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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2011: A Year in Books

 

The holidays are over, the coffee-table books have all been unwrapped and set aside, and winter isn't going anywhere for a while. In short, it's time to settle in for some good reading. The literary critic D. G. Myers here presents the 38 best Jewish books of 2011, all of which merit your attention.

2010: A Year in Books  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  From the popular to the scholarly, a reader's and buyer's guide to 34 of the best books of 2010.  SAVE

Retrieving American Jewish Fiction  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A historical symposium of some neglected classics, and an introduction to the avot and imahot of American Jewish writing.  SAVE

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Highlights of 2011:
Part II

 

Part II of our round-up of the past year's most popular features on Jewish Ideas Daily. (Part I is here.)

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Part II"

Highlights of 2011:
Part I

 

A two-part glimpse back at some of the year's most popular Jewish Ideas Daily features that you might have missed.
Here, part I.

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Part I"

View More in Religious Life

Insight & Analysis

Cancelling Conversion  Gil Student.  Torah Musings.  While many Orthodox rabbis have become too willing to annul conversions, even the non-Orthodox world recognizes that there are some circumstances in which a conversion must be overturned.  SAVE

Blurring the Issue  Hadassah Levy.  Torah Musings.  Blurring or removing photographs of women might be understandable in the ultra-Orthodox world, but it should have no place in Modern Orthodoxy.  SAVE

"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.  SAVE

Bugged by Kashrut  Jonah Lowenfeld.  Jewish Journal.  Whereas fifty years ago Jews rarely worried about bugs in vegetables, today there is a growing market for bug-free produce which is certified kosher. But stricter observance comes at a price.  SAVE

A Stunning Discovery  Judy Siegel-Itzkovich.  Jerusalem Post.  As Holland, among other countries in Europe, seeks to ban Jewish ritual slaughter, new research demonstrating that stunning animals does not minimize their suffering has come not a moment too soon.  SAVE

The Seed of Israel  David Ellenson.  Jewish Review of Books.  He has been accused of heresy and expelled from Shas, but Haim Amsalem's lenient approach to conversion in Israel may yet be a blueprint for a more unified nation.  SAVE

Digital Davening  Michael J. Broyde.  Torah Musings.  Smartphones have already begun to supplant traditional siddurim; but the potential of the digital revolution to transform the experience of prayer has barely been realized.  SAVE

The Weekly Portion

B'har: Liberty and the Jubilee

 

Leviticus 25:1–26:2

By Michael Carasik

Liberty Bell Jubilee Year Bible Leviticus B'har Behar parsha Michael Carasik Jewish Ideas Daily freedom macroeconomics economics slavery

This week's reading, though little more than a single chapter, deals with two separate topics: first, the sabbatical year; second, the obligations of family members to a relative in economic distress. What links them is a focus, unusual for the Torah, on macroeconomics.

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Jerusalem Letter

Tzanaa

 

Aryeh Tepper

At a Yemenite synagogue in Jerusalem, a group of men sit down at 5:30 every Saturday morning to study the weekly Torah portion. The custom is hardly extraordinary; but the curriculum is.

Continue Reading "Tzanaa"  Aryeh Tepper,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  SAVE

Torah, Tzanaa-style  A video of a weekly portion in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic, together with an audio recording of Tzanaa-style recitation.  SAVE

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