American Judaism
When Jews Became DoctorsFriday, June 22, 2012 by Jacob Friedman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The study of medicine has fascinated the Jewish imagination for centuries, from the mysterious remedies of the Talmud to the medieval medical practice of Maimonides and the modern age of my-son-the-doctor bragging rights.
Brandeis and Zionism, In and Out of LoveTuesday, June 19, 2012 by Evan Moffic | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Supreme Court is once again poised to define the role of government in American society; and Louis D. Brandeis, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice, would have recognized the terms of the debate.
The Chained WifeThursday, June 14, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Yafa Friedman lives in a modest, two-story townhouse in Brooklyn. This past Sunday, the shades were drawn as a group of 30 protestors marched outside the house chanting, "Yafa Friedman—stop the abuse!"
The Jewish Left, between History and RevelationMonday, June 11, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The association of Jews with leftist ideas and movements has been a fixture of Western politics for the past 150 years. But is the relationship logical and necessary, or is it historical and contingent?
The Lower Lower East SideFriday, June 1, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
What most American Jews know about New York's Lower East Side comes from books like Irving Howe's World of our Fathers. But I was born and raised in the neighborhood at a time when there were still pushcarts along Avenue C . . .
The Mona Lisa of ViennaWednesday, May 30, 2012 by Susan Hertog | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1857, when Emperor Franz-Joseph pulled down the ancient stone wall encompassing Vienna, the social and cultural traditions of the country seemed to tumble with it. Impoverished immigrants, many of them Jews, flooded in from the east.
(F)rum RunnersWednesday, May 23, 2012 by Lawrence J. Epstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Prohibition is perennially making a comeback, at least in the media; and this is one of those revival times. It began with the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire, now in its second season, set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City and priding itself on its historical accuracy.
Abuse Among the Orthodox: Bad News, Good NewsMonday, May 21, 2012 by Yoel Finkelman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
First, the bad news: Sexual, physical, and emotional abuse occurs in Orthodox Jewish communities. Next, the worse news: Two recent New York Times stories are just the latest piece of evidence that Orthodox communities are often in denial and worse.
Either/OrthodoxyTuesday, May 15, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Belying the regimented connotation of the word "orthodox," Orthodox Judaism is by far the most diverse stream of Judaism, encompassing such incompatible types as rationalists and mystics, West Bank settlers and peaceniks, college professors and obscurantists, feminists and male chauvinists.
The Moral Costs of Jewish Day SchoolMonday, May 14, 2012 by Aryeh Klapper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
There is a lot of hand-wringing these days about whether the rising costs of Jewish day schools are sustainable. The discussion has been about money: How can we get more? How can we spend less? These questions miss the point.
Editors' Picks
Ignore Anti-Semitism: Bernstein’s Rules David Bernstein, Forward. Has a fringe group announced an anti-Israel demonstration on campus? Odds are that it’s Israeli and Jewish sources who will give them the publicity they want.
Don’t Know Much ’bout Orthodoxy Yair Rosenberg, Tablet. New York media think an Orthodox woman running for political office is an anomaly among females who are cloistered, uneducated, and subservient. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Sovereignty without Statehood? Aryeh Cohen, Justice in the City. While Israel is predicated on Jewish national sovereignty, American Jews enjoy a different sort of sovereignty that comes from “the unfettered equal access of Jews to the levers of power.”
Selling Out Seth Chalmer, eJewish Philanthropy. “Jewish communal contributions should be more like a married couple pooling their salaries for groceries, and less like a crowd of strangers ordering their own lunches.”
Chabad: The Operation Steven Windmueller, eJewish Philanthropy. Many leadership experts focus on the Hasidic sect’s organizing model, but can it be copied and reproduced elsewhere?
Commandment Keepers Len Lyons, Forward. Long ignored or dismissed as inauthentic by the Jewish establishment, black Jews are gradually gaining wider acceptance.
Learning Law Young Michael Broyde, ELI Talks. Jewish day schools provide students with the functional equivalent of a first-year law school curriculum. (Video)
Faith on the Free Market Noam Neusner, Forward. Any economist worth his salt would recognize the problem in the current model of synagogue membership.
Dirty Money? Richard Baehr, American Thinker. Far from defending Jewish interests, Jewish organizations are prepared to use anti-Semitic tropes to criticize their co-religionists—for the crime of donating to Romney.
A Minority within a Minority Ron Kampeas, JTA. Amid the large contingent of liberal Jews with influence in Washington, the Orthodox Union’s liaison, Nathan Diament, offers the President a different perspective.