Opinion

• Opinion

  Whither Liberal Zionism?

  Can you be a liberal and a Zionist today? In a long and thoughtful essay in the New York Review of Books, Peter Beinart accurately describes how and why so many young American Jews are becoming alienated from Israel and blames the American Jewish establishment for its lock-step support of the Israeli government’s current policies…

  2 min read
• Opinion

  Shouting but Not Hearing

  Yoram Tehar Lev, a songwriter from Kibbutz Yagur, tells the story of a rabbi who was hired by an old-line congregation. Upon arriving, he was mystified: During the recitation of the Sh’ma, half the worshippers stood while the other half remained seated. Those who were standing would shout to those who were sitting, “You are…

  By Leonard Fein May 19, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Rebellious Child

  No doubt, Terrance Graham was a wayward, rebellious child. At 16, he helped rob a restaurant in Florida and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation. But Graham violated that probation when he was 17, and, with two older accomplices, burst into a man’s home and robbed him at gunpoint. For…

  May 19, 2010 | 2 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

  Getting Serious About Iran

  In 1967, I was a contented sophomore at Brandeis University. Then, in May of that year, I watched in horror and dismay as Arab nations massed troops on Israel’s border and the nations of the West, including the United States, responded with studied indifference. I was absolutely certain that Israel faced imminent destruction. As Israel…

  By Eric Yoffie May 19, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Look Who’s Raising Jews

  What do you call people who study Jewish traditions, regularly attend synagogue and work hard to raise Jewish children? Often we simply call such people “non-Jews.” According to the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey, 24% of people living in Jewish households are not Jews, the result of an intermarriage rate that was estimated to have…

  By Jennifer Thompson May 19, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Tale of Two Jerusalems

  This Jerusalem Day, Israel’s leaders once again trotted out the same old slogans. “We will never again allow Jerusalem to become a separated, bleak and divided city,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, speaking at the national ceremony at Ammunition Hill. Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, added: “On this day, from this platform, we shall say loud…

  By Ronit Sela May 19, 2010 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  In Britain, Jew vs. Jew, Miliband vs. Miliband

  In light of Britain’s July 2011 phone-hacking scandal, the public profile of Ed Miliband, who has called for the break up of News Corp, is on the rise. In May 2010, our J.J. Goldberg wrote this piece about Miliband, now the leader of the Labor party, and his politician brother, David. Perfectly timed to the…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 19, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  May 28, 2010

  Will Rubashkin’s Punishment Fit the Crime? Your May 14 article “Campaign for Rubashkin Paints Another View of Kosher Meat Scandal” paints an incomplete picture of the group of people who are protesting federal prosecutors’ efforts to have Sholom Rubashkin sentenced, initially, to a life sentence and now to a 25-year sentence. It is not only…

  May 19, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Kagan, Kaplan and the Stare Decisis Conundrum

  Jeremiah Riemer writes to suggest that if Elena Kagan is indeed set to become the first Reconstructionist on the Supreme Court since the Civil War, as I joked in a May 10 blog post (playing off her late parents’ reported membership in a Reconstructionist congregation), then it’s time to take a fresh look at the…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 18, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The Moral Crisis of American Zionism, Seen Through the Eyes of a Recovering New Republic-nik

  If you haven’t yet read Peter Beinart’s new piece in the New York Review of Books, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” check it out here. It’s must reading. It’s a long argument, but here’s the heart of it: Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world,…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 18, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  With All Due Respect, He Should Have Picked a Protestant

  I’m thinking more and more that the president should have nominated a Protestant to the court. Think about it: Liberals have been arguing for decades in favor of diversity as a fundamental value in schooling, hiring and choosing governing/decision-making bodies. How can a Democratic president take the step that renders the Supreme Court devoid of…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 14, 2010 | 4 min read