Leading Figures
The Chief Rabbi of CanterburyMonday, December 24, 2012 by Simon Gordon | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
With his public defense of religion, the outgoing Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, has fulfilled an important role within British society—just not the one he was appointed to perform.
Where Did the Gaon Go?Tuesday, December 18, 2012 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Eliyahu Stern's new book portrays the Vilna Gaon as Eastern Europe's Moses Mendelssohn. But can the ascetic, who backed the persecution of Hasidim, seriously be associated with individualism and democracy?
The First War of National LiberationWednesday, December 12, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Maccabees' revolt can lay claim to being the first war of national liberation. Reprinted here is Diana Muir Appelbaum’s account of why the Book of Maccabees is so modern and so dangerous.
Lincoln’s “Limp”Friday, November 30, 2012 by Judy Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Abraham Lincoln was a transcendently great American president. Yet Steven Spielberg’s recently released film Lincoln depicts him as a practitioner of political chicanery and manipulation. Must an individual be calculating and deceitful in order to be a great leader?
An Open Letter to Philip RothTuesday, November 20, 2012 by D.G. Myers | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Say it ain’t so. The news that you have decided to retire from the “awful field” of writing fiction is terribly upsetting. Not because your readers and critics might have paid more respectful attention to Nemesis if they’d only known that it was going to be your last book.
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.
Teshuvah: Progress or Return?Monday, September 24, 2012 by Jonathan Ziring | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
While in theory the blowing of the High Holiday shofar should be enough to “awaken us from our slumber” and move us to repentance, in practice most people need to look to other sources to enable them to rethink the way they live or their understanding of repentance itself.
At Last, ZionFriday, September 21, 2012 by Charles Krauthammer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Milan Kundera once defined a small nation as "one whose very existence may be put in question at any moment; a small nation can disappear, and it knows it." Israel is a small country. This is not to say that extinction is its fate. Only that it can be.
Are Day School Vouchers the Answer?Tuesday, August 28, 2012 by Moshe Sokolow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Is Jewish education a parental or communal responsibility? The privately funded heder, with its melamed, or tutor, emphasizes the parental aspect. The publicly maintained talmud torah, or congregational school, emphasizes the communal obligation.
The Daily Page: A “Siyum”-posiumThursday, August 2, 2012 by Jacob J. Schacter, Yoel Finkelman, Michael Carasik, Tzvi H. Weinreb, Devora Steinmetz, Moshe Sokolow, Yehudah Mirsky, Mark Gottlieb, David Glasner, Aryeh Tepper, Marc B. Shapiro, Gil Student, Emanuel Feldman, Alon Shalev, Viva Hammer, Shlomo Zuckier, and Saul J. Berman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
UPDATE: New posts as of 8/3/12, 1:11 a.m.
Editors' Picks
Zuckerman Abridged Max Ross, New Yorker. "The recent discovery of hundreds of notebooks and journals hidden throughout Zuckerman’s home in the Berkshires explains, at least in part, the seclusion and silence that marked his final 35 years." (Fiction)
When in Rome Seth Chalmer, First Things. Jewish leaders can present the next pope with a wish list on interfaith dialogue, Israel, and anti-Semitism—but must not lecture the Vatican about Catholic doctrine.
Unifying Three Communities Jonathan Sacks, Algemeiner. "To preserve the diversity of a tsibbur with the unity of purpose of an edah–that is the challenge of kehillah-formation, community-building, itself the greatest task of a great leader."
Milton's Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, Jewish Week. "The role of religious leaders is, in a paraphrase of Matthew Arnold’s description of Edmund Burke, to saturate politics with Torah thought, orientation, and commitment." (Interview by Eugene Korn)
Who Is A Jew? Gil Student, Torah Musings. In 1958, David Ben-Gurion consulted with Jewish scholars and leaders around the world in hopes of finding a universal definition. He received 45 different answers, of course.
The Next Generation Dana Evan Kaplan, H-Net. Jack Wertheimer's new study of young American Jewish leaders claims that, contrary to popular belief, not all of them are working to bring down the establishment.
Israel’s Second Joseph Liel Leibovitz, Tablet. Placed in charge of rationing food in the nascent State of Israel, Dov Yosef was widely hated and readily forgotten. But no one went hungry.
Judaism's Intellectual Boot Camp David Brinn, Jerusalem Post. "One great religious leader can move a community, one great political leader can shoulder a nation, and one intellectual leader can change hearts and minds."
Beyond the Tanya Eli Rubin, Chabad.org. The Tanya, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, remains the foundational text of Chabad Hasidism. But it was Shneur Zalman's oral teachings that built a movement.
Moses’ Choice Gil Student, Torah Musings. Moses was chosen to lead Israel not only by God but, the Gemara says, by his mother. Still, unlike his enslaved brethren and even Pharaoh, Moses had the freedom to choose.