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Denominational DelusionsWednesday, February 6, 2013 by Andrew Apostolou | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
With synagogues closing, congregations ageing, and the non-Orthodox majority dwindling, American Jews are caught in a crisis. Yet no one is tackling the root of this problem: intermarriage.
When Prayers for Rain are AnsweredFriday, January 11, 2013 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Israel is, in most minds, an arid land bereft of water, not cursed with its superabundance. But a look at geography and history suggests otherwise.
Not Dead Yet: The Remarkable Renaissance of Cantorial MusicTuesday, December 25, 2012 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
After a half-century of steady decline, two unlikely Jewish groups are reviving hazzanut.
Crossing Borders—Without PassportsWednesday, December 19, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
“Crossing Borders,” a current exhibit at New York City’s Jewish Museum featuring works on loan from Oxford's Bodleian Library, displays medieval Jewish manuscripts embedded in their Christian and Muslim scribal milieus.
The Real Jewish GeographyFriday, November 16, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A new series of high resolution maps, produced by geographer Joshua Comenetz, provide a view of American Jewish life that is seemingly familiar—but, beneath the surface, spread unevenly across the 50 states.
Promises, PromisesThursday, October 25, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
City of Promises, a new three-volume history of Jewish New York, is remarkable for the complex metamorphoses it explains—and for the 21st century transformation it doesn't mention.
I. B. Singer’s Last LaughMonday, August 6, 2012 by David G. Roskies | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Like millions of his fellow immigrants to America, Isaac Bashevis Singer started over. In the beginning, he was a deadly serious Polish-Yiddish writer with world-literary ambitions.
New York Jews: Growing in Numbers, Growing ApartThursday, July 5, 2012 by Leslie Lenkowsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Ever since the first 23 Jewish settlers arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654, New York City has been the economic, cultural, religious and, not least, demographic center of Jewish life in North America.
Editors' Picks
Beef with the Butcher Nic Cavell, Dissent. In 1902, working-class Jewish women in New York rioted to enforce a boycott against price-gouging kosher butchers. A new "street musical" dramatizes their battle.
Broadway and the Jews Sarah Rodman, Boston Globe. As they say in Spamalot, "You won’t succeed on Broadway if you don’t have any Jews." A new documentary film emphatically agrees.
The View from the Hudson Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe. Cartoonist Saul Steinberg was a Romanian Jew, an escapee from Fascist Italy, and a man whose wry art helped define modern America.
Beer with a Back Story Editors, Jewish Ideas Daily. What happens when Israel’s emerging boutique beer culture intersects with the American trend toward getting to know the food one eats? Lost Tribes Brew happens. The New York-based microbrewery produces beers based on recipes gathered from various remote communities claiming Israelite origins, like India’s Bene Menashe and Ethiopia’s Beta Israel.No doubt, part of this is a gimmick: in order to successfully market an odd-tasting beer brewed by a bunch of Jewish twenty-somethings in upstate New York, you need to have a good story, like one that connects your customer to real or imagined ancient Israelite foodways (note that...
A Rough Road from Bukhara to Forest Hills Steve Lipman, Jewish Week. Less prominent in New York than Jewish immigrants from Russia, Bukharian Jews form a small community in Queens. Their road to American acculturation hasn’t been easy.
An Audience with Ahmadinejad David Remnick, New Yorker. “Fundamentally, we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists.”
The Endangered “New York Jew” Jack Wertheimer, Commentary. If one insists on indulging in the dubious exercise of identifying types of Jews who are “undeserving,” it behooves us to ask who, in fact, is most worthy of communal support: those who are failing to raise and nurture a successor generation of Jews or those who are producing and educating enough Jewish children to make up for the indifference of the rest?
Launching Yiddish Farm Ezra Glinter, Forward. Some 50 miles northwest of Manhattan, two men aim to create an immersive Yiddish environment that is also a model of sustainable agriculture. (With video)