Current Affairs
Spying for ZionTuesday, September 13, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Spying goes on everywhere, all the time, 24/7. But the way spying is treated—when it is discovered, when it is publicized, when spies are arrested, tried, and jailed—is highly variable, especially in the United States. The timing is almost never a matter of chance.
Too Many Museums?Tuesday, August 23, 2011 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Although the paint is still wet on Philadelphia's National Museum of American Jewish History, an announcement has just been made of a planned National Museum of the Jewish People in Washington, D.C., steps from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and not far from two other Jewish museums.
The New Enemies of CircumcisionThursday, August 11, 2011 by Jon D. Levenson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Among the practices that have characterized the Jewish people over the millennia, surely none has been observed more widely, or more faithfully, than circumcision.
Lives of the Ex-HaredimTuesday, August 2, 2011 by Joshua Halberstam | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
"Wherefore art thou Romeo?" Juliet calls out in pristine Yiddish from the heights of her fire escape. Melissa (Malky) Weisz, who plays Juliet in the recent film Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish, probably asked the same question in a more vernacular Yiddish—and with very different expectations—in her earlier life.
David Mamet’s HomecomingMonday, July 18, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A new book by the playwright, director, and author David Mamet is by definition a significant literary event—but to judge from its critical reception, The Secret Knowledge is not only a bad book but possibly an evil one. Why such heat?
Getting Birthright WrongWednesday, July 6, 2011 by Philip Getz | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In mid-June, The Nation magazine, which for decades has provided a special platform for Jewish critics of Zionism, published an article by a young alumna of Birthright Israel, the organization that since 1999 has sent 260,000 young Diaspora Jews (including this writer) on free ten-day tours of the Holy Land.
Where Have All the Volunteers Gone?Friday, July 1, 2011 by Leslie Lenkowsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the 1990's, the Harvard social scientist Robert D. Putnam triggered national hand-wringing over his book Bowling Alone, which showed plummeting rates of voluntary and charitable activities among Americans, a people known since de Tocqueville's day as the world's most public-minded citizenry.
Where Have All the Volunteers Gone?Friday, July 1, 2011 by Leslie Lenkowsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the 1990's, the Harvard social scientist Robert D. Putnam triggered national hand-wringing over his book Bowling Alone, which showed plummeting rates of voluntary and charitable activities among Americans, a people known since de Tocqueville's day as the world's most public-minded citizenry.
Love, True Love, and StatisticsTuesday, June 14, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The depth of sympathy for the Jewish state among ordinary Americans ought to be cause for positive amazement. In stark contrast to strikingly negative European attitudes, a far-reaching CNN poll released on May 31 presents an uplifting picture of American public opinion toward Israel.
Jews and CapitalismFriday, June 3, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Why are so many Jews discomfited by capitalism—and not merely by the caricature of capitalism as rapacious speculation and exploitative profiteering but by the very idea of organizing an economy along free-market lines?
Editors' Picks
The Writing on the Synagogue Wall Shmuly Yanklowitz, Forward. James Kugel warned of the "Ceremonial Hall Synagogue," the "Nostalgia Center," and the "Davening Club." Are we witnessing the demise of the synagogue—and should we try to save it?
Dovecoattails Alex Klein, Tablet. "Can you build an organization which is an alternative and not attract all the haters of Israel?" Forty years ago, the pressure group Breira tried it—and J Street's director is hoping the comparison works in his organization's favor.
Toeing the Church-State Line Julie Wiener, Jewish Week. Hebrew charter schools offer the chance to educate large numbers of American Jewish children in Hebrew and Israeli culture—at taxpayers' expense—and thus are making many inside and outside the Jewish world nervous.
Poison Ivy Rivkah Blau, Jewish Press. The thriving Jewish communities at America's elite universities seem entirely natural today, until we remember that just fifty years ago the Ivy League was no haven for Jews.
Publicity Windfalls David Bernstein, JTA. On most American campuses, anti-Israel campaigns usually fail. But now well-meaning opposition from pro-Israel groups is giving them the publicity they need to succeed.
The Jews Who Fight Back Ezra Glinter, Bookforum. For decades, Chabad struggled to maintain its enclave in a predominantly black neighborhood while keeping control over its own internal frictions. Now, it may have to recalibrate that defensive stance.
A Mask for Janus Margalit Fox, New York Times. For a generation of Reform Jews, the commentary of the recently deceased W. Gunther Plaut heralded a return to Hebrew scripture. But it also made new interpretations permissible.
Treyf Adam Gregerman, Forward. Far from building a bridge between Jews and Christians, Shmuley Boteach's portrait of Jesus will be rejected by most Christians as irrelevant, ahistorical, and even insulting.
Independent is the New Democrat Ilana Ostrin, American Prospect. Jewish affiliation with the Democratic Party has dropped by ten percent since 2009. This won't hurt President Obama—but may affect other electoral races in 2012.
Should We Worry about Adelson? Ira Sharkansky, Jerusalem Post. Sheldon Adelson almost single-handedly kept Newt Gingrich's candidacy alive. Maybe that's bad for the Jews—or maybe Adelson is just providing some ideological balance to George Soros.