Article Archives

Conferences: Why?

As Israelis take in the collapse of Netanyahu’s grand coalition, ultra-Orthodox demonstrations in Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv tent protesters' lionization of an attempted suicide, it may have escaped general attention that none of these problems featured among the prophetic visions of last month’s Presidential Conference, which charged itself with “Facing Tomorrow.”

Doing Social Justice

Some years ago, when I was helping the daughter of friends prepare for her bat mitzvah, we got to talking about her ‘‘bat mitzvah project.’’  She confided that while her parents wanted her to do something Jewish, she wanted to do something related to social justice.  I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  

Do Jews Curse Christians?

The patristic authority Jerome complained bitterly about the Jews’ condemnation of notsrim (believers in Jesus, “the Nazarite”), in the benediction of the daily Amidah known as Birkat ha-Minim: "three times a day in all their synagogues they anathemize the Christian name."

UNESCO and the World Heritage Game

The World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, better known as UNESCO, claims to safeguard the shared patrimony of the entire human race.

Text-Message Halakhah

From the ancient moment when the Sages began committing the Oral Torah to writing, through the invention of the printing press, all the way to searchable electronic databases of Jewish texts, each change in communications technology has had an impact on the Torah. 

Danube Blues

"Be sure not to wear a kippah on the street," a veteran Hungarian-Israeli businessman cautioned as we disembarked at Budapest's Ferihegy Airport.  With public opinion surveys showing it to be among the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe, I took warnings to be Jewishly discreet to heart throughout our visit to the Hungarian capital.

Evil and Id

In Freud's Last Session, Mark St. Germain's superlative play about a hypothetical encounter between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, there is a telling moment when the founder of psychoanalysis admits that he was slow to grasp the boundless evil of Nazism: "It took near tragedy for me to see Hitler for the monster he is."

The Birth of Conservative Judaism

My little corner of Queens, New York, where the six Conservative synagogues that existed two decades ago have dwindled to two, epitomizes the national movement. 

The Cush Connection

One year ago today, South Sudan declared independence.  An elated Israel officially recognized the new state the next day.  In the year since, many optimistic hopes for the Middle East and North Africa have been dashed; but in the case of South Sudan, Israel’s optimism was justified. 

The End is Nigh

Richard Landes tells us on the very first page of Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience that he isn’t going to confine himself to the usual suspects.