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Modern Times


Sympathy for the Devil Sympathy for the Devil
Monday, May 23, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Occupying a place of particular infamy in Jewish collective memory is an 18th-century serial apostate, sexual deviant, messianic pretender, and chameleonic charlatan. His name was Jacob Frank.
What Would Ben-Gurion Do? What Would Ben-Gurion Do?
Thursday, May 19, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

How would David Ben-Gurion handle himself if he were the one scheduled to meet Barack Obama on May 20 and address a joint session of the U.S. Congress a few days later? That hypothetical question has been aired frequently by Israelis in the run-up to Benjamin Netanyahu's pending appointments in Washington.
Holocaust without End Holocaust without End
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Sixty-six years after the end of World War II, the Holocaust remains one of the central puzzles of human history. For Jews, the imperative is clear: to remember and to encourage others to remember. But remember what? Has the earnest dedication of both Jews and non-Jews to seek the meaning of the event and absorb its lessons ended by emptying it of meaning and lessons alike?
O Canada O Canada
Monday, May 16, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In striking contrast to the treatment Jerusalem has been getting from its fair-weather European allies and a fickle Obama administration, there stands, of all countries, Canada. Why "of all countries"? Because none of this was preordained. Until lately, Canada's relations with Israel have essentially followed the trajectory of those with Western Europe—that is, starting out warm and turning increasingly frosty.
Mimouna! Mimouna!
Friday, May 13, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

What did two million Israelis do when Passover ended this year? As in previous years, they celebrated Mimouna, a Moroccan Jewish holiday that is popularly observed by picnicking, barbecueing, and consuming moufletas (sweet North African pancakes). And what is Mimouna all about? No one really knows.
Israel: The Miracle Israel: The Miracle
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 by Paul Johnson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The state of Israel is the product of more than 4,000 years of Jewish history. "If you want to understand our country, read this!" said David Ben-Gurion on the first occasion I met him, in 1957. And he slapped the Bible. But the creation and survival of Israel are also very much a 20th-century phenomenon.
Crimes of Communion Crimes of Communion
Monday, May 9, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Two years ago, a Muslim reporter for the Malaysian magazine Al Islam attended a Catholic mass in Kuala Lumpur with a companion, surreptitiously took communion, and put the wafer in his mouth, only to spit it out later. The May 2009 issue of Al Islam featured a cover photograph of the soggy, partially-eaten wafer—to the horror of local church authorities.
The New Egypt: Back to Belligerence? The New Egypt: Back to Belligerence?
Thursday, May 5, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Watching Egypt's revolution unfold earlier this year, apprehensive Israelis were reassured by European and American observers that they had little to worry about: Hosni Mubarak's February 12 departure had been provoked neither by anti-Israel fury nor by Islamist fervor, and shouts of "Up with Egypt" in Tahrir Square more than drowned out chants of "Down with Israel" or "Allahu Akbar." 
Hamas-Fatah: Looking for the Red Lines Hamas-Fatah: Looking for the Red Lines
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Things can always get worse, and in the Middle East they usually will. That was made depressingly clear once again with the April 27 announcement in Cairo of a reconciliation agreement between the rival Palestinian organizations of Fatah and Hamas.
Calibrating Darkness Calibrating Darkness
Monday, May 2, 2011 by Henry Tylbor | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

A child survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and then of Auschwitz and Majdanek, Henry Tylbor (1929–2009) eventually settled in New York where he wrote and taught. A polymath, and fluent in several languages, he was especially interested in the fields of linguistics, neuropsychology, the sociology of culture, and their intersections. The present work of autobiographical fiction is among the manuscripts left at his death. In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, it appears here for the first time.—The Editors
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Editors' Picks
Madness and Messianism Chris Nashawaty, Wired. Jerusalem Syndrome, whereby visitors to the city become convinced that they are the messiah, is a recognized psychological condition. Yet Jerusalem's go-to psychiatrist still hopes one of his patients is the real deal.
Berlin's Kosher Kitsch Mara Delius, Standpoint. Fewer than 70 years after World War II, eating kosher is Berlin's latest bohemian craze. But with restaurants inspired by German culture in the 20's and 30's, historical sensitivity is not on the menu.
Poison Ivy Rivkah Blau, Jewish Press. The thriving Jewish communities at America's elite universities seem entirely natural today, until we remember that just fifty years ago the Ivy League was no haven for Jews.
Hitler Slept Here Aimee Neistat, Haaretz. For six months, an American writer traveled Germany, interviewing locals and exploring the legacy of Nazism. What did he find? A still-extant obsession with Jews.
Frankly, My Dear Alan Brill, Book of Doctrines and Opinions. The Frankist movement led many Jews to convert to Catholicism and join the lower nobility in Poland. But this was no ordinary assimilation, as Jewish theology came to infuse the whole gentry.
Paupers' Cemetery Nadav Shragai, Israel Hayom. For over a century, the Sambusky Cemetery on Mount Zion has been looted for masonry and covered with garbage. But now plans are afoot to restore it and properly commemorate its dead.
The Grapes of Roth Daniel Johnson, Literary Review. The correspondence of Austrian-Jewish writer Joseph Roth displays his sparkling wit and contrarian sensibilities, but testifies above all to his terminal decline into alcoholism.
Newton the Theologian Aron Heller, Associated Press. Known for revolutionizing empirical science, Isaac Newton was also an influential theologian. His writings on Scripture and mysticism (as well as his prediction of the apocalypse) have now been digitized in Israel.
Tramp Stamp Tom Whitehead, Daily Telegraph. Suspecting his Communist sympathies, the CIA and MI5 began investigating Charlie Chaplin. Would his missing birth certificate verify the speculation that he was really a Russian Jew?
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.