Asia
Our Zoroastrian MomentMonday, May 7, 2012 by Shai Secunda | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The great contemporary scholar of religion Jonathan Z. Smith once remarked that the omnipresent substructure of human thought lies in the human capacity to make comparisons. In ancient Sumer, scribes crafted intricate similes.
Mumbai WeddingFriday, May 4, 2012 by Joseph Mayton | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
As the afternoon sun hit its peak, Haran and I pulled up to his small one-and-a-half-bedroom flat on the outskirts of East Mumbai, India, some 20 minutes from the airport. The building's shiny tin roof showed that money was in short supply. But inside the apartment, with Indian hospitality, Haran's wife Geeta served me perfectly spiced hot tea.
Hitting the JackpotThursday, March 8, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Who doesn't like Purim? Besides the costumes and candy, the story itself has all the politics, sex, and violence of a juicy HBO series. In case you missed it: "Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted to destroy the Jews, and had cast a pur—that is, a lottery—with intent to crush and exterminate them."
Cyrus, Ahmadinejad, and the Politics of PurimWednesday, March 7, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
At this week's pre-Purim meeting in Washington between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu to discuss Iran's nuclear threat to Israel, Netanyahu gave Obama a present: the book (or m'gilah, scroll) of Esther, which tells how the Jewish heroine foiled Haman's plot to kill the Jews of ancient Persia.
Hear, O Friends of IsraelThursday, February 2, 2012 by Daniel Johnson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1987, exactly a quarter-century ago, the appearance of a work of Jewish history caused a stir. For one thing, the author was not Jewish; for another, the book was unashamedly supportive of the State of Israel, which even then was enough to provoke hostility, especially on the Left.
Trotsky Eats and RunsWednesday, January 25, 2012 by Micah D. Halpern | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
I first heard the name Trotsky when I was seven years old. My grandfather, a Jewish tailor from Belarus who arrived in the goldene medine and pulled himself up by his bootstraps to own a men's suit factory in New York, had just gotten a swept-back haircut. He called it a Trotsky.
Highlights of 2011:Part II
Friday, December 30, 2011 | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Part II of our round-up of the past year's most popular features on Jewish Ideas Daily. (Part I is here.)
The Russian WaveThursday, May 26, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, some one million Jews have come to Israel from the former Soviet Union (FSU), enlarging the country's population by 25 percent and forming the largest concentration in the world of Russian Jews. They have left their mark in almost every walk of life. And yet, as a group, they are still something of a mystery.
From the Four CornersTuesday, May 24, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Are most Jews white? The impression that this is so is partially the result of the calamitous and decimating events of the 20th century, in which the great centers of Europe were lost to Nazi genocide while those of the Middle East and North Africa were lost to Islam.
Gandhi and the JewsTuesday, April 5, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A new book about Mohandas Gandhi (1869–1948) has set off stormy protests in India for implying that the country's founding father was bisexual. That's only the beginning of it.
Editors' Picks
"Rabbi, do we Jews believe in reincarnation?" Hyim Shafner, Institute for Jewish Ideas. "Knowing full well that much of Kabbalah, philosophy, and even Midrash does accept the notion of reincarnation, I tried to muster a definitive 'No!'"
India's Jewish General Aimee Ginsburg, Open. Asked to name a great Jewish warrior, few Jews would point to Jack Jacob. But in his native India, the Jewish general who won the Indo-Pakistan War is a hero.
When Stalinism Was in Vogue Michael Moynihan, Wall Street Journal. Playwright Lillian Hellman disdained a system that made her fabulously rich while romanticizing one that made its citizens spectacularly poor.
Higher Standards Douglas Murray, Jewish Chronicle. Israel's defenders often rebut criticism by contrasting its conduct with that of its authoritarian neighbors. But even when the metric is the conduct of other democracies, Israel fares well.
Nesting Dolls Alina Dain Sharon, Jewish Journal. Twenty years after their Russian exodus, the lives of Jews who emigrated to the U.S., Israel, and Germany differ markedly from those who stayed in Russia.
Jews Rush In Antonio Di Gesu, JTA. A year after Japan's deadly tsunami, the community has not forgotten the almost instantaneous global Jewish response to the disaster.
Will the Real Ahasuerus Please Stand Up? Mitchell First, Bible-pedia. After many centuries, scholars were finally able to identify characters from the Purim story in secular sources.
Russian Renaissance David Rozenson, Tikvah Fund. In an interview, the director of the Avi Chai Foundation in the Former Soviet Union speaks of escaping the USSR as a boy, and of returning as an adult to rebuild Jewish life (Part I; Part II is here).
Russia's Jewish Composers Matt Kelly, UVA Today. For a brief period prior to the Revolution, Jews were among the rising stars of Russian classical music. But they soon discovered that while Russian culture liked Jewish music, it didn't like Jews.
Russia's Useful Idiots Michael C. Moynihan, Tablet. Fans of the cable network RT may view it as an impartial alternative to Western news coverage, but in reality it is a mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin, and uncritical viewers are his dupes.