Opinion

• Opinion

  Israel’s Hidden Crisis

  Israel faces no end of threats and challenges, any one of which is capable of fueling endless discussion — not to mention anxiety — among Jews and gentiles around the globe. There is one challenge, however, that’s rarely discussed above a whisper outside Israel, because of its extreme sensitivity. You might call it the hidden…

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Kids, Health and Politics

  Current polling shows that the American voters’ disgust with President Bush is nearly matched by their disappointment in the new Congress they elected last fall. A half-year into their term, the Democrats now controlling Capitol Hill have failed to make any major changes in the way business gets done. People seem to feel there’s no…

  Aug 2, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Manipulating the Market

  In the closing days of July, the stock market began to sag. No one seems to know why. We are informed that the American economy is in good shape. We are also advised that the global economy is also in good shape. Some theorize that it has to do with bad loans on housing. But,…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 31, 2007 | < 1 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

• Letters

  July 27, 2007

  Circumcision Offers Many Health Benefits A July 20 article incorrectly reports that the current rate of circumcision in the United States is 57% (“Activists Up Efforts To Cut Circumcision Out of Bris Ritual”). Data released in 2006 by the Center for Disease Control showed that 80% of American males are circumcised; for non-Hispanic whites, the…

  Jul 27, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Don’t Mourn, Organize

  As disheartening as it has been to watch the stain of anti-Israel boycott fever spreading through Great Britain’s trade union movement, the greater legacy of the episode may well be the angry rise of American labor in defense of the Jewish state. Two of Britain’s most influential unions, the public service union Unison and the…

  Jul 27, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  An Early Jewish-Black Marriage

  In America, at the present time, a Jewish-black intermarriage is not uncommon. One of the oldest such marriages in recorded history was that of Moses to an Ethiopian woman named Zipporah. Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron were quite annoyed by the marriage and did not hesitate to express their disapproval. When a male…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 27, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Israel Is Training for the Wrong War

  In the year since last summer’s war with Hezbollah, the Israeli military has been busy preparing for the next round of violence. A number of commanders who proved to be incompetent, the chief of staff among them, have been fired. The military’s budget has been increased by $2 billion, with the extra money going toward…

  By Martin van Creveld Jul 26, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Let Our Population Data Go

  With the all the news preoccupying the Jewish community, it slipped under the radar that United Jewish Communities last year obtained trademark protection for the terms National Jewish Population Survey® and National Jewish Population Study®. Although the UJC has foresworn conducting a 2010 survey of American Jewry, by registering NJPS® as a service mark, they…

  By Benjamin Phillips, and Charles Kadushin, and Leonard Saxe Jul 25, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Racist Stench Rises Out of Cologne

  Ralph Giordano’s recent criticism of a mosque being prominently constructed in Cologne earned him denunciations from fellow Jews and liberals for supposedly supporting the racist agenda of right-wing extremists. The respected German writer, however, is hardly the only Jewish liberal to finds himself with strange new bedfellows. The controversy Giordano triggered is typical of the…

  By Eric Frey Jul 25, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Bible Ban Sparks Swedish Debate

  Sweden has long had the reputation of being a super-secular nation. Less than 3% of the population attends church. But, within the last few days, it seems that God has made His presence known in Sweden. It all began when a Swedish hotel guest checked into his room and found that the room was outfitted…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 25, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Where Haredim and Hellenists Can Coexist

  A couple of weeks back, both this newspaper and The New York Times reported somewhat breathlessly on the emergence in Poland of a thriving Jew-less Jewish revival. This year, for example, Krakow — a city with 300 Jews — held its 14th annual “Festival of Jewish Culture,” with 20,000 (if you believe the Times) or…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 24, 2007 | 4 min read