Leading Figures
Martyr in WaitingFriday, March 16, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Khader Adnan, currently under administrative detention in Israel, has announced the end of his 66-day hunger strike in exchange for a commitment by Israeli authorities to set him free on April 17. His pending release raises a moral dilemma.
AIPAC and the Politics of ReaffirmationTuesday, March 13, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Politics is a matter of emotions as much as intellect, and rituals and ceremonies are central. The annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington, D.C. is, perhaps above all, a ceremony of reaffirmation of the relationships among American Jews, non-Jewish Americans, the American state, and Israel.
What Would Ariel Sharon Do?Monday, March 5, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Biographies of father by sons are an uncertain genre. Closeness necessarily entails distortion, positive or negative. But at a time when the vast majority of Israeli and world leaders seem strikingly small, it is worth considering the portrait of Ariel Sharon provided by his youngest son.
Footnotes to FootnoteFriday, March 2, 2012 by Michael Fagenblat | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Director Joseph Cedar's film Hearat Shulayim (Footnote) takes place in the Hebrew University Talmud Department, the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the (unnamed) Shalom Hartman Institute—the Jerusalem cloisters of the small network of Israel's talmudic academic elite.
Jazz, Piyyut, and Jewish IdentityTuesday, February 28, 2012 by Omer Avital and Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Israeli-born, New York-based Omer Avital is both a world-class jazz musician and a master of classical Arabic music. He recently visited the Tikvah Fund, oud in hand, for an evening of music and free-flowing discussion about jazz, piyyut [liturgical verse], and Jewish identity.
Order in the HouseMonday, February 27, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On a bad day, Israeli parliamentarians have been known to hurl water at political adversaries, denigrate immigrant MKs' Hebrew accents, and even bow their heads in the memory of Palestinian suicide bombers. On a good day, they mostly go about the nuts-and-bolts crafting of bipartisan legislation for the benefit of all Israelis.
Material WorldTuesday, February 21, 2012 by Michael Carasik | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
When is a text not a text? When it is an object. When a Torah scroll is held up in the air so that congregants can view its columns of words, it is not being read. The words that the congregation chants are indeed found in the scroll, but in two different places.
The Pale GodFriday, February 3, 2012 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Imagine God not as a benign force infusing the universe with love and sustaining it with mercy, and not as a stern judge smiting sinners from on high with his cosmic zap-gun, but as a grandfatherly figure, kind but, truth be told, somewhat out of it, sitting in a corner, tolerant of the various paths his children have chosen.
Celebrity Politics, Israel-StyleWednesday, February 1, 2012 by Micah Stein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Just two weeks ago, the always-excitable Israeli political world was abuzz with the news of two famous new Knesset candidates. One of them was a famous son—journalist Yair Lapid, whose father, Tommy Lapid, served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice under Ariel Sharon.
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.)
Editors' Picks
Following Yoni Netanyahu Batsheva Sobelman, Los Angeles Times. A new film about the prime minister’s slain brother throws fresh light not only on a formidable young life, but on the family that has come to dominate Israeli politics.
The Camp David Discords Aaron David Miller, Foreign Policy. Twelve years ago this week, Clinton, Barak, and Arafat gathered for the ultimate exercise in How Not to Summit.
Dayan’s Lesson Stephen Daisley, Standpoint. The European media may see the rise of Likud as a sign of the Israeli public’s lurch to the Right, but since Dayan and Rabin the Israeli Left has produced no one prepared to act.
Pius the Pious? , Washington Post. Under pressure from the Vatican, Yad Vashem now presents Pope Pius XII’s silence during the Holocaust as an attempt to protect the Church—and, by extension, the Jews.
A Forgotten Hero Brad Hart, American Revolution Blog. Francis Salvador is remembered only as the first Jew to be killed in the Revolutionary War. But as a wealthy English Jew who became a patriotic American democrat, he epitomized the American dream.
Scholarship at the Fault Line Monica Osborne, New Republic. English departments and literary studies curricula have yet to acknowledge the significance of Jewish and midrashic thought to their disciplines.
Food for Peace Kenneth M. Quinn, Huffington Post. Daniel Hillel's micro-irrigation technology, which turns desert into farmland, has earned him the World Food Prize—and the gratitude of people across the Middle East.
Bibi's Burden David Margolick, Vanity Fair. As the Israeli populace—disillusioned with grandiose peace plans, increasingly controlled by the Orthodox—has moved right, Netanyahu has been able to stay in one place: His country has come to him.
Accounting for Abbas Jonathan Schanzer, Foreign Policy. If Mahmoud Abbas has struggled to match Yasser Arafat as a popular leader, he has proven to be at least as adept as his predecessor in embezzling funds.
Eighteenth-Century Aliyah Fred MacDowell, On the Main Line. Two hundred years before modern Zionism, Jews across the Russian empire funded Rabbi Judah Chassid and his 120 followers on their trek from Europe to a new life in the Promised Land.