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Rootless Cosmopolitan(s)Tuesday, August 10, 2010 by Sam Munson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The search for the Next Big Thing is as endemic in the American literary world as in politics and the clothing industry. When it comes to writers, the itch tends to express itself through the excited serial discovery of identifiably new or neglected "voices," preferably young and often of the ethnic or sexual variety: African-American, or second-wave feminist, or, recently, immigrant Russian-Jewish. Members of this last category are taken to include the short-story writer Lara Vapnyar, the music critic Alex Halberstadt, the literary anthologist Boris Fishman, and Keith Gessen, a founder of the cultural journal n+1 and sometime novelist. Whether...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 by James Kirchick | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
A useful fiction to Western governments, even more useful as a propaganda tool of Arab and Muslim regimes, the term "linkage" masks an empty and dangerous illusion.Grand Delusion
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
When it came to nationalism, the late historian and intellectual Tony Judt kept one set of books for Europe and the world and another, invidious one, for the Jewish state.As Darkness Falls
Monday, August 9, 2010 by Francine Prose | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Two Dutch novels of the Holocaust, published in 1947 and 1962 and only now available in English, are revelations: subtle and penetrating studies of the human heart, and literary masterworks.Is the Enemy of My Enemy My Friend?
Monday, August 9, 2010 by Elliott Abrams | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Not necessarily—but, facing the threat of a nuclear Iran, some Arab nations are quietly recalibrating their policy toward Israel.Beware the Spiritual Splitters
Monday, August 9, 2010 by Angela Epstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
In England, the recent increase in "alternative" services catering to specific tastes and sub-groups is dramatically depleting once-thriving synagogues.
The Stranger Among YouMonday, August 9, 2010 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Last week the Israeli cabinet granted status to 800 children of guest workers while, pending appeal, ordering the deportation of 400 others. In the ensuing public reaction, some thought the measure too severe, others too generous. No surprise there: as Western Europeans and Americans well know, the problem of migrant labor is by no means unique to Israel. But each situation has arisen out of specific constellations of history, policy, and circumstance—and, in Israel, an added dimension is the complex relationship among the longstanding societal values of work, solidarity, and Zionism.
Monday, August 9, 2010 by Farid Ghadry | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
On the planned mosque at Ground Zero: freedom of religion is a wonderful thing, but what if the religion acts like a conquering army? A Syrian expatriate's warning.Out Boise Way
Monday, August 9, 2010 by Heidi Naylor | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
In Caldwell, Idaho, a college with fewer than 1,000 students is raising funds to honor a beloved professor by establishing a chair in Jewish studies.The Mosque and the Nunnery
Friday, August 6, 2010 by William McGurn | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Lessons for the planned Islamic center near Ground Zero from John Paul II's handling of the Carmelite nuns who moved into an abandoned building on the edge of Auschwitz.