Opinion

• Opinion

  How Jews Built New Life in ‘Shanghai Ghetto’

  (JTA) — The neighborhood in Shanghai that was home to approximately 20,000 Jewish refugees during World War II may be added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. While the Nazi-fleeing refugees who settled in Shanghai certainly fared better than the family and friends they left behind in Europe, life in the so-called “Pearl of…

  By Gabe Friedman

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Let the Bibi-Gate Blame Game Begin

  Let the finger-pointing begin. Two weeks into the Bibi-gate (or perhaps Bohener-gate, or simply speech-gate) controversy, with no sign of Democratic anger subsiding, Benjamin Netanyahu and his allies are starting to look for excuses. The defense Bibi has settled on can be summed up in three words: “It’s Boehner’s fault.” Policymakers and congressional staff members…

  By Nathan Guttman Feb 6, 2015 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Should We Watch ISIS Horror Videos — or Look Away?

  As the Islamic State releases video after video, each more appalling than the next, in what is surely the YouTube channel from hell – the world seems to have divided into those of us who choose to watch the atrocities and those of us who don’t. Members of the first group are making a choice…

  By Allison Kaplan Sommer (Haaretz) Feb 5, 2015 | 5 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Rob Eshman Gavin Newsom isn’t waffling on Israel — he’s voicing sensible ideas in an era of outrage

  

• 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

  

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  Opinion

  The Vaccination Nation

  It’s only a pinprick, a momentary burst of pain for a tiny human being who doesn’t know what is happening and therefore cries with such abandon that even a veteran parent cringes at the sight. Vaccinating an infant can be frightening, and not just for the baby. It is essentially an act of faith, based…

  Feb 5, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Jack Wolfson Became Face of Anti-Vaxxer Movement

  A Jewish doctor in Arizona has become the unapologetic face of the anti-vaccine movement. In an interview with CNN, Dr. Jack Wolfson said he wouldn’t mind if his un-vaccinated child got another child sick. “I’m not going to sacrifice the well-being of my child. My child is pure,” the cardiologist said. “It’s an unfortunate thing…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Feb 4, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Should I Fly Home To Vote in Israeli Elections?

  Illustration by Lior Zaltzman I was exactly 18 the first time I voted in the Israeli elections. I was a newly minted soldier, uniform all fresh and stiff, with the dent of the strap of my M16 on my shoulder, waiting in line at an army base. More than anything I was welling up, filled…

  By Lior Zaltzman Feb 2, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Ultra-Orthodoxy Is Most Feminist Faith

  Cris de coeur over the economic state of Israel’s Haredim are commonplace these days. Understandably so; the community is in dire financial straits. Some of the alarm may be motivated by concern for members of the Haredi community; much of it is clearly born of disquiet over what Haredi poverty and unemployment rates seem to…

  Feb 2, 2015 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Guide to Israeli Elections as Read by a MacBook

  MacBook’s Dictation function / Apple So, while messing around with my MacBook Pro, I must have inadvertently hit the “fn” button twice, thus triggering the computer’s Dictation function. I’d never tried it before, so I spoke a few sentences into it. It’s actually astoundingly good at converting speech into text. In advance of the upcoming…

  By Adam Langer Feb 2, 2015 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut: Preparing for Tu B’Shvat

  Mike Wallace, the legendary 60 Minutes correspondent, kept to a Tu B’Shvat diet. When I was one of his producers years ago, he prided himself on his intake of nuts and raisins, insisting they were the secret to his longevity and jet black hair. Mike, rest his soul, would never have called his regimen the…

  By Abigail Pogrebin Feb 2, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  A Hasidic Rabbi With a Latin Heart

  Five years ago, Rabbi Mendy Weitman could have moved anywhere in the world to pursue his dream of building a Jewish community as a Chabad Lubavitch emissary. But instead he chose to stay in New York, where he spotted a greater group in need of a community: Jewish immigrants from Latin America. In 2009, Weitman…

  By Mariana Cristancho-Ahn Feb 1, 2015 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I, an Israeli Jew, Will Vote for the Arab Party

  Arab politician Ahmed Tibi addresses the press / Getty Images The general mood in Israel, ahead of the second general election in just two years, is that little to nothing is going to change. Whether you’re an admirer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his sworn enemy, everybody agrees that his chances of a third…

  By Gilad Halpern Feb 1, 2015 | 3 min read