Opinion

• Opinion

  News Quiz: Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld and Russell Crowe

  Jerry Seinfeld, Natalie Portman’s husband and a bevy of Swedish supermodels, to boot? What kind of Jewish News Quiz is this? The pandering kind! And why not? By the way, Russell Crowe is in here, too.

  By Lenore Skenazy

  < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  AIPAC Lost Iran Sanctions Battle — Not War

  Sanctions bill sponsor Sen. Robert Menendez addresses AIPAC annual policy conference, Washington Convention Center, March 5, 2013 / Getty Images Efforts to pass a new Iran sanctions bill have not only stalled in the Senate, but appear to be slowing even in the House. Perhaps predictably, given the focus on AIPAC as the primary driver…

  By Brent E. Sasley Feb 4, 2014 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Forget Tefillin — Orthodox Women Need Empowerment in Daily Lives

  (Haaretz) — It never ceases to amaze us, the Orthodox plebeians, how quickly hordes of bloggers can skew matters out of proportion. Skim the blogs and you will discover the din of rumbling male voices expounding on Orthodox gender roles. Perhaps the voices are predominantly male because men are usually better versed than us women in…

  By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt Feb 4, 2014 | 8 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

• 
  Opinion

  Academic Freedom — Not Boycotts — Should Be Focus of Israel Academia Debate

  The uproar in the Jewish community over the American Studies Association’s vote to boycott Israeli universities has largely overlooked one point: Are we, who oppose these sorts of boycotts, truly committed to academic freedom for people of all views on the Israel-Palestine conflict? Of course there are reasons, aside from academic freedom, to oppose the…

  By Samuel Fleischacker Feb 4, 2014 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Remembering Gordon Zacks, Jewish GOP Leader

  Anyone can change the course of events, especially when they see injustice. That was the mantra of Gordon Zacks, who died Saturday in the Columbus, Ohio area at the age of 80. A founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition and an unofficial adviser to George H.W. Bush, Gordon wrote the book on character, courage and…

  By Jackie Jacobs Feb 3, 2014 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Intermarriage Is Fact of Jewish Life — Not Disease

  (JTA) — All in favor of a strong Jewish future say “aye.” On that core question, there is resounding unanimity, but there have been some unnecessarily polarizing articles in the Jewish press suggesting that we have to select either endogamy or outreach. Nonsense! Such binary thinking reduces a multi-dimensional and complex reality to a false…

  By Rick Jacobs Feb 3, 2014 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Confessions of a Disengaged Young Jew

  I don’t have strong opinions about Israel. I can’t say whether the country’s risks justify the force it often employs, nor can I say whether its greatest threats come from within or without. It’s strange to begin a column by revealing one’s indifference on a topic. I know. Though what interests me isn’t what one…

  By Elissa Strauss Feb 3, 2014 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why Jews Should Tune In to the Mindfulness Revolution

  The current cover of Time magazine features a blissed-out and beautiful blonde, captioned with the text “The Mindful Revolution.” The images are cliché, but the Time cover story is but the latest in a long line of significant — possibly historic — changes in how Americans regard contemplative practice. It recounts the fascinating evolution of…

  By Jay Michaelson Feb 3, 2014 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Anne Heyman’s Remarkable Life of Service

  Anne Heyman put together a life of immense complexity with apparent ease because she knew who she was, what she cared about and what she wanted to accomplish. Anne loved her family passionately and cared tremendously that her children grow up with a global perspective and with the capacity to care for others. She was…

  By Ruth Messinger Feb 3, 2014 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Avant-Garde Aliyah to Berlin

  “There’s always this joke that half of Tel Aviv is actually here,” Liad Hussein Kantorowicz told me when I interviewed her in her Berlin apartment. The numbers back her up: According to the latest estimates, 15,000 to 20,000 people have left Israel in recent years to forge a new life in Berlin. Most of these…

  By Martyna Starosta Feb 3, 2014 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Disillusioned on Capitol Hill

  I almost marked the email as spam. When it arrived in my inbox, the subject head had that distinctive indistinctness of junk mail: “Invitation To Testify Before Congress….” Me? Right. But then I clicked on it anyway. And Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia’s office was indeed asking me if I would give witness to the…

  By Gal Beckerman Feb 3, 2014 | 5 min read