Opinion

• Opinion

  When the Slumlords Are Us

  Thirty human households, and countless rodents and cockroaches: Those were the census figures in the apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where I lived for about five years. When a neighbor living in a rent-stabilized unit complained that the gaping holes in her walls allowed rats to run free through her apartment, the landlord…

  By Jill Jacobs

  4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Thoroughly Modern Theodor

  It is easy to mock Theodor Herzl and his vision of orchestras playing Viennese waltzes aboard ocean liners carrying Jewish immigrants to the Promised Land. After all, the father of modern Zionism failed to anticipate the rise of Arab nationalism, and the model Jewish state that he imagined in his utopian novel “Altneuland” (Old-New Land)…

  By Amnon Rubinstein Apr 21, 2010 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Code Red: Threats Abroad, Threats at Home

  Finally, a diagnosis: My malady is Attention Overload Disorder. I try, honestly I do, to keep up with the news. But before I can absorb the Icelandic volcano eruption, I have to absorb the Goldman Sachs corruption. And all the while, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party and the Birthers, and always…

  By Leonard Fein Apr 21, 2010 | 3 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

  Shutting the Doors

  Rabbi Louis Jacobs was well on his way to becoming chief rabbi of the United Kingdom in the 1960s, when his ascension was stopped cold because of a small, brilliant book he had published challenging the traditional view that the Torah was dictated by God from Mount Sinai. Banned from his own Orthodox synagogue, he…

  Apr 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Twists and Turns of U.S.-Israel Ties

  It’s a strange, little-known fact of Middle East diplomacy that America’s strategic relationship with Israel undergoes a fundamental shift every 20 years. A decade turns over, the calendar brings up a zero and badda-boom, like clockwork, something unexpected happens that changes the whole calculus of who needs whom and for what. Historically speaking, the current…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 21, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Supreme Choices

  Easy for us to say it doesn’t matter if there are no longer any Protestants on the U.S. Supreme Court, what with two Jews among the nine current justices, and several more co-religionists on the short list to replace the retiring (and Protestant) John Paul Stevens. So what if the majority of Americans are Protestant,…

  Apr 21, 2010 | 2 min read
• Letters

  April 30, 2010

  Opening Up Poland’s Jewish Community I read with great interest Konstanty Gebert’s April 23 article “Why Poland’s Jews Mourn Their President.” The Polish Jewish community shares a deep sense of loss over the deaths of President Lech Kaczynski, First Lady Maria Kaczynski and the 94 others who perished in that tragic plane crash near Smolensk…

  Apr 21, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Lessons of the Shoah: Justice, or Just Us?

  Yair Lapid, one of Israel’s most influential journalists, wrote an important opinion piece (link is to the English translation) last week on Ynet, the Web site of Yediot Ahronot, reexamining the meaning of the Holocaust in Israel today. He says it’s time to step back, if only slightly, from the usual response of anger and…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 19, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Gwyneth Paltrow’s Kashruth Tips, and a Corny Jewish Jokes Video Archive

  If you’re a fan of Jewish Geography (The “Guess Who’s Jewish” Game) like me, here’s a wow tidbit. Gwyneth Paltrow, screen goddess, interfaith progeny of the late Hollywood producer-director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, and descendant of a distinguished line of rabbis, participates in a blog called Goop.com where she shares tips on living….

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 15, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Goldstone Barred From Grandson’s Bar Mitzvah

  According to a an article posted Wednesday on the Web site of the South African Centre for Law and Social Justice, Judge Richard Goldstone has been effectively barred from attending his grandson’s bar mitzvah in the affluent Johannesburg suburb of Sandton, because of objections from the South African Zionist Federation. THE AFTER-SHOCKS of the Goldstone…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 15, 2010 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Sing It Loud: ‘I Am a Jew’

  Perhaps you’ve already seen and heard it. So, as of this writing, have some 2,700 people, courtesy of YouTube. It is one of those songs that comes to remind us of some basic, non-parseable ideas. Watch the video here: And here, for your pleasure, is a translation of the Hebrew lyrics you’ll hear there, sung…

  By Leonard Fein Apr 14, 2010 | 3 min read