Opinion

• Opinion

  Abu Arar’s Homemade Missile

  The question of the week is: Shehade Abu Arar or Omer Gavar? “Who?” you will ask. And I will answer: Abu Arar is an Israeli Arab who has fathered (gulp) 67 children, as confirmed by Israel’s Interior Ministry. He is from the village of Burgata — or, perhaps, he and his eight wives and children…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  The Tutu Heave-Ho

  Not much lasting harm will come from the recent nastiness surrounding Archbishop Desmond Tutu and a Minnesota university that canceled his invitation to a human rights conference, for fear of offending the Jewish community. Tutu, the Nobel laureate South African human rights activist, does not lack for platforms from which to speak. The University of…

  Oct 10, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Bush and the Children

  Now that President Bush is down to his final months in office, one might expect him to be worrying about what he leaves behind — how history will judge him and, no less important, what sort of record he will leave for his fellow Republicans to run on next year. How odd of him, then,…

  Oct 10, 2007 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Rob Eshman The case for Jewish optimism in 2026

  

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

  

• Dan Perry It’s a classic trick of liars and crooks — and it’s shaping Israel’s response to war and disaster

  

• Emily Tamkin The Holocaust survivor writer who can help us through this ominous era

  

The Latest

• Letters

  October 5, 2007

  Congregants on Beach Don’t Wear Bathing Suits The Pacific Jewish Center, a fine congregation, is hardly “the last remaining vestige of Venice’s erstwhile Jewish community,” as a September 28 article reports (“Prayer Shawls, Flip-Flops Mingle at ‘Shul on the Beach’”). Congregation Mishkon Tephilo, a block from the beach and founded in 1918, is not only…

  Oct 5, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Dancing With Scrolls

  This week, the month-long Jewish High Holy Day season comes to a climactic close with the festival of Simchat Torah, the “Rejoicing in the Law,” the celebration of the yearly Jewish cycle of public Bible reading. And the timing could not be better. The past few weeks have seen a dramatic rush of challenges to…

  Oct 5, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Anecdotes Won’t Keep America’s Kids Healthy

  In the ongoing debate over expansion of the federal children’s health insurance program — a debate over whether an extra $5 billion or $35 billion is enough to meet the health needs of America’s poor or near-poor kids — the Democrats have a decided advantage: They own the anecdote. In their press conferences, they can…

  By Noam Neusner Oct 3, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Lost Lesson of Sabra and Shatilla

  Last month’s 25th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre passed by largely unnoticed. At the time, however, the atrocity perpetrated by Lebanese Christian Phalangists against hundreds of unarmed Palestinian civilians in the two refugee camps outside Beirut horrified the world. Unfortunately, the Phalangists had been dispatched on their dubious mission by the Israeli military,…

  By Buzzy Gordon Oct 3, 2007 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Free Services Are the Ticket To Continuity

  A s the High Holy Day season draws to a close, let us face the reality that many Jews, in particular young ones, are going to show up at a synagogue only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — and some will not show up at all. It is ironic that we American Jews, who…

  By Judith Hauptman Oct 3, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Larry Summers Can Come to My House Any Time

  Here’s something to think about (I think): Imagine that an acknowledged world-class economist, a former secretary of the Treasury and former president of a major institution of higher education, is invited to present a lecture to the board of a university. Imagine that there are protests from some professors at the university who object to…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 3, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  September 28, 2007

  Not All Aspiring Rabbis Can Study Full Time As an older rabbinical student, I appreciated a September 14 article on professionals who are enrolling in rabbinical school (“Growing Number of Professionals Turning to a More Holy Pursuit”). I would have wished, however, that the article had included some of the rabbinical programs geared toward older…

  Sep 28, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Muslim Brotherhood Will Stand Up for All Egyptians

  Reading Mona Eltahawy’s September 21 opinion article, I felt more than ever that all Egyptians — regardless of their ideological orientation, gender or age — have a lot in common (“I Will Stand Up for the Muslim Brotherhood”). Eltahawy and I differ on much, yet we share a common objective and we struggle for the…

  By Ibrahim El Houdaiby Sep 26, 2007 | 4 min read