Article Archives

Faith and Matrimony

An initiative to admit intermarried students to Reform rabbinical schools is yet another indication that Reform Judaism is swiftly becoming not so much a religious movement as a Jewish activities club.

The Betrayal of Salonika’s Jews

When the Germans entered Salonika on April 6, 1941, they found a willing cadre of collaborators and a broad section of Greek Christian opinion hostile to the Jews.

The New Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish New Year is characterized by an uneasy combination of stock-taking and solemn celebration.  Yom Ha’atzma’ut, as the birthday of the Jewish state, is beginning to acquire a similar character.

The Challenge of Sovereignty

On the eve of Israel's independence, David Ben-Gurion sat alone, questioning whether a people so long accustomed to being the victims of sovereign power could take responsibility for themselves.

On Silence

Eschewing Jewish expressions of mourning, Israel's founding generations shaped a national ethos of silence and self-restraint, which found expression in the words of poet David Shimoni: “Don’t mourn, don’t cry/ at a time like this./ Don’t lower your head,/ Work! Work!”

Tithing and Taxes

A significant proportion of tax revenue is used for charitable purposes: food stamps, Social Security, housing assistance, public healthcare.  May Jews therefore count tax payments as charitable contributions?

Israel’s Gatekeepers

The Gatekeepers is not a history of Israel's security service, its operations and directors, but a political plea for the evacuation of the West Bank, the creation of a Palestinian state, and the suppression of Israeli’s religious settler movement.

The Outstretched Hand

My family and I celebrated Passover in Lumberton, North Carolina. We are the only Israelis in town and, as far as I know, the only Jews.  But it’s not as lonely as it might sound, thanks to our Evangelical Christian neighbors.

Enigmas of Modern Jewish Identity

Over the course of a lifetime facing modernity's conflicting demands, how might Jewishness affect the struggle to sustain identity, and how might this struggle mark the contours of Diaspora history?

Marking the Day–But Which Day?

If it's the 27th of the month, it must be Holocaust Remembrance Day.  But what are we remembering, and why?  Differences in memorializing the Holocaust reflect fundamentally differing perspectives on Jewish history.