History
Human Rights and Religious WrongsFriday, January 13, 2012 by Jonathan Neumann | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Although the discourse on human rights has a long pedigree, traceable at least to early modern natural rights theory and politics, the philosophical case for human rights against one alternative, religion, has yet to be made.
Two Palestines, CompleteWednesday, January 11, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Some saw history in the making. With jubilation and fanfare Fatah and Hamas agreed last spring in Cairo to form an interim technocratic administration, hold parliamentary and presidential elections by May 2012 and, ultimately, to establish a national unity government.
The Couch and the ConfessionalTuesday, January 10, 2012 by Joseph J. Siev | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Sigmund Freud's last book, Moses and Monotheism, was published in 1939, a year after he fled, mortally ill with cancer of the jaw, from Nazi-occupied Vienna to London. The book is famous for its speculations that Moses was not Jewish and that the people he led out of Egyptian slavery murdered him.
Judaism on SteroidsMonday, January 9, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Ryan Braun, the reigning MVP of baseball's National League, is having a rough offseason. On December 12, ESPN reported that Braun had tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug (PED) after a league-mandated drug test revealed elevated levels of testosterone in his system.
The Whole Damn DealFriday, January 6, 2012 by Suzanne Garment | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On April 2, 1979, President Jimmy Carter recorded in his diary that he had asked Robert S. Strauss to be his Mideast peace negotiator. Strauss answered, "I've never even read the Bible. And I'm a Jew." Observance-wise, Bob Strauss, who spent 50 years as a consummate practitioner of American politics, wasn't much of a Jew.
The State of ChristianityThursday, January 5, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On a sun-drenched day during the week before Christmas, Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre was crowded with pilgrims from Nigeria. They were taking turns kneeling and praying at a marker on the spot where, sacred history has it, Jesus was crucified, entombed, and resurrected.
Goodnight, ViennaWednesday, January 4, 2012 by Daniel Johnson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Jews of Vienna did not merely understand the world: they took Marx's point and changed it, too. From Freud's psychoanalysis to Wittgenstein's philosophy, from Mahler's music to Herzl's Zionism, they made a unique contribution to modernity.
The Mughrabi Bridge to NowhereTuesday, January 3, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
From the southern end of the plaza in front of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a temporary wooden bridge ascends eastward to the Mughrabi Gate, the only one of the 11 gates into the Temple Mount area that is accessible to non-Muslims.
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.)
Urban Planning, Hasmonean-StyleWednesday, December 28, 2011 by Elli Fischer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the early 1990s, construction began on Modi'in, Israel's new "City of the Future." Designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie and located mid-way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Modi'in is in many ways typical of modern planned communities.
Editors' Picks
Sally Priesand and the Reality Principle Michele Alperin, JNS. Forty years ago, the first woman rabbi intended to get married and have children, and planned to have a nursery next to her synagogue office. Reality turned out to be different.
Black Hats and Cassocks Avi Shafran, Jewish Week. Prudent, measured insularity is not asceticism, and Haredim aren't monks.
A Serious Man Joseph Epstein, New Criterion. One day Hilton Kramer appeared to drop off his copy in person at the New Leader offices. The editor asked him if he knew anyone who was looking for a job. "Actually, I do," he said. "Me."
The Revolutionary Imperative and the Non-Jewish Jew Colin Shindler, Jewish Chronicle. The Balfour Declaration and the October Revolution happened within days of each other. Which path were Jews with a social conscience to follow?
American Hebrew Poetry? Jerome Chanes, Forward. One of the best-kept secrets of Jewish American history is the creation of an indigenous Hebrew poetry in the first half of the 20th century.
Forward! Seth Lipsky, Daily Beast. Obama is getting razzed for the hard-Left associations of his new campaign slogan. But the newspaper that made the name "Forward" famous may have been the most anti-Communist in U.S. history.
The First Book Maurice Sendak Ever Illustrated Peter D. Sieruta, Collecting Children's Books. The co-author of Atomics for the Millions asked one of his high school students if he would illustrate the volume. The student agreed to do the artwork in exchange for $100 and a passing grade.
Witnesses to the Bible? Matti Friedman, Times of Israel. Two rare 3,000-year-old models of ancient shrines are among the artifacts claimed by an Israeli archeologist as evidence for the historical veracity of the Bible.
Nobel Nuggets Jay Nordlinger, National Review. There was no Nobel Peace Prize for 1939, because Germany invaded Poland on September 1. (Forty-seven years later, Henry Kissinger would write to Elie Wiesel: "I was not proud of my Nobel, but I am of yours.")
The Reality of Race Jon Entine, Forward. Historical analysis now depends not only on pottery shards, flaking manuscripts, and faded coins, but on something far less ambiguous: DNA. And the study of Jewish DNA yields some surprising findings.