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Agitprop in America
The tempest has subsided, and the playwright Tony Kushner will receive his honorary doctorate from the City University of New York after all. After a single trustee convinced the majority of his fellow board members to deny the award on the basis of Kushner's viciously negative pronouncements about Israel, the weight of almost the entire New York cultural apparatus was brought to bear.
The Tale of Maimonides and PeterThursday, May 12, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The tempest has subsided, and the playwright Tony Kushner will receive his honorary doctorate from the City University of New York after all. After a single trustee convinced the majority of his fellow board members to deny the award on the basis of Kushner's viciously negative pronouncements about Israel, the weight of almost the entire New York cultural apparatus was brought to bear.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by Fred MacDowell | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Was the great religious philosopher a heretic, as some medieval rabbis thought? A legend extant in many versions tells how he dramatically and successfully dispelled the charge.A Sad Job Done Well
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by Michael McDonald | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
What is the single best book for understanding the political tragedies of the 20th century? The Gulag Archipelago? 1984? Try the little-known Czech writer Heda Kovály's Under a Cruel Star.Naturally Neural
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by Nadine Epstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Did being Jewish help the journalist Joshua Foer win the U.S. Memory Championship?
Beyond “Religious” and “Secular”
What should be the place of the Jewish religion in a Jewish state? There are many putative answers to this question, and the answers have changed over time. When Zionism was still an aspiration, a great blank yet to be filled in, the terms of debate were set by a self-confidently secular dispensation preoccupied with state- and institution-building. In the first few decades of statehood, religion, though state-established, was clearly subservient.
At Fatima GateWednesday, May 11, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
What should be the place of the Jewish religion in a Jewish state? There are many putative answers to this question, and the answers have changed over time. When Zionism was still an aspiration, a great blank yet to be filled in, the terms of debate were set by a self-confidently secular dispensation preoccupied with state- and institution-building. In the first few decades of statehood, religion, though state-established, was clearly subservient.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by Sol Stern | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
A masterful reporter, the independent journalist Michael J. Totten delivers assessments of the Hizballah movement that perennially escape the mainstream media.B’har: Liberty and the Jubilee
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Weekly Portions
This week's reading, though little more than a single chapter, deals with two separate topics: first, the sabbatical year; second, the obligations of family members to a relative in economic distress. What links them is a focus, unusual for the Torah, on macroeconomics.What I Learned in Bethlehem
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 by Mishy Harman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
At a conference of progressive Palestinians, a self-identified Israeli left-winger experiences a conversion; he is now a self-identified Zionist left-winger.Is Jerusalem in Israel?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 by Seth Lipsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
The U.S. Congress thinks one way, the executive branch another; the Supreme Court may get to decide.New, Tenuous Lease on Life
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 by Daniel Gordis | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Picks
Israelis are celebrating their country's 63rd birthday in the knowledge that in 50 years it might continue to be a thriving democracy—or it could no longer exist.