Opinion

• Opinion

  Kissing Her Grandmothers’ Feminism Goodbye

  Conjure the image of a colleague you do not particularly like, one hierarchically superior to you. We all have one of them, and we all put up with them. We have no choice. We say hello, we peck them on the cheek and, in private, we groan when obliged to waste an entire evening on…

  By Noga Tarnopolsky

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Could Israel Make Common Cause With Sunni Arabs?

  It is now generally understood among Middle East experts that last summer’s war in Lebanon created a kind of paradigm shift in Israel’s interaction with the region. The threat posed to Israel by Iran, its proxy Hezbollah and its ally Syria was also recognized as a threat by the Sunni Arab heartland. The Sunni-Shi’ite struggles…

  By Yossi Alpher Feb 9, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  An Unseen Factor in Iraq

  President Bush’s proposal to add tens of thousands of American troops in Iraq as a way to handle the calamitous chaos over there may well provoke a hidden counter movement that will strengthen the anti-American forces in Iraq. Throughout world history, there have been many occasions when a war dedicated to a noble purpose drew…

  By Gus Tyler Feb 9, 2007 | < 1 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Rob Eshman A year after the LA fires, the lesson is clear: Our greatest disasters are often self-inflicted

  

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

  

• Dan Perry A quiet diplomatic shift in the Middle East, with monumental consequences for Israel

  

• Emily Tamkin Is Mamdani bad or good for Jews? Here’s how to tell

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Instruments of Their Own Discord

  This is not the column I meant to write this week, not with the world falling apart. But I am driven to write as I do by a passing paragraph in a New York Times review of a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. I’ll get to that review and what it suggests about Israel…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 9, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 9, 2007

  Attack on AJCommittee Essay Was Over the Top A February 2 editorial on a new essay by Alvin Rosenfeld published by the American Jewish Committee was way over the top (“Infamy”). By employing such malicious language as “screed,” “sensationalist title” and “shocking tissue of slander,” by ascribing false motives for the essay’s publication, by decrying…

  Feb 9, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Straight Talk on Energy

  A showdown is poised to erupt over energy and environment policy later this month in Washington, when a council of the nation’s most influential Jewish advocacy organizations convenes for its annual policy plenum. As our Jennifer Siegel reports on Page 1, divisions have emerged during the drafting of the council’s proposed energy resolution, pitting those…

  Feb 9, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Joys of Cedar Rapids

  An old Jewish folk tale tells of two travelers who meet on the road while fleeing Tsarist Russia. The first traveler asks, “Where are you going?” The second traveler responds, “To America. And where are you going?” “I am going to Madagascar,” replies the first traveler. “But Madagascar is so far away,” exclaims the second…

  By Mitchell Levin Feb 2, 2007 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Hiking the Minimum Wage Is Tzedakah at its Finest

  Congress seems set to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. The House approved a minimum-wage hike in late January, and the Senate appears poised to follow suit. The Jewish community has stepped up to advocate for the proposed $2.10 minimum-wage increase, the first in almost 10 years. The Jewish Funds for Justice…

  By Jill Jacobs Feb 2, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Time for Our Community To Join the Iraq Debate

  At last, the debate over America’s disastrous situation in Iraq has begun in earnest. With the entire nation now engaged, it is long overdue — and then some — for the Jewish community to weigh in and determine what insights Jewish values and interests can offer. We must do so not only because our prophetic…

  By David Saperstein Feb 2, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Some Good News, Courtesy of the Young

  Go tell it on the mountain: There’s good news this otherwise dismal winter. As Israel’s foreign minister (and deputy prime minister), Tzipi Livni, said at the biannual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, pretty much every approach to peace between Israel and the Palestinians has been tried — and has failed. There was…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 2, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 2, 2007

  Columnist Got It Wrong, Limmud Conference Is A Boon to Jewish World Like David Klinghoffer, I had the opportunity to spend Martin Luther King Day weekend serving as a presenter at this year’s Limmud New York conference. But unlike your columnist, I found my initial experience with Limmud both enlightening and inspiring (“The Limitations of…

  Feb 2, 2007 | 4 min read