Search Results
You can also browse by author, browse by source, or view the archives.
Gilad Shalit and the Soul of IsraelWednesday, December 9, 2009 by Ethan Bronner | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
When it comes to captive soldiers, fellow feeling trumps politics, policy, perhaps even the national interest.Swiss Minarets and European Islam
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Daniel Pipes | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The recent vote in Switzerland represents a possible turning point.
Land That I LoveWednesday, December 9, 2009 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
For many American Jews, the approach of Hanukkah is a reminder of another miracle besides the one in Jerusalem two millennia ago: the miracle of their country, of the blessings it has showered on its Jewish citizens, and of its firm friendship with the state of Israel. Steven Windmueller of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has written a crisp summary of the American Jewish experience and of the factors that have made it the exceptional phenomenon it is. Also just released are a handful of essays focusing on the economic life of American Jews, a subject that has...
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Yosef Hayyim Yerushalmi | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Diaspora as home, diaspora as hell: a 1997 essay by the distinguished historian who died yesterday at the age of seventy-seven.Minister Slammed
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by News Staff | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
A mini-tempest erupted over remarks by Yaakov Neeman, Israel’s minister of justice, to the effect that the law of the Torah should become state law; the remarks were later substantially modified.Would Anything be Different in a “Torah State”?
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Kobi Nahshoni | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Even under a “Torah” regime, according to an authority in Jewish law, criminal law would remain virtually unaffected, religious regulations would not be enforced, and there would be no death penalty.Rubik Rosenthal, Wordsmith
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 by Gilad Zukerman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Rosenthal’s new Dictionary of Hebrew Phrases, containing 18,000 entries on current Israeli idioms, is both enlightening and a delight to read. It also answers two questions: Who are the Israelis? And where have they come from?Kashrut: A Matter of Law, not Morality
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by Daniel Alter | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Unethical meat processors are no different from unethical merchants; keeping kosher is about something else entirely.
A Talmud for TodayTuesday, December 8, 2009 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In Israel and the United States, high-level Talmud study thrives today with an intensity unmatched since the days of the great East European yeshivot. Yet to most English readers the Talmud, the essential Jewish compendium of legal and narrative discussion, remains a closed book—or rather 63 books. All the more reason, then, to welcome a new and expertly edited 900-page selection from the “sea of the Talmud.” What if a dip into the ocean doesn’t suffice? Two English-language editions have come to the aid of the student unversed in the original languages or modes of rabbinic reasoning: a partial translation...
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 by Khaled ibn Toameh | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
In the nearly two decades since the signing of the Oslo Accords, no grassroots peace camp has been discernible in either Ramallah or Gaza City.
