Opinion

• Opinion

  Drifting Towards a Tribal Jewishness

  Last June, Jane Eisner participated in a private roundtable discussion at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem about Israel’s Jewish identity. What came out of the talks was the sense that Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora face a similar challenge — how to be a modern people in a modern world while holding…

  By Dov Maimon

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Presidential Blessing

  Taking a moment off from the intense debate over Syria, President Barack Obama published a blessing for the High Holidays. Obama noted that 50 years ago, Rabbi Joachim Prinz stood with Dr. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and told the marchers the when god created man, he created him as everybody’s neighbor….

  By Yermi Brenner Sep 5, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Anthony Weiner’s Meltdown Over Huma

  Anthony Weiner blew his stack at a Jewish voter in Brooklyn who insulted his wife, calling the man a “jackass” through a mouthful of cheese danish. In a video posted online by Yeshiva World News political correspondent Jacob Kornbluh, Weiner can be seen engaging in a shouting match with an unidentified man in a yarmulke…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Sep 4, 2013 | < 1 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 An abominable new Israeli law is a death warrant for democracy

  

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

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  A Prayer for Syria

  Suddenly everyone is talking about Syria. Two years of mayhem and murder, confusion and hesitation. 100,000 Syrians killed, a quarter of the population turned refugees, and now hundreds have been gassed to death, a sight which no Jew – no human – can ignore; a sight which once seen, cannot go unanswered. As we enter…

  By Mishael Zion Sep 4, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Chelsea Manning’s Identity Crisis Is One Jews Should Relate To

  ‘Yes, but is it good for the Jews?” We Jews know this question well. Henry Kissinger: good for the Jews? Brandeis? Koufax? Seinfeld? As an American minority, Jews are naturally sensitive to the way we are perceived, and to the messengers who — without our endorsement or permission — represent us to the world. Likewise…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 4, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Giving Women a Voice Is Powerful Message for High Holidays

  Each year when I sit in synagogue during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I’m struck by the complex stories we read about biblical women and by the wisdom these stories offer about ensuring the dignity of women and girls today. The past year was one of paradoxes. At a time when Sheryl Sandberg, Malala Yousafzai,…

  By Ruth Messinger Sep 4, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Bill Thompson and 2 Josephs

  New York mayoral candidate Bill Thompson’s political tour guides to Hasidic Brooklyn are two guys named Joseph — both famous influence-peddlers with strong community connections and checkered pasts. When he campaigned in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Williamsburg on Labor Day, Thompson was accompanied by Hasidic fixers Joseph Menczer and Joseph Goldberger, the New York Observer…

  By Josh Nathan-Kazis Sep 3, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Do the Right Thing on Syria

  When President Obama decided to delay a military strike against Syria to first obtain Congressional approval, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his usually raucous and unscripted government ministers they needed to stay quiet. It was a wise move on Netanyahu’s part. Even though Israel has a huge stake in the outcome of the Congressional debate,…

  Sep 3, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  News Quiz: Sergey Brin’s New Lady

  Jews and Sex. That could be the title of this week’s new quiz, because… why not? That’s a title that gets readers. But, in this case, it’s also a title that pertains to the content. So much sex and so many Jews! Read on! (As if I could stop you.)

  By Lenore Skenazy Sep 3, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  A Truce in the Kotel Wars?

  The ongoing drama over who is allowed to pray at the Western Wall, and where, and how, and under what circumstances, encapsulates all that divides and distresses the Jewish people today, and all that can unify us. We understand the skeptics and cynics. We appreciate how difficult it will be to pry control over what…

  Sep 3, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Holiday Songs: Robeson’s ‘Joe Hill,’ Solidarity in WI

  Some songs for the holiday. First, Paul Robeson’s immortal rendition of “The Ballad of Joe Hill.” It still has incredibly moving power. (Read this and this for some fascinating comment on Joe.) Then, Harry “Haywire Mac” McClintock (author of “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”) sings Joe Hill’s “The Preacher and the Slave” (“Pie in the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 2, 2013 | 2 min read