Opinion

• Opinion

  Why I Tattooed My Arms Just in Time for Rosh Hashanah

  The central themes of the High Holiday season — self-reflection, repentance and renewal — are hard to keep in mind for even three days, let alone ten. Try as I might, the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur become much like the others, lost in a haze of carpool, deadlines and social obligations. So this…

  By Ruth Abusch-Magder

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Shimon Peres and His Quixotic Path From Eternal Outsider to Israeli Icon

  Shimon Peres could have respectfully retired from political life at so many points in his career. He would have still had achieved more to build Israel’s security than nearly anyone else alive.  He could have resigned from the Knesset in the mid-1960s, following his mentor and patron David Ben-Gurion. Still in his early 40s, instead…

  By Anshel Pfeffer (Haaretz) Sep 28, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  That Time Shimon Peres Needed a Speech Written — and I Needed a Nap

  (JTA) — It was 9 o’clock on a weekday evening and I was lounging around my Brooklyn apartment in pajamas when the call came summoning me to a Midtown Manhattan hotel. Shimon Peres needed a speechwriter; I was a speechwriter at the time for Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. It was the fall of…

  By Ben Harris Sep 28, 2016 | 2 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 Marking Israel’s most joyous day with anguish over the country’s future

  

• Emily Tamkin Hungary is poised to topple an authoritarian leader. American Jews have something to learn

  

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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  The Shimon Peres I Knew Was Unparalleled in His Quest for Peace

  Rarely in history has a man been so identified with the life of his nation for so many decades and at so many critical junctures as Shimon Peres was. Peres’s legacy encompasses vision and practice, policy and authorship, statesmanship and politics. I remember how, in 1993, once the Oslo Declaration of Principles was signed between…

  By Gilead Sher Sep 28, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  7 Tips for Your Rosh Hashanah Sermon from an Ex Spirituality Ghostwriter

  As the Jewish calendar tilts toward Rosh Hashanah, congregational rabbis hunker down with copious amounts of caffeine for sermon-writing cram sessions. In my work as a long-time editor for rabbis, writing teacher for clergy of many faiths, and former spirituality ghostwriter (yes, there is such a thing), I’ve edited countless sermons, and I have a…

  By Amy Gottlieb Sep 27, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Have a Politically Neutral Rosh Hashanah Dinner When You Can Debate Israel?

  The different cultures of the world each have their own way of welcoming in a new year. Some usher in their new year with colorful street parades, some with fireworks, some with solemn bells and some with a passionate kiss. As Jews, we traditionally bring in our new year sitting together around the family table….

  By Dani Dayan Sep 27, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How It Felt To Watch the Presidential Debate as a Jewish Conservative

  If there’s one overarching story to be told from 2016 it’s how the media complex failed to predict, recognize or accept the Donald Trump phenomenon — and how this colored the entire election. This is important, especially as that complex watches and comments on the debates between Trump and Hillary Clinton. In a normal election…

  By Karol Markowicz Sep 27, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Lies, Damned Lies and Last Night’s Debate Between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

  I wish that the truth did set us free, but unfortunately, I heard a continual string of untruths at last night’s presidential debate. And they were mostly coming from behind just one podium. Before the debate began, I wrote hoping that Lester Holt, the NBC journalist who moderated the first one-on-one between Hillary Clinton and…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 27, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Hillary Clinton Is a Flawed Candidate — Just Like God

  When Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination, New York Times Magazine writer Emily Bazelon described her as a member of the “Moses Generation” of the women’s movement, having been around from its beginning with a career clearly defined by its generational twists and turns. Clinton has faced her long record during the campaign and, at…

  By Avraham Bronstein Sep 26, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How These Rap Artists Pissed Off Official Israel — With a Mahmoud Darwish Poem

  Poetry has become a lightning rod in Israeli politics. In July, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman summoned an Army Radio broadcaster for “clarification” after the station ran a program discussing the work of the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. And a few days ago, Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev walked out of the…

  By Mira Sucharov Sep 26, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  This Rosh Hashanah, My Hindu Father Gets a Yahrzeit Plaque

  It’s that time of year again, when the annual High Holidays packet arrives in the mail. I’ve never been one to pore over the contents, but seven months after my father’s passing, this time it feels different. It’s not so much the holiday’s reflections on “who shall live and who shall die” that resonate so…

  By Lisa Singh Sep 26, 2016 | 5 min read