People & Places
Find, Fix, Finish
What is the threat? Al-Qaeda? "Terrorism"? "Violent religious extremism"? Israeli analysts call it "global jihad," but U.S. leadership has carefully circumscribed it as "al-Qaeda" or, even more narrowly, personified it as Osama bin Laden and his minions, hijackers of planes and Islam.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
What is the threat? Al-Qaeda? "Terrorism"? "Violent religious extremism"? Israeli analysts call it "global jihad," but U.S. leadership has carefully circumscribed it as "al-Qaeda" or, even more narrowly, personified it as Osama bin Laden and his minions, hijackers of planes and Islam.
The Move that Dare Not Speak Its Name
Recent years have seen a flurry of reports, studies, and worried discussions about strengthening Diaspora Jewry's ties to Israel. But what about strengthening the ties to Israel—or, for that matter, to the Diaspora—of the growing numbers of Israelis who live abroad?
Monday, April 30, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Recent years have seen a flurry of reports, studies, and worried discussions about strengthening Diaspora Jewry's ties to Israel. But what about strengthening the ties to Israel—or, for that matter, to the Diaspora—of the growing numbers of Israelis who live abroad?
Going the Distance
Israel is a nation-state. In contrast, Diaspora Jewry—in particular, American Jewry—is a network of voluntary communities, constituting not just different structures but different life-worlds. While it is usually taken for granted that nation-states and their respective diasporas will grow apart, with Jews the issue is hotly debated.
Friday, April 27, 2012 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Israel is a nation-state. In contrast, Diaspora Jewry—in particular, American Jewry—is a network of voluntary communities, constituting not just different structures but different life-worlds. While it is usually taken for granted that nation-states and their respective diasporas will grow apart, with Jews the issue is hotly debated.
Independence Day
Every spring, within a single week, Israel commemorates Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha'atzma'ut. These days revisit the core drama of the modern Jewish experience. They are also among the most controversial in the Israeli calendar.
Thursday, April 26, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Every spring, within a single week, Israel commemorates Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha'atzma'ut. These days revisit the core drama of the modern Jewish experience. They are also among the most controversial in the Israeli calendar.
Back From Heaven
In May 2011, Gallup conducted its annual "Values and Beliefs" poll, seeking to quantify religious demographics and beliefs in America. One question struck a national nerve, eliciting a consensus that defied religious or cultural distinctions. The question: Do you believe in heaven? The answer: Yes, overwhelmingly.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In May 2011, Gallup conducted its annual "Values and Beliefs" poll, seeking to quantify religious demographics and beliefs in America. One question struck a national nerve, eliciting a consensus that defied religious or cultural distinctions. The question: Do you believe in heaven? The answer: Yes, overwhelmingly.
A Room of Their Own
The editors of B'hadrei Haredim, a website whose name could be loosely translated as Haredi "private rooms," are supposed to be the good guys—the people who are leading the Haredi community in new and positive directions. These are the individuals who turned a tiny chat room into a major news site.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The editors of B'hadrei Haredim, a website whose name could be loosely translated as Haredi "private rooms," are supposed to be the good guys—the people who are leading the Haredi community in new and positive directions. These are the individuals who turned a tiny chat room into a major news site.
The First Lady of Fleet Street
Her story is as old as Eve—lust for knowledge and power, disillusion, tragedy and rebirth—and as new as the modern world's technologically based global empires. It begins in the ghettos of Frankfurt and the cities of ancient Babylonia and ends in the mansions of Mayfair and country estates of England.
Monday, April 23, 2012 by Susan Hertog | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Her story is as old as Eve—lust for knowledge and power, disillusion, tragedy and rebirth—and as new as the modern world's technologically based global empires. It begins in the ghettos of Frankfurt and the cities of ancient Babylonia and ends in the mansions of Mayfair and country estates of England.
The Education of a “Wise Man”
Eddie Jacobson was once a folk hero among American Jews, and even today he is far from forgotten. In their authoritative book A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, Allis and Ronald Radosh tell how Truman's old business partner did his part to bring Israel into existence.
Friday, April 20, 2012 by Allan Arkush | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Eddie Jacobson was once a folk hero among American Jews, and even today he is far from forgotten. In their authoritative book A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, Allis and Ronald Radosh tell how Truman's old business partner did his part to bring Israel into existence.
Righteous Among Our Nation
Even before visitors walk through the door of Yad Vashem, they see a powerful tribute to Holocaust heroism. Along the Avenue of the Righteous leading to the museum, thousands of trees bloom in honor of the approximately 21,000 "Righteous Among the Nations," courageous Gentiles who defied the Nazis and risked their lives to save Jews from deportation.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 by Chaya Glasner | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Even before visitors walk through the door of Yad Vashem, they see a powerful tribute to Holocaust heroism. Along the Avenue of the Righteous leading to the museum, thousands of trees bloom in honor of the approximately 21,000 "Righteous Among the Nations," courageous Gentiles who defied the Nazis and risked their lives to save Jews from deportation.
A Real Titanic Love Story
One hundred years ago today, the RMS Carpathia pulled into New York's Pier 54 carrying 705 survivors of the Titanic disaster. Most of the survivors were women and children from first class. But Ida Straus, one of the wealthiest and possibly one of the oldest women on board, was not among them.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 by Philip Getz | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
One hundred years ago today, the RMS Carpathia pulled into New York's Pier 54 carrying 705 survivors of the Titanic disaster. Most of the survivors were women and children from first class. But Ida Straus, one of the wealthiest and possibly one of the oldest women on board, was not among them.
Editors' Picks
A People of One Book Walter Arnstein, H-Net. Timothy Larsen aims to demonstrate the immense religiosity of Victorian England—but, if anything, he understates the case.
Confessions of a Narcissist David Rieff, Nation. Claude Lanzmann's memoir is a self-indulgent failure. But Shoah is a work of genius, and that does indeed justify a life.
Public Enemy Michael C. Moynihan, Tablet. An admirer of Qaddafi and Mugabe and an old-school anti-Semite, Charles Barron is an unlikely choice for a New York congressman. But low turnout in the Democratic primary could make him just that.
Anglo-Jewry: A Contradiction in Terms? Linda Grant, New Statesman. If Jews are, in the words of literary critic Leslie Fiedler, the natural voice of modern America, Jewish writers in Britain remain the voice of the permanent counter-culture.
Who Killed Hebrew in America? Cynthia Ozick, New Republic. Who could have foretold an eruption of Hebrew-generative genius on the American continent—which, having no offspring, then came to nothing?
"Rabbi, do we Jews believe in reincarnation?" Hyim Shafner, Institute for Jewish Ideas. "Knowing full well that much of Kabbalah, philosophy, and even Midrash does accept the notion of reincarnation, I tried to muster a definitive 'No!'"
Return to Vienna Lisa Silverman, H-Net. Jews who grew up in cosmopolitan pre-war Vienna came back after the war to find themselves strangers at home. Yet Austria's capital still fascinates Jewish writers.
Disunited Synagogue David Cesarani, New Statesman. While some at the New Statesman may still believe Jews to be a powerful enemy within, Anglo-Jewry has never agreed on anything—whether religious practice, Zionism, or the admittance of Jewish refugees.
Johnny Cash's Christian Zionism David Brinn, Jerusalem Post. June Carter Cash "had a dream in which Johnny was preaching to the multitudes at the Sea of Galilee, and she was intent on seeing him do it for real."
Mayim Mayim Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria. Fact sheet on water in the West Bank: accessibility, contamination, sustainability, and how the joint resource is being managed between Israelis and Palestinians. (PDF)