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The Last Jews of BeirutTuesday, December 15, 2009 by Josie Ensor | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The collapse of efforts to restore a historic synagogue signals the impending demise of a once-flourishing Jewish community.
Who Can Retell?Tuesday, December 15, 2009 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Among the holidays of the Jewish year, Hanukkah may surpass even Passover in the sheer number and variety of the songs devoted to recalling, retelling, and rejoicing in the events of the past and their evergreen message. For American Jews of a certain age nostalgic for their childhood, Diane Ashton deftly surveys the English-language ditties of the 1950’s, from “Who Can Retell” to “I Had a Little Dreydl” and beyond. Today’s casual consumers have their pick of dozens of new CD’s in English, Yinglish, and Hebrew, folk, rock, and heavy metal, many of them rivaling the Christmas market for kitsch. But...
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by Martin Goodman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
“The question for historians of Judaism is not whether Jews borrowed from Hellenism, but what they did with what they borrowed.” Richly illustrated.No Time to Be Silent
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 by Yair Sheleg | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Unless countered by religious moderates, increasing extremism in Israel’s national-religious camp will feed a corresponding extremism among secular Israelis.Are Israelis Down on Obama?
Monday, December 14, 2009 by Amjad Atallah and Daniel Levy | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Not really; but they see little benefit in changing the status quo.
Emancipation & Its DiscontentsMonday, December 14, 2009 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
“One day [Jews are] being completely segregated, [and the] next thing you know, Napoleon comes through town, tears down the ghetto gates, and we can do whatever we like, sort of.” Thus the author Michael Goldfarb, describing the thesis of his recently published book, Emancipation. Especially in the cases of France and Germany, Goldfarb writes, there is no denying the profoundly liberating energies that were unleashed when the Jews, like a spring suddenly uncoiled, were enabled to join the larger societies in which they lived. Nor can there be any proper understanding of the larger course of modernity apart from this...
Monday, December 14, 2009 by Andrew Roberts | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
“Britain has never been much more than a fair-weather friend to Jewish national aspirations.”What Judith Did
Monday, December 14, 2009 by Erica Brown | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The legend of a brave and pious woman, and the lessons of Hanukkah.Voyage of the Damned
Monday, December 14, 2009 by Elinor J. Brecher | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Seventy years ago, 937 German Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis were refused entry to the United States and forced to return to Europe; yesterday, 33 survivors gathered in Miami.What Does the European Union Want?
Friday, December 11, 2009 by Dore Gold | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
What it wants is to divide the city of Jerusalem.
