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Modern Times


The Tribes Speak The Tribes Speak
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Unrest is spreading in the Middle East, but everywhere it displays a unique character. Take Jordan. In an unprecedented public letter to King Abdullah II, thirty-six of the country's tribal leaders have warned that "Jordan will sooner or later be the target of an uprising similar to the ones in Tunisia and Egypt."
The <i>New York Times</i> Revises the Peace Process The New York Times Revises the Peace Process
Monday, February 14, 2011 by Sol Stern | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

"The Peace Plan that Almost Was and Still Could Be": blazoned over the entire cover of the February 13 New York Times Magazine, the sensation-seeking headline comes accompanied by a photograph from the back of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, each with his arm around the other.
Calling David Ben-Gurion Calling David Ben-Gurion
Thursday, February 3, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Times like these tend to remind us what a rare thing is great statesmanship. How many leaders are capable of wedding long-term vision with the nuts and bolts of politics and institutions, let alone an understanding of great historical forces with the will to shape them and the wisdom to know the will's limits?
Arab Stirrings Arab Stirrings
Friday, January 28, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

On January 14, the strongman of Tunisia, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fled in panic to Saudi Arabia after the astonishingly spontaneous, Facebook-driven crumbling of his corrupt regime.
The Iraqi Jewish Archive The Iraqi Jewish Archive
Monday, January 24, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

To whom do antiquities belong?  For Jews, the question took on flesh in 2003 in the flooded basement of a building belonging to the Iraqi secret police.
A Zionist Who’s Who A Zionist Who’s Who
Thursday, January 20, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The state of Israel, like the Zionist movement in all its forms—political, cultural, artistic, religious—was an astounding collective creation. The famous names are known, as are the slightly less famous.  But what about all the others?
Under Fire Under Fire
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 by Sol Stern | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The second Lebanon war in the summer of 2006 forced Israelis to come to grips with the definitive end of the Oslo era and the shattering of two fundamental assumptions about the nature of their conflict with the Palestinians.
The Huguenot Connection The Huguenot Connection
Monday, January 3, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In the darkest hours of the Holocaust, the safest place for Jews in occupied Europe may have been the southern French hamlet of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
Land of the Crescent Moon? Land of the Crescent Moon?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

When an Islamist suicide bomber accidentally detonated two of the three explosive devices he had brought to a bustling Stockholm shopping district in early December, Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt urged his fellow citizens in the "Land of the Midnight Sun" not to jump to hasty conclusions about any jihadist connection.  But that may prove tricky.
The DNA Speaks The DNA Speaks
Monday, December 20, 2010 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Are Jews a "nation" or a "people"? The Hebrew term ‘am means both.  Both terms, moreover, have been subjected to disapprobation in our time—although not nearly to the extent of "race," a term that Jews themselves stopped using nearly a century ago. How, then, are we to think about the mounting genetic evidence that points to Jewish biological continuity over time?
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Editors' Picks
The Big Lie Returns Ben Cohen, Commentary. As long as the enemies of the Jews control the meaning of the term 'anti-Semitism,' Jews will remain vulnerable to the calumny that they alone are the authors of their own misfortune.
Hard Times for Hamas Guy Bechor, Ynet. Its rhetoric is as fierce as ever, but since it's been strangled in Jordan, expelled from Syria, and defunded by Iran, Hamas lacks the friends and money to match.
"Subbotniks" Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz. In 1876, a community of converts left their native Russia to settle in the Galilee, forsaking their Christian past. Now their descendants are rediscovering their roots.
Assad in the Balance Daniel Freedman, Forbes. Of all Israel's neighbors, Syria has traditionally been the most hostile. But now that the Arab League has deserted him, President Assad might be open to rapprochement with Israel and the West.
A Conspiracy Against Catholicism? Piers Paul Read, Telegraph. When Captain Alfred Dreyfus was unjustly convicted of espionage, many of those who rallied to his defense were not philo-Semites but militant atheists, bent on destroying his Catholic opponents.
Germany's Jewish Voice Ofer Aderet, Haaretz. With an influx of immigrants from Russia and Israel, Germany's Jewish community is the fastest growing in the world. Now a new quarterly heralds the rebirth of Jewish-German culture.
"My Name is Daniel Pearl" Giulio Meotti, Ynet. The barbarous murder of this American Jew, ten years ago this week, didn't awaken global public opinion to the most significant truth of our times: Today, every Jew in the world is on the frontlines of war.
How Many Came Out of Egypt? Shlomo Karni, Torah Musings. David Ben-Gurion did the math.
Bringing Darkness to Light Eva Fogelman, Forward. Agnieszka Holland's Oscar-nominated In Darkness is a vivid and nuanced portrayal of Jews escaping wartime Poland and an important testament to the righteousness of their rescuer.
A Mind Alone Stefany Anne Golberg, Smart Set. In a collection of the Austrian novelist Joseph Roth's correspondence, there aren't any letters written to his parents, or to those who were perhaps his closest friends. There are no love letters—or any letters at all—to his wife.