Anti-Semitism
Purim PuzzlesFriday, March 11, 2011 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Purim, Judaism's strangest holiday (which this year falls on March 20), is prescribed by what may be the strangest book in the Hebrew Bible, the scroll (m'gilah) of Esther. Two public readings of the book, one at night and the other in the morning, tell a story of Persian palace intrigue in the fifth century B.C.E., a recitation accompanied by the holiday's decidedly unspiritual noisemaking, tippling, and masquerade.
Identity = ?Thursday, March 10, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In discussions of that elusive entity known as "Jewishness," few terms have become so ubiquitous, and as a consequence so elusive, as "Jewish identity." The phrase regularly serves as the name of a communal dream: the wished-for end product that vast apparatuses of education, institution-building, and programming aim to instill and perpetuate. But what is it?
An Open Letter to the Arab StreetWednesday, March 9, 2011 by Benjamin Kerstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
First and foremost, congratulations. Even from our vantage point on the other side of a seemingly unbridgeable divide between our peoples, the extraordinary nature of what you have accomplished in recent weeks is obvious.
The Odessa FileFriday, March 4, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Undoubtedly the most searing image of the port city of Odessa on the Black Sea is Sergei Eisenstein's reconstruction of a bloody massacre on its famed "Potemkin Steps" in his epic silent film, Battleship Potemkin (1925).
Follow the MoneyWednesday, March 2, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) is shocked—shocked—to discover that Muammar Qaddafi is a very bad man. So the once venerable institution is diverting some of the $2.5 million pledged through Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam into a scholarship fund for Libyan students.
J Street’s Last Hurrah?Tuesday, March 1, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In a little over three years, a liberal lobby calling itself "passionately and unapologetically pro-Israel" appears to have either supplanted or co-opted other likeminded groups on the Jewish Left—among them, Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, and the New Israel Fund.
Strange BedfellowsThursday, February 24, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
To the already boiling Middle East cauldron, add the prospect of new bilateral relations between two powers that have historically kept each other at arm's length: Egypt (Sunni, Arab, lately a client of the United States) and Iran (Shiite, Persian, patron of Hizballah and Hamas). One bone of contention between them has long been the Jewish state of Israel.
The Athens & Jerusalem Two-StepTuesday, February 22, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The eastern Mediterranean is in a state of serious flux. Historically, under such volatile conditions, old bonds tend to dissolve and new partnerships to emerge. The present is no exception. One example of this is Greece's surprising new friendship with Israel and its outreach to the American Jewish community.
Jewish-Christian Dialogue TodayMonday, February 21, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
How do today's Jews and Christians encounter one another? The most obvious way is in the countless interactions of Jewish and Christian colleagues and acquaintances in a host of daily settings, including exchanges on their respective religious attitudes and experiences.
Thankless in Turtle BayFriday, February 18, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
After more than six months of internal squabbling, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beitenu) have, at last, agreed to dispatch the seasoned diplomat Ron Prosor as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. But what, realistically, can any Israeli ambassador hope to achieve at the UN?
Editors' Picks
From Slovakia to Flatbush Binyamin Rose, Voz Iz Neias?. The busiest synagogue in Flatbush traces its roots to a bunker in rural Slovakia, where its founder, Yechezkel Shraga Landau, led a community in hiding during the war.
Analyzing Iran's Attacks Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz. This week's attacks by Iran's proxies on Israeli diplomats in India, Georgia, and Thailand have been strategically located in countries with which Israel is building diplomatic and military ties.
Teach Your Tongue to Say “I Don't Know” David Wolpe, Jewish Journal. When a nation struggles with the threat of being vaporized in a nuclear conflict, to call its policies on the West Bank and Gaza "the great question of the age" is myopic at best.
An Invitation to Progressives Toby Greene, Alan Johnson, New Statesman. Beyond the frankly boring "debate," there is a better and more interesting conversation about Israel to be had: about the conditions, forms, and above all, futures of Israel's young democracy.
Another Trial for Shylock Stephen Marche, New York Times. Recent opposition to a London production of the Merchant of Venice in Hebrew shows that once again, Shylock has come to stand for the entire Jewish people.
Eyewitnesses at Auschwitz Martin Bright, Jewish Chronicle. A campaign to open British government files may finally reveal the story of the British POWs who witnessed Nazi brutality and helped Jewish prisoners escape.
The Belated Contender Adam Kirsch, Tablet. It's more than a little revealing that Nathan Englander's stories of identity and belief seem shallow and garish, while his story of Jewish politics feels challenging and true.
Who's Surrendering to Whom? Amir Taheri, New York Post. Israel sees the Hamas-Fatah unity accord as a surrender to a movement dedicated to Israel's destruction. Iran sees the accord as a surrender to a group which recognizes Israel's right to exist. What's going on?
Extending an Olive Branch Benny Morris, National Interest. Wary of Turkey's increasing radicalism, Israel and Greek Cyprus are forging a new military alliance to protect their offshore gas fields, and to defend against the growing threat of militant Islam.
Nazi Family Values David Jacobs, Hoover Digest. The photo albums of Hitler's associates—the extended Nazi family, as it were—were of little or no interest to researchers immediately after World War II. But historians are taking a second look.