Opinion

• Opinion

  Why I’m Moving My Family to Israel — Despite the Violence

  (JTA) — I can tell that some friends and relatives think my decision to move my family to Israel for a year is, well, questionable. “So you’re really gonna do this?” one friend asked recently over coffee, eyes widening. My father suggested over the phone that we might consider somewhere in the country less “tense”…

  By Jennifer Richler

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  The Four Questions of the ‘Israel Project’

  HOLLYWOOD — Day two in Tinseltown, and people have been asking me questions. Thought that was my job… One question was about my questions. Why bother asking “Israel questions” of Americans? There is no way that Americans are going to come up with the same answers as Israelis, so what’s the point? My answer to…

  By Robbie Gringras Dec 19, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  What New Vatican Memo Really Means for Jews for Jesus — and Us

  It’s hard to overstate the importance of the new document on the conversion of Jews that the Vatican released December 10. Especially when you consider that most of the reporting on it is wrong. According to most headlines, the Vatican announced that “Catholics should not try to convert Jews.” That’s not what actually happened. What…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 18, 2015 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

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

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Landing in Tinseltown

  “So, like, I know that there’s no occupation. Like no one’s allowed to admit that there’s an occupation. Except a lot of people are saying that there is an occupation. More than a lot of people. Like nearly everyone is screaming that there’s an occupation. So maybe, I’m thinking, there must be like, a little…

  By Robbie Gringras Dec 18, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Muslim, a Jew and a Christian Walk Into a Texas Mosque…

  Like other liberal East Coasters with limited experience of Texas, I have tended to snidely dismiss the entire state as a jingoistic bastion of reaction. Yet a December 13 visit to Irving, a city of 232,000 abutting Dallas, forcefully reminded me that there is another Texas, at once religiously devout and deeply humane. Amid an…

  By Walter Ruby Dec 17, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Left’s Double Standard on ‘Tolerance’

  When is open dialogue prized, and when is it synonymous with capitulation? Two disputes that happened within a day of each other highlighted that question along the deepest fault lines in modern Jewish life: the dispute over religious pluralism, and the relationship between Israeli Jews and their Arab neighbors. On December 9, Israel’s Ashkenazi chief…

  By Jane Eisner Dec 17, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Land and People

  So Orlando has very nice large hotels. They are close by one another, but you’re not allowed to walk between them. There are roads with some form of sidewalk, but no lighting. I reckon if you’re not expected to walk there at night, get a cab even if it’s the middle of the day. Still…

  By Robbie Gringras Dec 17, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Fence Me In

  Okay, so first of all I have to acknowledge to myself that the schedule was a little extreme. To keep alert and open to a range of different people talking with me, to wander all over Manhattan to meet them, and then to expect myself to be sufficiently awake to write any thoughts other than…

  By Robbie Gringras Dec 16, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Your JNF Donation Might Be Used for Settlements

  Ask any American Jew what the Jewish National Fund does, and they will most likely answer, “It plants trees in Israel.” But the reality is much more complicated. Even a close reading of JNF-USA’s tax forms and website does not reveal how much of the $100 million dollars American Jews donate each year flows to…

  By Jill Jacobs Dec 16, 2015 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  3 Ways Sheldon Adelson Could Handle Donald Trump

  (JTA) — For months, Republican Party insiders have speculated who Sheldon Adelson, the pro-Israel billionaire, will back in the GOP presidential primary. Now there’s a follow-up question: How does Donald Trump’s continued perch atop the polls scramble the casino magnate’s calculations? In 2012, Adelson and his wife, Miriam, backed Newt Gingrich to the tune of $40…

  By Ron Kampeas Dec 15, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  VIDEO: Extremists Incite Witch Hunt Against Israeli Human Rights Advocates

  If this isn’t incitement, I don’t know what is. Im Tirtzu, the Israeli extreme right-wing organization that has ties to the Likud and Yisrael Beitenu parties, just posted a horrific video on social media, accusing four Israeli human rights activists of being “foreign operatives” who help facilitate Palestinian terror attacks. The video ad is meant…

  By Lior Zaltzman Dec 15, 2015 | 2 min read