Opinion

• 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

  4 min read
• Opinion

  The Ironies of History

  The story of mankind is a story of endless ironies. Thanks to medical science, people are living longer. The result is that governments around the world are confronted with the challenge of providing adequate medical care for their aging populations. When Bismarck introduced old-age insurance to Germany, he set the retirement age at 65 with…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 24, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Move To Clean Up Student Loan Racket

  Aid to students is a big business in the U.S. This year it comes to $18 billion dollars in bank subsidies, mainly for students in low-income families. It is customary for schools to provide an office to advise students on how and where to get the money. Investigations by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 22, 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 20, 2007

  Group’s Finances Clear A July 13 article fails to mention that all financial information about the Claims Conference is on the organization’s Web site (“Accounting Shift at Claims Conference”). In addition, the Claims Conference Web site lists every single allocation made by the organization, a level of transparency few Jewish organizations can match. The change…

  Jul 20, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Axis Shrinks

  North Korea’s shutdown of a key weapons-grade nuclear reactor, confirmed this week by United Nations inspectors, offers an important moment of clarity in American foreign policy. It could be seen as a critical juncture — perhaps a turning point — in the global quest to limit nuclear arms proliferation and to defang the worst rogue…

  Jul 20, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Dollars Versus Real Dollars

  In the last few days, the stock markets have broken all records. Obviously, we must be doing something right. But a little probing into the situation suggests that the real condition is not quite what it seems to be. Informed economists know that there is a great difference between current dollars and real dollars. At…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 19, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Understand Why Iran Is Arming Iraqi Militias

  The Bush administration is accusing the Iranian government of sending weapons to Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan. More than a few Americans, remembering the intelligence debacle leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, are skeptical of the charges. The skepticism is understandable, but I believe it is wrong. Equally wrong is…

  By Ronald Neumann Jul 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Art Restitution Goes on Trial

  A lawsuit over ownership of 14 paintings by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich is currently pending in federal court in Washington. The case is complex, but this much seems certain: The court’s ruling will strongly influence whether American courts remain open to claims for Nazi-looted artworks being held by European museums. A major issue in the…

  By Marilyn Henry Jul 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Pope Has Given Catholics a Choice

  A statement that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI issued on July 7 has rightfully received a tremendous amount of attention from Jewish and interfaith organizations. Through the “Apostolic Letter in the Form of Motu Proprio” and a subsequent letter to the bishops of the Church, the pope has shifted the liturgical options for Catholics worldwide,…

  By Michael Barclay Jul 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Charity Is an Individual Responsibility

  Among Jews and Christians, there is much confusion about the Bible’s preferred course for addressing the needs of poor Americans, the dominant assumption being that support for the impoverished is a public responsibility. Recently, the issue came up in the Seattle suburb where I live. Our local weekly newspaper reported that a tent city for…

  By David Klinghoffer Jul 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  In the Words of Shimon Peres

  The speech was, as it was intended to be, uplifting, hence just right for a nation desperately seeking an energizing transfusion. It was shorter on the clever formulations that have distinguished Shimon Peres’s talks in the past and it was in part diffuse, but again the new president returned to its central motif: Our best…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 18, 2007 | 4 min read