Whose Holocaust?

 

For much of Europe, today is the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dedicated his address this year to children murdered by the Nazis, with the message that "the best tribute to the memory of these children is an ongoing effort to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust, so that no such horror is visited upon future generations."

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A Very English Institution

 

Last week some 600 Jews converged on the hamlet of Kerhonkson in upstate New York for Limmud NY, a three-day "marketplace of Jewish ideas." Now in its eighth year, the volunteer-run Limmud NY is open to professional teachers and amateurs alike.

Talking Heads  Nathan Lopes Cardozo,  Cardozo Academy.  Is wearing a kippah all the time equivalent to not wearing it at all? Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo tells Limmud how his kippah has come between him and God.  SAVE

Renaissance in Russia  Alex Weisler,  JTA.  The idea of bringing Limmud to the former Soviet Union was dismissed as ridiculous. But now, with a network from Odessa to Beersheba, it is rejuvenating the Russian-speaking Jewish community.  SAVE

Unity in Adversity  Ofra Bengio,  Haaretz.  Deteriorating Israeli-Turkish relations have caught Turkish Jews in the crossfire. Yet Limmud Istanbul testifies to a community as resolute and vibrant as ever.  SAVE

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Jewish Farm School.

Eating Your Values

 

The many Jewish laws regarding food—how it gets from the ground and into our mouths in a kosher manner—are central to Jewish life.  But what ethical framework underlies the system of kashrut? Maimonides' justifications for kashrut range from avoiding cruelty to animals and eschewing the idolatrous practices of antiquity to considerations of health.

Yiddish Farm  Devra Ferst,  The Jew and the Carrot.  Where Yiddish-language immersion meets sustainable agriculture. (Interview with Naftali Ejdelman)  SAVE

Locusts, Giraffes, and the Meaning of Kashrut  Meir Soloveichik,  Azure.  Sifting historical and contemporary explanations, one Orthodox intellectual settles in the end on divine love and Jewish difference. (PDF)  SAVE

They Were What They Ate  Susan Marks,  H-Net.  A new volume on the role of food in shaping ancient Jewish identity goes farther and deeper than earlier studies of the subject.  SAVE

Slaughterhouse Rules  Elli Fischer,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  As Jewish ritual slaughter makes multiple provisions for the minimization of animal pain, it's evident that those who seek to ban the practice often have something other than animal welfare in mind.  SAVE

Going Kosher  Sue Fishkoff,  JTA.  Reform rabbis of late are challenging their constituents to develop a dietary practice based on such values as sustainability, morality—and, yes, kashrut.  SAVE

Kosher Nation  Jenna Weissman Joselit,  New Republic.  The expansion of the kosher food industry has, ironically, caused kosher food to become invisible.  SAVE

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Career Corps

 

The United States has its military academies at West Point and Annapolis. The British put their officers through Sandhurst. But how will the Israeli Defense Forces, a citizen army, train its officers for the 21st century?

Brass Tactics  Yuval Bazak,  Military and Strategic Affairs.  The IDF remains a people's army, but the Second Lebanon War made clear the need for professionalization and adaptation. (PDF)  SAVE

The Jewish Way in War  Elliot Jager,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  What does Judaism have to say about the rules of war? Jewish and Israeli theoreticians have mined Jewish tradition for a moral reality check.  SAVE

Assessing General Ashkenazi  Avi Kober,  BESA Perspectives.  Ashkenazi helped restore faith in the IDF, but when he stepped down, shortcomings in clarifying battle doctrine and educating commanders remained.  SAVE

Beyond Tanks  Alex Joffe,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Israel has fought large-scale conventional wars and it has faced down terrorists. In the next war, just as enemy tactics will be different, so too will be the response.  SAVE

In the Officer's Course  YouTube.  Docudrama about the rigors IDF cadets must endure to obtain their lieutenants' bars. (Video)  SAVE

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Insight & Analysis

History without Witnesses  Deborah E. Lipstadt.  Jewish Week.  As the Holocaust disappears from living memory, what matters is not who is speaking but who is listening.  SAVE

Bullies, Sluts, Bulimics . . . and Supreme Court Justices  Shira Kohn.  Lilith.  Given the numbers of women involved over the decades, historians won't be able to ignore the Jewish sorority experience for much longer. (PDF).  SAVE

The Mis-Education of a Young Evangelical  Dexter Van Zile.  New English Review.  How traumatic has the Jewish refusal to accept Jesus as the messiah been for Christians, and to what end?.  SAVE

The Chinese Kabbalist  Jonathan Wilson.  Forward.  In an interview, the scholar Ying Han reveals her first impressions of Jews, the similarities between Hillel's teachings and Confucianism, and how a translating assignment led her to pursue a PhD in Jewish literature and Kabbalah.  SAVE

Paradise Regained  William Kolbrener.  Aish.com.  A literary encounter with Paradise Lost helped one graduate student access the poetry inherent in the Jewish idea of repentance.  SAVE

By Faith Alone  Israel Drazin.  Jewish Ideas and Ideals.  The late Rabbi Yehuda Amital was an influential Israeli educator, instrumental in integrating yeshiva study with military service, and an opponent of rabbis' setting public policy.  SAVE

Why Study Talmud?  Richard Hidary.  Shofar.  An important question, to which a collection of entertaining personal testimonies by contemporary talmudists repeatedly yields a common answer: for the joy of it.  SAVE

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