Beinart, boycotts and Israel’s brand
Peter Beinart’s op-ed in The New York Times of March 19, 2012, “To Save Israel, Boycott the Settlements” and his book, “The Crisis of Zionism,” are disturbingly naïve and present a threat to American...
View ArticleWho is a Zionist?
It always comes down to this. Speaking at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on April 29, former prime minister Ehud Olmert was greeted by jeers when he argued against attacking Iran’s nuclear...
View ArticleAn Arrest in Jerusalem
A woman was arrested in Jerusalem for praying the Shema out loud. Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center of the Israel Movement of Progressive Judaism and Chairwoman of...
View ArticleThe Freest Arab Nation in the World?
There are currently 12 Arab members (MKs) of Israel’s Knesset. In fact, Arabs have served in the Knesset since 1949, when the first Israeli elections were held. To date, there have been Muslim,...
View ArticleGiving credit where credit is due – or not
Although I am on the left, I always admired Menachem Begin’s strong and proudly expressed Jewish identity. Even in Washington, DC, on a state visit to meet with President Jimmy Carter, he made it clear...
View ArticleBravo, Evgeny Kissin!
I still remember the first time I heard Evgeny Kissin play piano. It was 1990 and I was in my car, listening to a NYC classical station. Only I wasn’t just listening; I was mesmerized, lost in a...
View ArticleWherever I go, I am always only going to the land of Israel
I actually wrote something completely different for Yom Ha’atzmaut. But then it occurred to me that I should mark Israel’s 66 years of independence by sharing something that happens to me far more...
View ArticleGiving credit where credit is due – or not
Although I am on the left, I always admired Menachem Begin’s strong and proudly expressed Jewish identity. Even in Washington, DC, on a state visit to meet with President Jimmy Carter, he made it clear...
View ArticleBravo, Evgeny Kissin!
I still remember the first time I heard Evgeny Kissin play piano. It was 1990 and I was in my car, listening to a NYC classical station. Only I wasn’t just listening; I was mesmerized, lost in a...
View ArticleWherever I go, I am always only going to the land of Israel
I actually wrote something completely different for Yom Ha’atzmaut. But then it occurred to me that I should mark Israel’s 66 years of independence by sharing something that happens to me far more...
View ArticleAnother Kind of “Populated Area Exchange Plan”
I was running to an appointment when my phone buzzed. It was my friend M calling me from Israel. I answered and heard my friend’s familiar voice. “Shalom Shalom,” I replied. “You know, I was just...
View ArticleWhy the Non-Binding, Usually Irrelevant Democratic Party Platform Suddenly...
The Democratic Party Platform doesn’t mean anything in practical terms. It’s not binding and it has no impact on policy, even though it is meant to represent the Party’s principal goals. And frankly,...
View ArticleORT Introduces New Programs to American Jewish Summer Camps
ORT, the largest Jewish educational network in the world and a global leader in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) education, is introducing an innovative new pilot project to bring...
View ArticleKadima Mada Student Leads Efforts For Visually Impaired
Baruch Matatov, a 17 year-old boy from Ashkelon, Israel and an 11th grade student at Kadima Mada’s Kfar Silver Youth Village, is one of the winners of World ORT’s Gina and Joseph Harmatz Award for his...
View ArticleKeys without locks
Jews have been kicked out of Arab areas, and Arabs out of Jewish ones. What if everyone who wants to go home did so, and learned to live with the new neighbors?
View ArticleSinat Hinam: The awful hatred displayed at the Kotel
The Talmud teaches us that both the First and Second Temples were destroyed because of baseless or wanton hatred, Sinat Hinam (שנאת חנם). Yoma 9b:8 explains that the First Temple was destroyed due to...
View ArticleWho’s Buried in the Maccabees’ Tomb?
I wasn’t upset to see the Hebrew and Latin inscriptions from Isaiah over the doorway of San Gregorio della Divina Pietà, a church near the Jewish ghetto of Rome and its Great Synagogue because they are...
View ArticleHow Others See Us Really Matters
There is no simple way to describe “Jewishness,” even among Jews. For better or worse, how others define us seems to be what really matters. When Whoopi Goldberg commented that the Holocaust was “not...
View ArticleOn Yom HaShoah it is time to face the truth
The Nazis' plans to eradicate the Jewish people were widely known – Apathy and feigned ignorance laced with antisemitism allowed them to proceed unimpeded
View ArticleAnti-Israel and Antisemitic Campaigns Fail to Stop Game
Tottenham Hotspur will face AS Roma in a football (real football, or ‘soccer’) match, titled the “I-Tech Cup,” at Haifa’s Sammy Ofer Stadium on Saturday night, July 30. Both teams have loyal fan bases...
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