People & Places
A New Germany?Thursday, April 14, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
At a joint press conference in Berlin on April 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the atmosphere of mutual trust and friendship in which their just-concluded talks had taken place. Germany, he averred, was "a great friend" of Israel. Yet any sober assessment of the Germany-Israel relationship would have to come to a different conclusion.
Clash of CivilizationsFriday, April 8, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The death toll in Afghanistan has passed the two-dozen mark in the riots "inspired" by Pastor Terry Jones's burning of a Quran in Florida. The grisly political theater has served its purpose.
Messianic TemptationsThursday, April 7, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The downfall of Moshe Katsav, the former president of Israel recently convicted and sentenced on a rape charge, is a many-sided episode—involving his crimes, the media circus around the judicial proceedings against him, and the private and public meanings of his disgrace.
“We Love Death”Wednesday, April 6, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 2007, two years before he killed thirteen people and wounded twenty-nine at Fort Hood, Texas, Nidal Malik Hasan prepared a slide show for his fellow Army doctors on the subject of Islam. One of his last points read: "We love death more than you love life!"
Gandhi and the JewsTuesday, April 5, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A new book about Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) has set off stormy protests in India for implying that the country's founding father was bisexual. That's only the beginning of it.
Sifting the Cairo GenizahFriday, April 1, 2011 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Everyone knows about the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered over 60 years ago, and about the new light they shed on the sectarian Judaism of late antiquity, the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism, and possibly the prehistory of Christianity. Fifty years before that, the Cairo Genizah similarly revolutionized the picture of the Jewish Middle Ages.
Gaza Endgame?Wednesday, March 30, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A March 26 meeting in Ramallah between an unofficial delegation of West Bank Hamas "parliamentarians" and Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority and leader of the Fatah party, was ostensibly about reconciling the two factions. Actually it was about much more.
Jewish Studies in Decline?Monday, March 28, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Reports prepared recently for Israel's Council of Higher Education have brought despairing news about the condition of the humanities in the country's universities. Especially dispiriting is the report on Jewish studies, once the crowning glory of Israel's flagship Hebrew University—and, in the report's inadvertently nostalgic words, "an investment in the nurturing of the deep spiritual and cultural structures of Israeli public and private life." That investment has been producing ever smaller returns.
The Brothers al-KuwaitiFriday, March 25, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Remember "Baghdad Bob," Saddam Hussein's information minister? During the Iraq war, as the cameras showed U.S. tanks rolling through Baghdad, he took to the airwaves to assure his fellow Iraqis that not a single enemy tank had penetrated the city's defenses. As it happens, "Bob," whose real name was Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf, was a long-time expert in manufacturing absurd lies for domestic consumption.
The Turkish ModelThursday, March 24, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Considering the current upheaval in the Arab world, some optimists foresee the possibility of Islamic parties coming to power by democratic means and the consequent emergence of Turkish-style political systems. But how firm is Turkey's own commitment to democratic principles?
Editors' Picks
Courting Change Mati Wagner, Times of Israel. As chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch brought the judiciary into the thick of public debate. Her successor, Asher Grunis, will favor a new era of judicial restraint.
Secular Saint? Daniel Johnson, Standpoint. Tony Judt is revered by atheist hagiographers and graces the secular pantheon, but his legacy is a share in the moral decay of Europe which will leave no civilization to remember him.
Chained Melody Uri Zer Aviv, Haaretz. In its heyday, the Mizrahi Orchestra numbered 36 musicians, who uniquely preserved Jewish music from the Babylonian Diaspora. But amid financial woes, its future looks bleak.
Tiptoeing Around the Tal Law Jerusalem Post. In responding to the ruling that the law which exempted Haredim from military service is unconstitutional, Netanyahu must resist the political temptation to force Haredim to serve.
Russia's Jewish Composers Matt Kelly, UVA Today. For a brief period prior to the Revolution, Jews were among the rising stars of Russian classical music. But they soon discovered that while Russian culture liked Jewish music, it didn't like Jews.
The Frank Truth about the Mormons Rafael Medoff, JTA. Jews offended by the news that Mormons have posthumously baptized Anne Frank would do well to remember how many Jewish lives the Mormons saved during the War.
The Lost Left Michael C. Kotzin, New Republic. The eyewitness accounts of late Mandate Palestine by the journalist I. F. Stone recall a time when the Left was capable of sympathizing with Palestinians without attempting to delegitimize Israel.
Losing the Temple Mount Amir Shoan, Ynet. The Muslim waqf which oversees the Temple Mount is allowing archeological sites to be bulldozed, in contravention of the law. But instead of intervening, the Israeli government is covering it up.
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.