American Jewish History
Brandeis and Zionism, In and Out of LoveTuesday, June 19, 2012 by Evan Moffic | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Supreme Court is once again poised to define the role of government in American society; and Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, would have recognized the terms of the debate.
The Jewish Left, between History and RevelationMonday, June 11, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The association of Jews with leftist ideas and movements has been a fixture of Western politics for the past 150 years. But is the relationship logical and necessary, or is it historical and contingent?
The Lower Lower East SideFriday, June 1, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
What most American Jews know about New York's Lower East Side comes from books like Irving Howe's World of our Fathers. But I was born and raised in the neighborhood at a time when there were still pushcarts along Avenue C . . .
The Mona Lisa of ViennaWednesday, May 30, 2012 by Susan Hertog | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1857, when Emperor Franz-Joseph pulled down the ancient stone wall encompassing Vienna, the social and cultural traditions of the country seemed to tumble with it. Impoverished immigrants, many of them Jews, flooded in from the east.
(F)rum RunnersWednesday, May 23, 2012 by Lawrence J. Epstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Prohibition is perennially making a comeback, at least in the media; and this is one of those revival times. It began with the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire, now in its second season, set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City and priding itself on its historical accuracy.
The Moral Costs of Jewish Day SchoolMonday, May 14, 2012 by Aryeh Klapper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
There is a lot of hand-wringing these days about whether the rising costs of Jewish day schools are sustainable. The discussion has been about money: How can we get more? How can we spend less? These questions miss the point.
The Case of American Religious ZionismThursday, May 10, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Few things divide and provoke American Jews like the question of Zionism. Though many wish to remember otherwise, this was also the case before the founding of Israel in 1948.
What is Jewish Dance?Wednesday, May 9, 2012 by Walter Zev Feldman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
For readers interested in the development of folk dance and, to a lesser extent, modern dance in Israel, Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance, edited by Judith Brin Ingber, a dance scholar who has written widely on Israeli dance, is a valuable resource.
A Real Titanic Love StoryWednesday, 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.
Reading between the ListsWednesday, April 4, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
As long as humans have been writing, humans have been making lists and ranking things. The new Daily Beast/Newsweek list of "America's Top 50 Rabbis for 2012" is, like most American lists, whether of rabbis, cars, or colleges, designed to shape reality as much as reflect it.
Editors' Picks
Israel on the Hudson Jenna Weissman Joselit, Jewish Review of Books. Spanning three volumes, City of Promises offers a thorough history of Jewish New York. But “where, oh where, is the expansiveness and, yes, the sheer incommensurability of it all?”
FDR and the Jews Marc Fisher, Moment. “Roosevelt sounded at times like a Zionist, at times like a skeptic about Palestine’s capacity to absorb new settlers, and at times, when speaking to anti-Semites, like an anti-Semite himself.”
Purim and Presidents Day Aaron Zelinsky, Huffington Post. Purim and Presidents Day rarely fall in the same week. They do this year, and the coincidence is appropriate—since the early presidents were fans of the Purim story.
At Home with Mickey Cohen Ben Cosgrove, LIFE. Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen was a celebrity as well as a thug. When he posed for the cameras, though, he was just a family guy. (Photographs by Ed Clark)
The Redemptive Chutzpah of Ed Koch Thane Rosenbaum, Jewish Week. As New York City’s mayor from 1978 to 1989, Ed Koch, who died last week, is credited with having saved the city from bankruptcy—in a "brashly Jewish way."
Gangs of Detroit Naomi Sandweiss, Tablet. What gangster Mickey Cohen was to Los Angeles, the Purple Gang was to Detroit—"a Jewish gang feared by even Al Capone’s Chicago mob."
The Rest of the Leaked Romney Video Douglas Bloomfield, Jewish Week. In that fundraiser video, Romney also talked about Israel: “Pushing the Israelis to give something up to get the Palestinians to act is the worst idea in the world.”
Rabbis for Slavery Howard B. Rock, Tablet. Today, New York’s Bnai Jeshurun Synagogue is a bastion of progressive politics. But on the eve of the Civil War, its rabbi was a champion of slavery. A cautionary tale.
A New Lease on Life Winnie Hu, New York Times. From the Bronx to New Orleans, struggling synagogues have come up with a new way to survive: They pay Jewish families to move into the neighborhood.
The Hate That Dare Not Speak Its Name Norman Podhoretz, Commentary. When Gore Vidal came more or less fully out of the anti-Semitic closet, he still thought it the better part of prudence to protect himself by posing as the spokesman for a minority which was being persecuted by the Jews. (1986)