Opinion

• 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…

  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

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry How Israel became a country where teenagers murder each other in cold blood

  

• Emily Tamkin American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• 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
• Opinion

  My Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah Lesson

  A fortnight ago, my 13-year-old daughter Isabel staged the biggest rebellion in her life: She celebrated her bat mitzvah. In receiving an aliyah and reading from the Torah like any of her male Jewish peers, Isabel put on a demonstration of equality that, at least in this proud father’s eyes, may help make Vienna’s small…

  By Eric Frey Sep 26, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Seek Peace Now, Lest the Window Close

  The instant reason for Peace Now’s founding — that’s Israel’s Shalom Achshav movement, not Americans for Peace Now — back in 1978 was the aftermath of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel and the Begin-Sadat Camp David meetings hosted by Jimmy Carter. Shalom Achshav was determined to press Prime Minister Menachem Begin to take…

  By Leonard Fein Sep 26, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Bum’s Rush

  If Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s fire-breathing buffoon of a president, had any doubts about the contempt and loathing he inspires in America and the West, his reception in New York this week should have cleared things up for him. Should have — but probably did not. No, Ahmadinejad probably left New York more confirmed than ever…

  Sep 26, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Call of the Cold

  The latest trend among tourists is the Arctic Circle. Why? The answer may perhaps be found in a quatrain we recall from childhood. Man’s a fool. When it’s hot he wants it cool. When it’s cool he wants it hot Always wanting what is not. This strange behavior is not hard to understand. Novelty, as…

  By Gus Tyler Sep 26, 2007 | < 1 min read