People & Places
The Old Young GuardMonday, March 7, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
One of the most significant movements of Jewish renewal in the 20th century was Hashomer Hatzair: the Young Guard. Founded as a youth group in Vienna in 1916, the movement set itself in opposition to what it regarded as the emaciated character of Jewish life.
The Odessa FileFriday, March 4, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Undoubtedly the most searing image of the port city of Odessa on the Black Sea is Sergei Eisenstein's reconstruction of a bloody massacre on its famed "Potemkin Steps" in his epic silent film, Battleship Potemkin (1925).
The Virtuoso of JudaismThursday, March 3, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Religious virtuosity comes in many forms. One of them is the ability to reconcile seeming irreconcilables, like faith and freedom, piety and intellect, revelation and science. The dream of synthesis has lured many in the past two centuries. One who seemed to live it was Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
Follow the MoneyWednesday, March 2, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) is shocked—shocked—to discover that Muammar Qaddafi is a very bad man. So the once venerable institution is diverting some of the $2.5 million pledged through Qaddafi's son Saif al-Islam into a scholarship fund for Libyan students.
J Street’s Last Hurrah?Tuesday, March 1, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In a little over three years, a liberal lobby calling itself "passionately and unapologetically pro-Israel" appears to have either supplanted or co-opted other likeminded groups on the Jewish Left—among them, Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, and the New Israel Fund.
Military Virtue, and VirtueMonday, February 28, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On February 14, Benny Gantz was appointed the twentieth chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It wasn't supposed to be that way. Yoav Galant, a decorated soldier and former head of the IDF's southern command, had been named to the position at the end of 2010.
Strange BedfellowsThursday, February 24, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
To the already boiling Middle East cauldron, add the prospect of new bilateral relations between two powers that have historically kept each other at arm's length: Egypt (Sunni, Arab, lately a client of the United States) and Iran (Shiite, Persian, patron of Hizballah and Hamas). One bone of contention between them has long been the Jewish state of Israel.
Jewish Philanthropy 2.0Wednesday, February 23, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Jewish mega-donors are hardly news. It is also a commonplace that wealthy Jews allocate less than 25 percent of their giving to specifically Jewish causes. Of the two facts, the latter has understandably puzzled and frustrated fund raisers for Jewish causes. But is it really so mysterious?
The Athens & Jerusalem Two-StepTuesday, February 22, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The eastern Mediterranean is in a state of serious flux. Historically, under such volatile conditions, old bonds tend to dissolve and new partnerships to emerge. The present is no exception. One example of this is Greece's surprising new friendship with Israel and its outreach to the American Jewish community.
Jewish-Christian Dialogue TodayMonday, February 21, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
How do today's Jews and Christians encounter one another? The most obvious way is in the countless interactions of Jewish and Christian colleagues and acquaintances in a host of daily settings, including exchanges on their respective religious attitudes and experiences.
Editors' Picks
Frankly, My Dear Alan Brill, Book of Doctrines and Opinions. The Frankist movement led many Jews to convert to Catholicism and join the lower nobility in Poland. But this was no ordinary assimilation, as Jewish theology came to infuse the whole gentry.
Digging Tiberias Matti Friedman, Times of Israel. Long beloved of archeologists but overshadowed by more famous sites, the ancient metropolis of Tiberias is finally emerging from underneath soil, rubble, and the remnants of an old garbage dump.
Mourning, Melancholia, and Maimonides Jon Sommer, Zeek. Perhaps because a number of medieval Jewish philosophers were also mathematicians and astronomers, their writings on suffering offer commonsensical guidance still useful today.
The Grapes of Roth Daniel Johnson, Literary Review. The correspondence of Austrian-Jewish writer Joseph Roth displays his sparkling wit and contrarian sensibilities, but testifies above all to his terminal decline into alcoholism.
Newton the Theologian Aron Heller, Associated Press. Known for revolutionizing empirical science, Isaac Newton was also an influential theologian. His writings on Scripture and mysticism (as well as his prediction of the apocalypse) have now been digitized in Israel.
Tramp Stamp Tom Whitehead, Daily Telegraph. Suspecting his Communist sympathies, the CIA and MI5 began investigating Charlie Chaplin. Would his missing birth certificate verify the speculation that he was really a Russian Jew?
Israel's African Influx Dan Kosky, Times of Israel. If Netanyahu genuinely wants to control illegal immigration to Israel from Africa, he should be constructing a proper legal process to separate economic migrants from asylum seekers.
The False Crusade Peter Frankopan, New York Times. The medieval narrative of the First Crusade as a Papal expedition to conquer Jerusalem is still rarely questioned; yet the roots of the Crusade lie not in Rome but rather in Byzantium.
Crisis of Succession Yair Ettinger, Haaretz. Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the spiritual leader of Israel's Lithuanian Haredi community, has never chosen a successor. Now that he is critically ill, the Haredi world may soon be facing a power struggle.
Russia's Useful Idiots Michael C. Moynihan, Tablet. Fans of the cable network RT may view it as an impartial alternative to Western news coverage, but in reality it is a mouthpiece for Vladimir Putin, and uncritical viewers are his dupes.