Opinion

• Opinion

  Anti-Orthodox Profiling Let Women Pray at Kotel

  At Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, the use of racial profiling is so controversial that it is the subject of a legal challenge by human rights advocates. But what about a different type of profiling — religious profiling — and of all places at the Western Wall? As we reported, the tables were turned at the…

  By Nathan Jeffay

  2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Maharat Movement

  A telling sign that the first-ever graduation ceremony for Yeshivat Maharat was going to be different from other rabbinical ordinations came in an email message sent several weeks before the June 16 event. “We will be offering child care during the ceremony!” it read. This was clearly a ceremony created by women for women, reflecting…

  Jun 13, 2013 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  News Quiz: Coke’s Creation and Google’s Big Buy

  Pot, pork, pastrami: You can choose your vice in this week’s quiz, which also happens to include questions about Coke, wine and “Mad Men.” We’re going all Don Draper on you. Or at least Michael Ginsberg. Take the quiz after the jump.

  By Lenore Skenazy Jun 12, 2013 | < 1 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 An Israeli media mainstay is crumbling. Will liberal democracy go with it?

  

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

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  Everyday ‘Apartheid’ and the Liberal Dream

  The following items appeared in the Israeli media this month: Superland, an amusement park outside Tel Aviv, makes a policy of reserving separate days for Israeli Arab high school classes and separate ones for Israeli Jewish classes. A Jewish community pool in the Negev refused to admit a group of Bedouin children with cancer because,…

  By Larry Derfner Jun 12, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What Does Jewish Law Say About NSA Snooping Scandal?

  As the drama of the massive National Security Agency tapping of telephone lines and surveillance of Internet sites keeps unfolding, it is fascinating to trace the fundamental questions at the heart of this story back to the early stages of Jewish ethical discourse. It is tempting to think of the moral dilemma of national security…

  By Reuven Namdar Jun 12, 2013 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Did Rabbi’s Forged Letter Boost Anti-Draft Rally?

  Was the weekend rally in New York against Israel’s plans to draft ultra-Orthodox Jews boosted by a prominent rabbi’s forged endorsement? According to a writer on the Hasidic Yiddish forum KaveShtiebel.com, a letter in support of the Satmar-led demonstration by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the foremost leaders of the Lithuanian Haredi sector, was forged….

  By Shulem Deen Jun 11, 2013 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  What Fury Over Iconic Video of Palestinian Boy Says About Israel

  The death of Mohammed al-Dura, the 12-year-old Palestinian boy whose iconic last moments have been captured on postage stamps all over the Middle East, happened almost a year before the September 11 attacks, on September 30, 2000. Thirteen years have passed since a cameraman for France 2 captured the horrifying scene of a father and…

  By Gal Beckerman Jun 11, 2013 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  How Bibi’s Right Flank Maneuvers To Box Him In

  The guessing game continues: Will he or won’t he? Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to open peace negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative — meaning, in effect, agreeing to start from the pre-1967 armistice lines as the basis for negotiating future borders? Netanyahu is under pressure. He…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jun 10, 2013 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Kotel is for Us, Too

  At the Kotel, the Jewish value of elu v’elu (“These and these are the words of the living God”) has degenerated into name-calling as well as into rock, trash and coffee throwing. These objectors claim that the women who come together on Rosh Hodesh — the beginning of the Jewish month — to pray in…

  By Susan Silverman and Dahlia Lithwick Jun 10, 2013 | 5 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Facing Up to the Fraud

  When board members of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany gather next month at their annual meeting, they must seriously consider the continued leadership of their chair, Julius Berman. Berman is a rabbi, a lawyer — first in the class of 1960 at New York University Law School — a longtime communal volunteer…

  Jun 10, 2013 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  At Massive Anti-Draft Protest, Haredi Jews Came Together — But Not on Zionism

  In an unusual show of unity, various streams of ultra-Orthodox Jews joined together June 9 in a massive rally in downtown Manhattan to protest the Israeli government’s recent efforts to draft yeshiva students into the military. Even the dueling factions within the Satmar Hasidic movement put aside their differences to organize the protest, and the…

  By Frimet Goldberger and Yermi Brenner Jun 10, 2013 | 2 min read