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The Book of Life: Life and death during the High Holidays
I have looked at the High Holidays very differently the past few years. I have been wondering what has shaped this new outlook and keep coming back to one word: Death. Read more »
Obama: Walking on Israel in Chamberlain’s Shoes?
Neville Chamberlain’s three years (1937-1940) as British Prime Minister earned him infamy in Jewish history... As tension now grows over Iran’s race to develop nuclear weapons, President Obama seeks rapprochement with the Muslim world, including Iran. Can we ask if there are similarities between Obama and Chamberlain? Read more »
Fighting Nazism Outside the Movies
This story describes some of my experiences as a teenager in confronting anti-Semitism. With the Quentin Tarrantino movie, "Inglorious Basterds" apparently indulging many adult Jews to relish in fictional vengence or justice upon the Nazis. I however am not moved. Anti-Semitism and Nazism are not fiction, they are quite real. Having fought against anti-Semitism and Nazism, I am embarrassed by those, who in this case take pride in a historical revisionist account of Jewish vengence/justice. Read more »
Nothing Will Hurt Me: Coping with the loss of a neighbor and IDF soldier
Jonathan Feldstein on coping with the loss of a young neighbor, Uriel Liwerant, who died in a training accident in the Israeli Defense Forces this week. "My wife called in the middle of a meeting the other day. I usually take her call in case it’s important. Perhaps, I thought, she needed me to run another errand on the way home. She shared with me the news of a soldier who was killed in a training accident. Uriel Liwerant was a neighbor of ours. As I listened to the news on the way home, I hoped that the report would be different, that my wife had been wrong. That perhaps nobody had died. My heart sunk to hear the news confirming her report...But in Israel, this is too often a fact of life." Read more »
Happy Anniversary to Us: Five years after making aliyah to Israel
This week I [Jonathan Feldstein] celebrate the anniversary of making aliyah in 2004... What I found was that actually picking up and doing it, getting on that plane and settling in Israel, was one of the most moving and emotional experiences in my life...Yet, in spite of this relatively simple process, there were (and are) still challenges to overcome. After five years as a veteran oleh, its worth looking back, and to offer guidance for the thousands of other Anglo olim who will arrive this summer. Read more »
Letter: Obama’s Pretext for Pressuring Israel Is Disingenuous.
Obama’s pretext for pressuring Israel, which JTA reported in its story, “At White House, U.S. Jews offer little resistance to Obama policy on settlements," is disingenuous. Obama asserted that when there was “no daylight” between the U.S. and Israel under President Bush there was no peace progress. This excuse, however, is invalid... Read more »
My Friend, My Hero
There are many kind of heroes. Some are sports and entertainment stars. Some are teachers and other civic leaders. Some are political or military figures. Most can think of one or another person we admire – whether we know them personally or not – who we would say is our hero. As I have grown up from my youth when sports figures were my heroes, to adulthood, while the definition of a hero has remained more or less constant, today it is communal leaders, teachers and thinkers I admire who are my heroes. I still admire the sports figures, but their presence in my life is not as significant as it was then, and my heroes today are those who do things or stand for things that I admire and that make a positive difference in our world. Read more »
Opinion: Israel as a Jewish State
Lawrence J. Epstein asks whether Israel can retain its identity as both a democracy and a Jewish state: In 1896 Theodor Herzl published Der Judenstaat, his national plan for the Jewish people. The pamphlet has often been mistranslated as The Jewish State. The word “Juden” was used by those who hated and persecuted Jews. Herzl’s point in calling the pamphlet The Jews’ State was to hurl back the epithet by asserting that those very Jews were proud and able enough to form their own nation... Read more »
My Inheritance: Reflections on the occasion of my mother’s yartzeit
Recently, I inherited some money from my mother’s estate. It’s been nearly three years since she died and final distributions of the assets of her estate have been made. In almost every room of my home there are other tangible reminders of my mother that we inherited as well; furniture, silver, books, photos, wind chimes, her owl collection, etc. As her yartzeit (anniversary of her death) is upon us, I got to thinking about her, as I do often and, with this final inheritance, what that meant. My 16 year old daughter, my mother’s first grandchild, did an extensive report for school on auto immune diseases because she knew that Grandma Ruth had Lupus... Read more »
Balearic Government Spends €300,000 in Pro-Palestinian Comic Book
The comic book was edited along with teaching pamphlets to promote the “Palestinian cause” among local teenagers and youngsters. It was a project of the Conselleria d’Afers Socials (Balearic social affairs ministry) that came to life after the demonstrations against Israel’s attacks on Gaza last December and January. Read more »
- Brazileans protest Ahmadinejad visit
- Peres: ‘Real progress’ in Shalit talks
- The Mofaz plan—state now, ask questions later
- eBay removes Mussolini brain, blood samples
- Turkey demands delivery of Israeli drones
- Iran begins air defense drill
- More Israeli recruits seeking to join combat units
- Haredim return to protest Jerusalem Intel factory
- Female Orthodox scholars helping women talk about sex
- Obama half-brother has Jewish roots
- Lieberman: Fort Hood could be terror attack
- J Street confab shows generational divide on Israel
- What really happened at the Reform biennial in Toronto
- Rubashkin convicted on 86 charges
- Pro-Israel fliers confiscated at campus speech
- Obama shifts to Israel’s corner, but tries not to show it
