nation-state

The New Rosh Hashanah

The Jewish New Year is characterized by an uneasy combination of stock-taking and solemn celebration.  Yom Ha’atzma’ut, as the birthday of the Jewish state, is beginning to acquire a similar character.

Eizenstat on the Jewish Future

In his new book on the Jewish future, Jewish diplomat Stuart Eizenstat sees Jewish destiny evolving in the friendly competition between the sovereignty of Israel and the pluralism of America.

AIPAC and the Secret Worlds of Peoplehood

No cause, force or organization, brings Americans, primarily Jews but also Christians, together like the cause of Israel as managed by AIPAC.

When Liberal Protestants Were Zionists

It is hard to imagine a liberal Christian theologian passionately defending Zionism today.  But Reinhold Niebuhr praised Zionism as a means to the establishment of "highest civilization." 

Who’s Sadat? Or, Defining Israel Literacy Upward

American Jewry is becoming less and less well informed about Zionism and Israel.  Can anything be done to reverse this decline?

Go to Ammon and Moab

Imagining themselves to be the wise men consulted on Vashti’s fate, the Rabbis deferred to the Jews’ enemies, saying, “from the day when we were exiled from our land, wisdom has been taken from us."

The Twenty-Seventh Man

On the night of August 12, 1952, a group of Yiddish writers was executed on Joseph Stalin’s orders for the crime of writing while Jewish.  The executions were the tragic culmination of the grand romance between Jewish intellectuals and Marxism.  

The “Married to another Man” Story

In the introduction to his popular and influential history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, The Iron Wall, Oxford professor Avi Shlaim tells this story: "The publication of [Herzl's] The Jewish State evoked various reactions in the Jewish com­munity, some strongly favorable, some hostile, and some skeptical . . ."

Strategic Investment in Israel’s New War

Foreign governments, acting thoughtfully and strategically, fund dozens of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that form a flourishing anti-Israel movement within Israel itself.

In Defense of the Nation-State

Daniel Gordis wants you to know that if you want tolerance, diversity and freedom, you should work for Zionism.  In his new book, Gordis weaves the work of political theorists and historians into a compelling case for the nation-state in general and Israel in particular.