Opinion

• Opinion

  Shavuot Means Not Trusting Ourselves

  Were any Sadducees around today, they’d be happy. The first day of Shavuot falls on a Sunday. There are, however, no Sadducees left. They were one of the camps of Jews during the Second Temple period that rejected the orally transmitted Jewish religious tradition, or Oral Law, which, together with the Written one (the “Five…

  3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  No More All Male Panels

  The shameful exclusion of women from Jewish life continues to plague our community. Friends on social media have been shouting about a number of recent all-male panels: rabbis Micah Goodman, Rick Jacobs and Elliot Cosgrove at Park Avenue Synagogue; David Horowitz, Ron Kampeas and William Daroff at a J-Pro webinar, and Ari Shavit, Abraham Foxman,…

  By Matt Plen May 21, 2015 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Sleepless for Shavuot

  I was never great at pulling all-nighters in college. But I’ll be pulling one this weekend on Shavuot. Apparently it’s the thing to do when marking the receiving of the Torah: stay up all night studying it. And celebrating it. So this coming Saturday, May 23, despite the temptation of traditional Memorial Day barbecues, I’ll…

  By Abigail Pogrebin May 21, 2015 | 6 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman A gunman attacked a Michigan synagogue. Here’s what happens to the community next

  

• Dan Perry Is this Netanyahu’s Winston Churchill moment?

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Antisemitism is exploding on the right but the Jewish establishment is focused on the left

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  Shavuot, a Holiday To Celebrate Complexity and Nuance

  Shavuot gets no respect. Lacking the colorful observances of Passover and Sukkot, and the gravitas of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it’s probably the least observed of the major Jewish holidays. Nota bene to atheists who think that religion is about ideas and beliefs rather than myth, culture, ritual and community. In a certain way,…

  By Jay Michaelson May 20, 2015 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What Breaking the Silence Report Says About Gaza War — and Doesn’t

  “Three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty,” Carl von Clausewitz wrote in On War. Von Clausewitz was addressing the unpredictability and uncertainty of even the best-planned military campaigns. Military and political leaders cannot see far and thus need to be…

  By Haim Watzman May 19, 2015 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  How Should a Rabbi Talk About Israel?

  What should a rabbinic voice on Israel sound like? How ought religious leaders speak – among themselves, within their communities, out in the world – about the divisions and conflicts, the difficult issues that Israel faces, the challenges that she presents, as well as the good news? A number of premises underlie my questions. Rabbinic…

  By David Ackerman May 18, 2015 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Bibi Advisor Accuses Pope Francis of ‘Nailing Entire Jewish People to the Cross’

  Last week, the Vatican edged close to formal recognition of a Palestinian state, finalizing a treaty in which for the first time, the Holy See makes explicit reference to a “state of Palestine.” Israel’s Foreign Ministry, while voicing disappointment at the move, was unusually circumspect in its initial response, stating that the use of the…

  By Bradley Burston (Haaretz) May 18, 2015 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s Segregationist Founder

  ‘The danger we face is that the great majority of those children whose parents did not receive an education for generations will descend to the level of Arab children,” Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared at a July 1962 meeting. He was speaking with the head of a teachers federation on the question of…

  By Seth J. Frantzman May 18, 2015 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Change-the-World Shabbat Dinner

  Good deeds. I’ve been struck by how many Jewish holidays carry the message that we should be helping someone else. On Rosh Hashanah, we recite that tzedakah — charity — along with prayer and repentance, will lessen the severity of God’s decree. The Yom Kippur fast is meant to cleanse our souls, yes, but also…

  By Abigail Pogrebin May 17, 2015 | 7 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why the New York Times Is Wrong on Reporting While Jewish

  It’s a question every reporter for a Jewish publication has encountered. At least once a day. How do you ask someone about their religion? For many, faith is a private issue, one they’d rather not discuss, or are reluctant to engage in a detailed discussion about. Still, as a reporter covering Jewish issues for a…

  By Nathan Guttman May 16, 2015 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  To Win Next Time, the Israeli Left Needs To Return to the Tents

  In the last Israeli election, this past March, the center-left had a plan. If only we could increase voter turnout among our traditional supporters we could win, said politicians and campaigners. This plan failed. As the results show, elections in Israel are not determined by the traditional supporters of the center- left, upper-middle class Jewish…

  By Rami Hod May 15, 2015 | 3 min read