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MitzVote is currently on hiatus. We thank our loyal readers, and look forward to bringing it back soon.
Why Liberals Should Be For Israel
The Wall Street Journal opinion page is one of the most reliably pro-Israel editorial pages in the country. When its deputy editorial page editor, Bret Stephens — who also has the distinction of being the youngest person ever appointed editor of the Jerusalem Post — spoke at Drexel University this week, he not only carried the WSJ flag in the pro-Israel department, but explained why others should join his camp.
Stephens began his talk by explaining that his philosophy on current events in the Middle East came courtesy of the comedian Larry David from “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
A Jewish Claim to Human Rights
Human rights are breaking out all over. (When they’re not being tamped down and trampled, that is.) What role does Judaism play?
Earlier this week at Cardozo Law School in Manhattan, the topic of human rights and Judaism was explored in a panel discussion involving three top legal minds as well as a history professor. Co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Law and the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and supported by the Leonard and Bea Diener Institute of Jewish Law, the speakers included Shahar Lifshitz and Yair Lorberbaum, both from the law faculty of Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, Suzanne Stone from Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law, and historian Samuel Moyn of Columbia University.
Jews, North Carolinians, Democrats
When North Carolina’s largest city was named in February as the Democratic party’s choice for its presidential nominating convention in the late summer of 2012, Jews in the “Queen City” began giving some thought to their role.
With a local Jewish community roughly the size of Obama’s slim margin of victory in North Carolina in 2008, Jews in Charlotte say they’ll be ready. Depending on how you define “Jewish,” Charlotte has anywhere between 8,000 and 14,000 Jews — in a city of 757,000 — and the entire state of North Carolina has an estimated 26,000 Jewish residents (0.3 percent of the total population).
The Whole Megillah: A Weekly News Roundup
Here’s a look at what else is going on in politics, culture and media.
Wisconsin: A Jewish fight Some Jews in Wisconsin are joining the protests in Madison, fighting against Gov. Scott Walker’s plans to eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for public-sector employees, reported the Jewish Standard. And why shouldn’t they, wrote Laurie Zimmerman in JTA, who attended the protests last weekend. She said her group demonstrated “Jewish expression for our deepest values” of charitable acts, justice, community, and compromise. “The governor’s legislation threatens these values.” Besides, it echoes the Jewish narrative, said Elissa Barrett and Aryeh Cohen in the Jewish Journal. “Jewish tradition has been clear and consistent—the treatment of workers and their right to organize are among the basic underpinnings of a just society … Our heritage, as the sweatshop workers and copper miners of yesterday, bears witness to it. Our tradition compels it.”
