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Leo BaeckMonday, April 12, 2010 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
"Jewish leadership" is a phrase whose meaningful content seems to grow paler with each new workshop aimed at cultivating it. ("Where are the Jewish followers?" quipped the late Arthur Hertzberg.) Since Moses, however, one true test of leadership has been the willingness to share the worst fate of one's followers. Such a leader was Leo Baeck. Born in 1873, the son of a traditional rabbi, Baeck studied at the Conservative seminary in Breslau before moving in 1894 to Berlin, where he studied with the philosopher and sociologist Wilhelm Dilthey and was ordained by the Reform-oriented Hochschule. His career reflected the mix...
Friday, April 9, 2010 by Michael Young | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The dynamics of the Middle East are affected much less by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than by the destabilizing power vacuums being created everywhere by Washington.The Bassist Steps Out
Friday, April 9, 2010 by George Robinson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
In Bessarabian Breakdown, Jim Guttmann, a pioneer of the klezmer revival, has cut his first CD.Can the Crazies be Defeated?
Friday, April 9, 2010 by Ilan Evyatar | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
To Harold Rhode, a former Pentagon analyst, the regime in Tehran may be losing the ability to keep itself in power even as it retains the ability to create apocalyptic damage.
Holocaust Remembrance DayFriday, April 9, 2010 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
David Weiss Halivni sits in the National Library in Jerusalem working, as he has done for decades, on his multivolume commentary to the Talmud. His lifelong immersion in the Talmud began in his hometown of Sighet, in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1944, at age seventeen, he was sent with his family to Auschwitz and a series of labor camps, and emerged a lone survivor. After the war he made his way to New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, quickly establishing himself as one of the premier Talmud scholars of the age. Like most academic talmudists, Halivni approaches the text with a deep...
Friday, April 9, 2010 by Khaled Abu Toameh | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
With Western largesse, Palestinians maintain two separate governments, two prime ministers, and two police forces—and two wholly controlled media, neither of which tells the truth.The Jew in the Phone
Friday, April 9, 2010 by Mark Mietkiewicz | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
From a complete prayer book to a guide to kosher fish, an application exists for your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.Imposing Terms
Thursday, April 8, 2010 by Elliott Abrams | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The inability of Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate is a disease caused by America's diplomatic doctors, and it is getting worse.My Grandmother’s Pissarro
Thursday, April 8, 2010 by Carol J. Williams | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
A grandson claims a masterpiece that was confiscated by the Nazis in 1939 and now hangs in a Madrid museum.
KibbutzThursday, April 8, 2010 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Passover marks the anniversary of humanity's longest-running experiment in freedom. Another celebrated experiment—the kibbutz—kicked off its centennial on the first day of the holiday. In the hundred years since ten men and two women obtained land from the Jewish National Fund for their commune, Degania, kibbutzim have been the scene of sacrifice, achievement, heartbreak, decline, and attempted renewal. All aspects are central to the story of Israel and Zionism. Kibbutzim never accounted for more than a fraction of Israel's population; their significance lay in the leaders they produced, their central role in the ruling Labor Zionist movement, and their sharp ideological...