Rabbi Joel Dinin is a no-nonsense Orthodox rabbi — and he looks the part. He sports a black kippah and doesn’t tuck in his tzitzit, the ritual tassels of the prayer shawl he wears as an undershirt. After Saturday morning services he asks that his congregants wash their hands and say the proper blessings, as…
We seem to have entered round two (or three or four) of #MeToo revelations. On Friday, the writer Zizi Clemons alleged via Tweet that Junot Diaz had forcibly kissed her. Last week, Tom Brokaw was accused of sexual misconduct. And New York Times editor Wendell Jamieson resigned amid accusations of misconduct made by three female…
For the past two weeks, horrifying images of Palestinians being murdered have surfaced on social media. Jets have dropped bombs, sending flames and black smoke into the air, followed by helicopters dropping improvised and unguided barrel bombs. On the ground, in the besieged Palestinian camp, buildings collapsed burying civilians alive underneath them. Those who have…
The principal of an elite ultra-Orthodox girls’ school is defending himself against accusations from a politician and community members that he’s ignored years of complaints about sexual misconduct. The controversy’s catalyst was the release late last week, through a popular messaging app, of a recording that relates one student’s tale of an unwanted kiss from…
In 1985, “Palestinian Girl,” a drama by Joshua Sobol, Israel’s most famous and prolific living playwright, premiered in the Haifa Theater. A story about a love affair between an Israeli man and a Palestinian woman whose relationship is being destroyed by right-wing thugs, the play was controversial, but a huge success. This was a few…
There once was a feeling among American Jews that Benjamin Netanyahu was one of theirs. For decades, Israel had been represented on the international stage by a parade of grey, rumpled bureaucrats, brash generals and uncouth political hacks. When Bibi arrived on the scene, immaculately dressed and without a trace of accent, it was as…
If you have ever wanted to visit the private library of a major intellectual, the place to be is Jerusalem, where Gershom Scholem’s personal library — along with the desk he wrote on — lives inside a room at the National Library of Israel. The space is homey, and feels a bit like a private…
The mainstream media has been ablaze with coverage of the Great Return March, a series of weekend protests of Gazans at several sites along the separation fence with Israel. Many have taken to the pages of publications like this one to criticize Israel’s mistreatment of the protesters, like Peter Beinart in his recent piece “American…
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