Opinion

• Opinion

  Jewish Wisdom, and a ‘Wise Latina’

  With tears and gratitude, Judge Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in as the 111th United States Supreme Court justice — the third woman and the first Latino to make it to our high court. Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings brought to the forefront of American public discourse some fundamental questions about what law is and what the proper…

  By Shmuly Yanklowitz

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Dear Bibi: How To Raise Israel’s Approval Ratings

  **MEMO TO: **Prime Minister Bibi **FROM: **Wordsmith Noam RE: Crummy Numbers Mr. Prime Minister, You’ve seen the lousy numbers that came out recently on American attitudes toward Israel. According to surveys from the Israel Project, only 49% of Americans call themselves pro-Israel, down from 69% last September. It’s true that you’re not the prime minister…

  By Noam Neusner Aug 12, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Ailing America: Unhealthy Debate, Sick System

  One of the first things children are taught in our society, once they’re old enough to speak, is to listen to others and respond appropriately. The lesson is usually imparted these days in some variation of the phrase “Use words.” What we really mean is, don’t use your fists. Don’t cry or shout or throw…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 12, 2009 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry An Israeli media mainstay is crumbling. Will liberal democracy go with it?

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Analogies Have Consequences

  In 1995, right-wing Israeli demonstrations opposing any political accommodation with the Palestinians featured posters depicting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the uniform of a Nazi SS officer. The message was duly received. On November 5, 1995, Yigal Amir, a far-right Israeli law student, assassinated Rabin at a Tel Aviv peace rally. Members of Israel’s…

  By Menachem Z. Rosensaft Aug 10, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Israeli Rabbis’ Mustard Wars, or Who You Callin’ ‘Neo-Reform’?

  Things are getting hot along one of Israel’s most important religious fault lines. No, it’s not Haredi vs. secular or Orthodox vs. Reform. It is a rancorous and seemingly unbridgeable rift within Religious Zionism, roughly the same territory that Americans call Modern Orthodoxy. As in America, Orthodox liberals in Israel have been on the defensive…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 7, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  One Last Letter to Good People: Farewell, Amos Kenan

  The news of Amos Kenan’s death in Tel Aviv August 4 came as a surprising, almost physical shock. A bohemian artist and journalist from Israel’s founding generation, Kenan has been on my mind a lot in the past few weeks. I met him only a couple of times, probably 40 years ago, when I was…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 6, 2009 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  A Missing Culprit, but Culpability All Around

  Here is how it happens. First, demagogues use incendiary rhetoric to inflame passions against a group or individual. Next, a “lone gunman” attacks the target(s) of that rhetoric. Then, the same demagogues who fanned the flames in the first place condemn the attack, express shock — shock! — that such a thing could ever have…

  By Jay Michaelson Aug 5, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Why Is Israel Trying To Break Breaking the Silence?

  Ever since Breaking the Silence published testimonies from Israeli soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead, various government bodies and public figures in Israel have waged an aggressive smear campaign against the organization. Rather than engaging in meaningful analysis and debate of the disturbing contents of these testimonies, Israeli officials have chosen to try to…

  By Gila Orkin Aug 5, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Long Shadow of Scandal

  ‘Three Rabbis named in Three Separate Conspiracy Charges.” “Two Rabbis and their two assistants… charged with violations.” “Rabbi to be indicted [for]… uttering or transmitting false or forged papers for the purpose of defrauding the Government.” Sound dismally familiar? Actually, these passages all appeared in The New York Times over what was, for Jews, an…

  By Jonathan D. Sarna Aug 5, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Teachable Moments, Sans Teachers

  I confess: When it first occurred, I didn’t think that Henry Louis Gates’s contretemps with Sergeant James Crowley of the Cambridge police could be much of “a teachable moment.” At the time, the whole episode, so vastly blown out of proportion, seemed to me best forgotten, a not especially surprising misunderstanding in an unusually awkward…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 5, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Roger Cohen Digs Himself Deeper

  Pity poor Roger Cohen. The freshman New York Times columnist has stumbled into a mess of trouble of late, and he doesn’t quite seem to know what’s hit him. And the more he tries to climb out of the hole he’s dug, the deeper he digs himself in. Cohen’s woes started last January, when he…

  By J.J. Goldberg Aug 5, 2009 | 4 min read