Passover reflects America. Over the last two decades, two trends have defined American religious life: disaffiliation and spiritual searching. More Americans than ever are leaving the religious denominations of their childhood: Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish communities alike. Each tradition, in turn, is becoming smaller, more traditional, and more conservative (except Catholics, due to the influx…
On Saturday, the March for Our Lives, a gun protest march organized in part by teenage survivors of the shooting in Parkland, Florida, will take place in cities across the country. Plenty of Jews will be in attendance — some of Parkland’s strongest voices since the shooting have been Jewish survivors and parents of those…
In late 2015, I joined the World Jewish Congress’ young professional group, the “Jewish Diplomatic Corps,” as a volunteer. In early 2017, I ended my participation after a very rocky tenure. The tipping point came following the inauguration of President Trump in early 2017. It was then that the WJC became an outlier among major…
This past Sunday morning, D.C. Councilman Trayon White released a video complaining about the weather. It was a completely normal post which would have gone unnoticed but for a little comment he made at the end: “Y’all better pay attention to this climate control,” White said. “It’s climate manipulation and D.C. keep talking about ‘We…
After he fell victim to an onslaught of vile anti-Semitic taunts on Twitter, and discovered that users were enclosing his name in parentheses — (((Jonathan Weisman))) — to connote his being Jewish, Jonathan Weisman became a reluctant expert on the rise of the so-called “Alt-Right.” In his new book, “(((Semitism))),” Weisman delves into the ancient…
President Trump seems to be rapidly approaching a political precipice. There is no longer any doubt that Russians interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election; the only question that remains is how much the Trump campaign – and Trump himself – knew about it. If the Mueller investigation can prove that Trump knew of the…
It was early June 1967, and Leslie Cavendish faced a rare dilemma: War had broken out in the Middle East, and the very survival of Israel seemed at stake. For Cavendish and his friends in London, the possibility that Israel might be destroyed touched something deep inside their Jewish hearts, and they all felt the…
Many Ashkenazi Jews know only a few basic geographical facts about their ancestors: They came from Poland, but when it was Russia. Their great-grandparents hailed from Bulgaria — or was it Romania? A number of Jews have turned to direct-to-consumer ancestry services like 23andMe and Ancestry.com for better answers, but they have gotten nowhere. This…
100% of profits support our journalism
