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“Meh” GenerationMonday, March 5, 2012 by Ben Zimmer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The now-ubiquitous utterance likely began as a Yiddish idiom of world-weariness. But it was "The Simpsons" that brought meh to the masses.Musings on Mendelssohn
Monday, March 5, 2012 by Robert Erlewine | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Much has been written about Moses Mendelssohn's historical significance, but a collection of new translations heralds a revival of interest in his philosophy.Behind the Times
Monday, March 5, 2012 by Josh Nathan-Kazis | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Entering a crowded field of English-language publications in Israel, the founders of the Times of Israel hope that their unapologetic defense of the Jewish state will set their paper apart.
What Would Ariel Sharon Do?Monday, March 5, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Biographies of father by sons are an uncertain genre. Closeness necessarily entails distortion, positive or negative. But at a time when the vast majority of Israeli and world leaders seem strikingly small, it is worth considering the portrait of Ariel Sharon provided by his youngest son.
Monday, March 5, 2012 by Giles MacDonogh | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
For all its dryness, Georg Gaugusch's extraordinary new tome captures the meteoric rise of Jews into Austrian high society and their precipitous fall.Can Israel Trust the U.S. When It Comes to Iran?
Friday, March 2, 2012 by Yossi Klein Halevi | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
An administration serious about stopping Iran to the point of military intervention would convey messages that raise Iran's anxiety, not Israel's.Divorce Bargaining as Extortion
Friday, March 2, 2012 by Ram Rivlin | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Is it ever legitimate to withhold a get as a negotiating tactic? An up-and-coming scholar of Jewish law thinks it is. (PDF)A Golders Green Childhood
Friday, March 2, 2012 by Simon Schama | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Before the neighborhood went frum, the historian remembers it as an island of cosmopolitanism that bred "the loudmouths, the violinists, the wide boys with the sharp suits, the showmen . . ."
Footnotes to FootnoteFriday, March 2, 2012 by Michael Fagenblat | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Director Joseph Cedar's film Hearat Shulayim (Footnote) takes place in the Hebrew University Talmud Department, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the (unnamed) Shalom Hartman Institute—the Jerusalem cloisters of the small network of Israel's talmudic academic elite.
Friday, March 2, 2012 by Jonathan D. Sarna | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant wrote a document expelling Jews from a vast war zone. So how did the Haman-like general become the Mordecai-like president?