but sometimes they do the right thing. And that’s what they did yesterday when they decided that the state may no longer subsidize the learning of yeshiva students. Here’s the full Haaretz article, and […]
One Thanksgiving during college, my father told us that though we criticize many of the United States’s policies and actions, we should never forget that we live in the greatest country in the world: a country that pioneered and sustains religious and civic freedom, political equality, tolerance and democracy. His point was that criticism and appreciation should […]
In case you were wondering, tobacco is terrible for you. And in case you were wondering, hookah is tobacco. If you’d chosen to forget that until now, don’t worry: I’d sublimated it for some time too. Hookah used to be, for me, a way of looking exotic, feeling Israeli and trying out low-risk smoking, and […]
Who are we? Where do we come from? As it turns out, Jews are just Jews: our very own ethnic group. Recent studies have shown that Jews appear to be genetically different than non-Jews and, indeed, are closely related to one another. This revelation comes through Human “HapMap” Project, which examines human genome sequences; recently, […]
I know we’ve all heard enough about a certain clash on a certain boat in the waters off a certain strip. Â So forgive me for once again using this space to talk about the Mavi Marmara melee. Â If it’s any consolation, the bulk of this post won’t focus on the early morning events of last […]
This post is by Moriel Rothman and originally appeared on J Street U‘s site. There exists in Israel a powerful fear. It’s a legitimate fear, the traumatic societal residue of exploded buses and falling rockets, hitting Israel against the backdrop of the Iranian threat. But this fear has grown and spread, manipulated by leaders whose […]
Unless we’re seeking an easy target for righteous indignation, we tend to ignore the mass of anti-Semitic crackpots on the internet. It’s another thing, though, when a respected journalist who’s been covering the Oval Office for half a century tells all the Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine,” as former Hearst columnist Helen Thomas […]
Judaism and Catholicism may not seem to go together, but the Catholic Church begs to disagree. In an attempt to show that the papacy isn’t hiding any self-incriminating archives from World War II, the Vatican will open up some World War II-era private archives for public consumption within the next six years. First of all, […]
The New Voices blog takes on the crisis off the Gazan shore.
Rabbi Daniel Gordis’s writing has brought tears to the eyes of many readers, but his latest column makes me want to cry because it implies that I “don’t get” Jewish history and the Jewish state. When an American friend of his complained that Jews worldwide will come under fire for the flotilla attack on Monday, Rabbi […]