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Western Wall RevisedWednesday, October 6, 2010 by Nir Hasson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
A plan to improve the layout of the Western Wall plaza by adding an access tunnel, a visitors' center, and a movable divider between the men's and women's sections has already provoked an outcry.Noah: The Too-Tall Tower
Wednesday, October 6, 2010 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
The builders of the Tower of Babel had their work cut out for them. The alluvial plain of Mesopotamia (formed by the Flood) had no quarries that would yield monumental stone. Instead, they molded and fired bricks and substituted raw bitumen for mortar. Through the power of technological ingenuity, they freed themselves from their environmental constraints. By ordinary standards, and notwithstanding their exaggerated hopes for the height of their planned tower with its "head in the heavens," they would seem to have been in line for applause and congratulations. Mad for the Messiah
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 by Alison Leigh Cowan | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Al Jaffee, a veteran cartoonist for Mad magazine, has put his talents to work on the adventures of the Shpy, hero of the family-friendly Moshiah Times.
Feminism and Jewish ArtTuesday, October 5, 2010 by Richard McBee | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
An exhibit now on view at New York's Jewish Museum purports to chart the course of a cultural revision—specifically, the rise of women artists, or, more specifically, the rise of Jewish women artists, or, more specifically still, the rise in the numbers of such artists exhibited at the Jewish Museum over the past 50 years. It turns out that since 1947, over 550 women artists have shown at this one venue in Manhattan. One wonders if MOMA can match those numbers.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 by Daniel Gordis | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The mere possession of a nuclear weapon by Iran would restore Jews to a condition in which their futures once again depended primarily on the choices made by their enemies.Clergy Monopoly
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 by Barak D. Richman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Centralized searches by American denominations to fill the position of rabbi are not only illogical, they're illegal.Forbidden Fruit
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 by Morris M. Faierstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Apple, etrog, fig, grape? A Yiddish biblical commentary asks which fruit Eve really ate. (From the forthcoming Fall issue.)Jews on Deck
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 by Barry Hertz | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
A new baseball documentary reminds us that before the era when public schools would shut down for Yom Kippur, there were Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax.
Religion and the IDFMonday, October 4, 2010 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Profound changes have been occurring in the officer ranks of the Israel Defense Force, and not everybody is happy about them; some, in fact, are downright alarmed. The figures tell the story: back in 1990, kippah-wearing soldiers from the country's "national-religious" community—that is, religious Jews distinguished by their deep attachment to Zionism, Israeli nationalism, and, in many cases, the settlement enterprise—comprised a mere 2.5 percent of graduates from the army's course for infantry officers. In 2007, the figure peaked at more than 31 percent, a number totally out of proportion with the number of religious-national soldiers serving in IDF infantry...
Monday, October 4, 2010 by Evelyn Gordon | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
In exchange for an extension of the freeze on settlement construction, Obama has offered Israel an impressive amount of political and military support. So why is Netanyahu likely to decline?