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The Rabbi Who Writes Too Much
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 by Gary Shapiro | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

Just how pronounced is the graphomania of Rabbi Eliezer Shlomo Schick? One professor found 954 titles by Schick in the catalog of the National Library of Israel—and those were just the ones in Hebrew.
The Unseen Shield The Unseen Shield
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The news report hardly makes an impression on most Israelis: another West Bank checkpoint search, another discovery of explosives and weapons, and the familiar finale: "The suspect was taken in for questioning by the Shin Bet."
How the Left Turned against the Jews
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Nick Cohen | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

As Communism gave way to anti-colonialism, Israel remained a target for special rage on the Left, even though Zionism was both a settler movement and an anti-colonial movement.
Torah and Telos
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Jerome Gellman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

A rational argument for taking one's religious text as divine revelation might have succeeded, were it not for the failure of the author's test-case: his justification for believing in a revealed Torah. (Interview with the book's author here.)      
A Vast Right-Wing Jewish Conspiracy?
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Rafael Medoff | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

Hearing a prominent Jewish historian claim that criticism of FDR's inaction during the Holocaust is the handiwork of disgruntled Likudniks, a leftist blogger took it upon himself to prove her wrong.
The Book That Drove Them Crazy
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Andrew Ferguson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

Twenty-five years ago, a studious manuscript called Souls Without Longing was given a more commercial title and a print run of 10,000 copies.  It soon was selling 25,000 copies a week, and its author was the most famous professor in the Western world.
After Grant Expelled the Jews
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

We'll probably never know how much of Grant's change-of-course was sincere and how much politically expedient. But he was not the last president "good for the Jews" to hold paradoxically prejudiced views about them.
Peter Beinart, I Quit. Peter Beinart, I Quit.
Monday, April 2, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Peter Beinart's new blog on the Daily Beast titled Open Zion (formerly Zion Square) is dedicated to an "open and unafraid conversation about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish future."  But after several weeks of Open Zion, one writer has concluded that its conversation is not, in fact, open—and is not one in which he can continue to take part. Here, he resigns his position. 
Translate Thy Enemy
Monday, April 2, 2012 by Jeremy Sharon | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

A translation of the Talmud into Arabic seems motivated less by historical interest than by a desire to understand what is considered to be "the main source of Jewish iniquity."
Notes on Camp
Monday, April 2, 2012 by Jason Miller | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks

Across denominations, statistics show that Jewish summer camps have a significant effect on children's lifelong Jewish involvement. But can Jewish camps keep up with secular alternatives?