Germany
The Jewish Egyptian RevivalWednesday, March 13, 2013 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Passover marks the day on which God liberated the Israelites from Pharaoh’s rule. But three millennia after the Exodus, emancipated Jews expressed their national identity by building synagogues in the Pharaonic style.
From Reparations to AtonementMonday, January 28, 2013 by Ismar Schorsch | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Where recognition of the Holocaust was once restricted to the office of the Chancellor, there is a grassroots commitment in today's Germany to take ownership of the past.
Jews and Human Rights In Europe: the Unfulfilled PromiseFriday, December 28, 2012 by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
While many German war criminals escaped prosecution, the European Court of Human Rights may soon outlaw brit milah across Europe. [Part II of II]
Chemical Warfare in the Middle East: A Brief HistoryThursday, December 13, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
At this time of Hanukkah’s memories of Syrian tyrants past, the Syrian tyrant present, Bashar al-Assad, has reportedly assembled chemical weapons for use against the rebellion.
The Turning of the Torah TideTuesday, December 4, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
“Torah Judaism today retains more of its youth than at any time since the Haskalah.” Historian Marc Shapiro recently made this remark. Can he possibly be correct?
Adorno, Butler, and the Death of IronyFriday, September 28, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Irony cannot exist in isolation; something is ironic only in relation to a larger pattern of events or behavior. Every three years, the city of Frankfurt awards its Adorno Prize to honor scholarly achievement in philosophy, music, film, and theater.
Story Master from AshkenazWednesday, September 19, 2012 by Moshe Simon-Shoshan | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Today, the use of literary theory and criticism to study Midrash and Aggadah—non-legal and interpretive rabbinic literature—is a well-established and even popular endeavor.
Return to FuldaTuesday, September 11, 2012 by Kenneth R. Weinstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Once my son Harry’s bar mitzvah teacher told him he was ready to read Torah and Haftarah fluently anywhere in the world, Harry decided that after his bar mitzvah in Washington, D.C. he would have a second bar mitzvah in Fulda, Germany.
Holocaust Reparations: The Back StoryMonday, August 13, 2012 by Michael Pinto-Duschinsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On July 10th, dignitaries from the U.S., German, and Israeli governments attended a curious ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Editors' Picks
Our Mothers, Our Fathers Thomas Rogers, New Republic. A new German miniseries depicting the cruelty of soldiers during World War II shows that "the crimes of the Wehrmacht are no longer a taboo," but "a well-integrated theme in German history."
Diary of the Hitler Diary Hoax Sally McGrane, New Yorker. Thirty years ago, Stern magazine announced the discovery of Hitler’s lost diaries, which claimed that he did not know what was happening to the Jews. Within two weeks, the diaries were exposed as fakes.
Jew in a Box Benjamin Weinthal, Foreign Policy. Is an exhibit at Berlin's Jewish Museum featuring a Jew sitting in a glass box, to answer visitors' questions, useful pedagogy, or "pathetic and useless"?
Educating Adolf Felix Bohr, Spiegel. Biographers of Hitler have long pondered what transformed him from a struggling artist into a demagogue. A new book claims that the key lies in his military service after World War I.
Hitler's Philosophers Richard J. Evans, Times Higher Education. The idea that German philosophers were to blame for the rise of Nazism has long been discredited. A new attempt to revive the theory fails to convince.
From The White Rose . . . Jud Newborn, JTA. Sophie and Hans Scholl, who led Germany’s only Nazi-era public protest against Hitler and the Holocaust, were executed 70 years ago this month. But in Germany, their legacy lives on.
J'Accuse! Lee Smith, Weekly Standard. Despite pressure from France and Germany, Bulgaria has blamed Hizballah for the July 2012 bombing that killed 5 Israelis—and made the E.U.'s refusal to blacklist Hizballah untenable.
The Original Jewish Mothers Lawrence Schiffman, LawrenceSchiffman.com. Contrary to claims that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from European converts, genetic analysis shows that 70 percent of them can be traced to four females from the Middle East.
Germany's True Colors Christiane Hoffmann, René Pfister, Spiegel. Angela Merkel has maintained Germany's close relationship with Israel. But she no longer has the support of the German people for doing so.
Love Makes the Melody Immortal! Inbal Freund-Novick, eJewish Philanthropy. A recent concert in Berlin, featuring cantors and choirs from across Europe, has brought the music of Louis Lewandowski back home.