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Zionism


Religion and State in Israel Religion and State in Israel
Wednesday, July 3, 2013 by Moshe Koppel | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

I want to make an argument for limiting the role of the Israeli state in maintaining Jewish institutions. I do so, however, as one who wishes to see an expansion of the influence of traditional Judaism in the Israeli public square. Read in full on Mosaic.
Secularism and Its Discontents Secularism and Its Discontents
Thursday, May 30, 2013 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In an essay first published December 17, 2010, Yehudah Mirsky examines a defense of Jewish secularism and finds it—and Jewish secularism itself—wanting.
Beyond the Giants Beyond the Giants
Friday, May 10, 2013 by Robert Nicholson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Strange as it may sound, my idea of Israel did match reality.  I’ve never imagined it to be some spotless utopia where everybody knows your name.  It is a land haunted by terror and tragedy, fear and doubt.  And yet it’s the land where God has chosen to reveal Himself to man. 
A Time Capsule A Time Capsule
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 by Glenn Dynner | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Petitions (kvitlekh) addressed to the 19th-century miracle worker Rabbi Elijah Guttmacher provide something almost never found in hoary Hebrew tomes or official Polish documents: windows into the struggles and secret anxieties of everyday Jews in Eastern Europe.
Menachem Begin: A New Life Menachem Begin: A New Life
Friday, May 3, 2013 by Asaf Romirowsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Ensuring that another Holocaust would never take place was Menachem Begin's paramount concern, even when he was Prime Minister of Israel, pursuing Yasir Arafat in his Beirut bunker.
The Politics of Yiddish The Politics of Yiddish
Monday, April 29, 2013 by Ruth Wisse | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Jews who hold on to, or reach back for, the Yiddishkeyt of Yiddish yearn not merely for a declining language but for the social and political ideal that seems embedded in it.  
Zionism Before Herzl Zionism Before Herzl
Monday, April 22, 2013 by Erika Dreifus | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In 1876, 21 years before Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress, a non-Jewish woman, writing for an English audience, published a novel with a powerful Zionist message.  She went by the name of George Eliot. 
The New Rosh Hashanah The New Rosh Hashanah
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 by Elli Fischer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The Jewish New Year is characterized by an uneasy combination of stock-taking and solemn celebration.  Yom Ha’atzma’ut, as the birthday of the Jewish state, is beginning to acquire a similar character.
The Challenge of Sovereignty The Challenge of Sovereignty
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 by Michael B. Oren | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

On the eve of Israel's independence, David Ben-Gurion sat alone, questioning whether a people so long accustomed to being the victims of sovereign power could take responsibility for themselves.
On Silence On Silence
Monday, April 15, 2013 by Anita Shapira | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Eschewing Jewish expressions of mourning, Israel's founding generations shaped a national ethos of silence and self-restraint, which found expression in the words of poet David Shimoni: “Don’t mourn, don’t cry/ at a time like this./ Don’t lower your head,/ Work! Work!”
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Editors' Picks
Listening to Israel's Arabs Alexander Yakobson, Fathom. The claim that the Arab citizens of Israel are essentially and fundamentally alienated from the state is plain wrong.
Ghosts of Scandals Past Rafael Medoff, JNS. Seventy years ago, FDR used the IRS to target a group lobbying for the rescue of Jews from Nazi Germany; but Roosevelt's investigators ended up as sympathizers.
Buried in Good Company Rafael Medoff, JNS. Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery is the final resting place of 150,000 people, from biblical prophets to Zionist leaders—including some lesser-known heroes.
Herzl's New Judaism Daphne Netanyahu, Jerusalem Post. "Zionism is our return to Judaism," wrote Theodor Herzl, "which must occur before we can return to the Land of the Jews."
Who Needs a Constitution? Yaacov Lozowick, Israel State Archives. Popular opinion holds that the religious parties prevented Israel from adopting a constitution.  But the archives show that the real obstacle was Ben-Gurion.
Confessions of a British Zionist Liam Hoare, The Tower. "I am a Zionist because there is something inherently myopic, ignorant, and nasty about present-day anti-Zionism that must be confronted."
With the Zionists in Gallipoli Natan Slifkin, Rationalist Judaism. Having commanded both the Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Legion during World War I, Colonel John Patterson spent the rest of his life fighting the British establishment for a Jewish homeland.
65 Years On Isi Leibler, Israel Hayom. "Our spectacular success has far exceeded the expectations of our idealistic founders.  By any rational benchmark it would be deemed a modern day miracle."
No Thanks Yossi Klein Halevi, Hartman Institute. On Yom Ha'atzma'ut, haredim are conspicuous for refusing to acknowledge the country that guarantees their survival.  But "non-haredim have also been remiss in expressing gratitude—to the haredi world."
"More Estonians than Etonians" Charles C. Johnson, Tablet. A philo-Semite ever since her family rescued a Jewish girl from Vienna in 1938, Margaret Thatcher gave unprecedented prominence to Jewish politicians in her government.