Opinion

OP-ED America’s only nuclear-qualified, Navy veteran, transgender rabbi is not happy with the president’s tweets

Rona Matlow served in the Navy for 22 years before leaving to become what she calls "the only nuclear-qualified, transgender rabbi." (Photos courtesy of Maslow)
July 28, 2017 / Anna Selman, JTA

WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — On Wednesday, in our offices near this city’s Dupont Circle, the staff at Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. were opening the mail when a request came in from a veteran asking that we change her first name on our records from Jaron to Rona. “I… Read more »

ANALYSIS: Arabs, Jews trade barbs as Temple Mount heads toward the abyss

A security post at the Gate of the Moors/Mughrabi Gate. Jerusalem, July 19, 2017. (Mati Amar/TPS)
July 19, 2017 / Andrew Friedman/TPS

Summer in Jerusalem: As Israel continues to sweat through the hottest summer on record the Jewish Quarter of the Old City is full of tourists, seemingly oblivious to the heat. The restaurants leading from the Quarter towards the Western Wall pump with life, as does the Hurva Square, the… Read more »

OP-ED Forget BDS. It’s anti-normalization you should be worrying about.

A protester being removed by campus police at the University of California, Irvine, after he disrupted a speech by Michael Oren, who was then Israel's ambassador to the United States, Feb. 8, 2010. (JTA)
July 18, 2017 / Sara Weissman, JTA

  (JTA) — Dear Jewish community, So you wanna understand Israel-Palestine debates on campus? The first thing you have to do is stop talking about BDS. Shocking, right? We try. But really, the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment campaign against Israel isn’t what Israel conversations on campus are all about… Read more »

How an Anxious Jewish Mother Became a Free-Range Parent
July 13, 2017 / Carla Naumburg, Kveller via JTA

(Kveller via JTA) — I am not built to be a free-range mother. I am anxious and overprotective by nature, and my years of experience as a social worker have only increased my awareness of everything that could happen to my daughters, from sexual abuse to traumatic brain injuries.… Read more »

OP-ED Here’s how we can preserve the dignity of aging Holocaust survivors

Holocaust Survivors at the Flatbush Jewish Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., remain active and engaged in their community through dance. (Stephen Shames/JFNA)
July 6, 2017 / Todd Morgan and Mark Wilf, JTA

  (JTA) — Nazi death marches crippled Mr. Cohen’s knees. The 94-year-old who survived Auschwitz now felt defeated trying to climb the stairs to his walk-up condo. He and his wife of 66 years used to be highly active in the Holocaust survivor community and frequently spoke at schools,… Read more »

ANALYSIS India-Israel ties step out into the open
July 4, 2017 / Ilan Evyatar/TPS

After 25 years of full diplomatic ties, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Israel commencing Tuesday can be seen as the official coming out of the relationship between the two countries. While ties between Israel and India have grown exponentially since P.V Narasimha Rao and Yitzhak Shamir… Read more »

OP-ED Fewer marriages and fewer children means fewer Jews doing Jewish

Rabbi Jonathan Roos blows the shofar for nursery school children at Temple Sinai synagogue in Washington, D.C., Sept. 30, 2016. (Evelyn Hockstein/for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
June 22, 2017 / Steven M. Cohen and Sylvia Barack Fishman, JTA

  (JTA) — On Jan. 16, 1949, Toby Fassman married Max Cohen (Steven M. Cohen’s parents, now both of blessed memory). At 24, Toby was among the last of her circle of friends in Brooklyn to marry, and several jokingly remarked that Max had rescued her from lifelong singlehood.… Read more »

ANALYSIS ‘Jewish spouses matter,’ says a new demographic study. Let the battle begin.

Adam and Eve depicted on a 19th-century ketubah, a Jewish marriage contract, from the Norsa-Torrazzo Synagogue in Mantua, Italy. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)
June 21, 2017 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — One of the wisest things ever said about intermarriage came from former Atlantic sports columnist Jake Simpson: “No stat could have predicted … the wonder that was David Tyree’s helmet catch in Super Bowl XLII.” Granted, Simpson wasn’t writing about the high rates of Jews marrying non-Jews.… Read more »

OP-ED Retaining ban on partisan pulpits is key to protecting religious freedom
June 8, 2017 / Rabbi Jack Moline, JTA
Rabbi Jack Moline (Courtesy of the Interfaith Alliance)

That small little law known as the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits electioneering by houses of worship and other charities and which President Trump has vowed to repeal, is exceptionally important to preserve. Even if it is not widely enforced, the permission it grants to the Internal Revenue Service to… Read more »

OP-ED Trump’s cuts to foreign aid budget are dangerous and inhumane

Young women rally against child marriage, dowry and domestic violence in a protest organized by an American Jewish World Service grantee, the Masum Foundation, in Mavadi, India, March 31, 2015. (Jonathan Torgovnik/AJWS)
May 25, 2017 / Robert Bank, JTA

  NEW YORK (JTA) — This week, President Donald Trump proposed radical and cruel cuts to U.S. foreign aid. If his budget for 2018 is approved by Congress and implemented, it would slash crucial aid and development programs and weaken key institutions upholding human rights worldwide. As the head… Read more »

ANALYSIS Tel Aviv is the ‘home of Judaism.’ So is Boston, Sao Paulo, Marseille …

Ivanka Trump prays at the Western Wall, May 22, 2017. (Mendy Hechtman/Flash90)
May 25, 2017 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

  (JTA) — Donald Trump and his staff may have left Israel feeling pretty friendly to the Jews, but man, we don’t make it easy for them. Flying with reporters from Saudi Arabia to Israel on Monday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that they were “nto the second… Read more »

OP-ED Making the most of technology in Jewish education

An Israeli working with campers at the Union for Reform Judaism's 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy in New Jersey. (URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy)
May 25, 2017 / Lewis J. Bernstein and Shira Ackerman, JTA

(JTA) — You’ve seen the advertisements: A fit young woman pedals a stationary bicycle while an instructor on a video screen shouts encouragement. The company, Peloton, promises “fitness at your fingertips,” and both “live and on demand” spin classes and “world class instructors,” all from the comfort of your own… Read more »

ANALYSIS When a government won’t let you look away

President Donald Trump walks to a waiting limousine to greet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House, May 16, 2017. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
May 16, 2017 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

  NEW YORK (JTA) — No one who has lived in Israel or even visited for an extended time can forget the top-of-the-hour news broadcasts on Kol Yisrael, or Israel Radio. Before its shutdown this week as part of a byzantine reform of public broadcasting, the government-run station preceded… Read more »

ANALYSIS Emmanuel Macron wins French election, but Marine Le Pen wins legitimacy

Emmanuel Macron addressing supporters at the Louvre in Paris after winning the French presidential election, May 7, 2017. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
May 9, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

  (JTA) — Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old  former investment banker and political centrist, handily defeated the far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election. Exit polls showed Macron winning Sunday’s vote by a margin of 65 percent to 34 percent. Although her bid to lead the country failed, Le Pen’s divisive campaign against Macron achieved some of… Read more »

ANALYSIS Bernie Sanders just defended Israel on Al Jazeera. Here’s why that’s a big deal.

Bernie Sanders at Bronx Community College in New York City, April 9, 2016. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
May 9, 2017 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

  WASHINGTON (JTA) – In an appearance on Al Jazeera, Bernie Sanders defended Israel’s right to exist, rejected BDS as a tactic and assailed the United Nations for singling out the country for condemnation. The Vermont senator’s interview May 3 on the Qatar-based network, known for its often hypercritical coverage… Read more »

FIRST PERSON I’m Jewish and I just became an EU citizen. It feels a little like boarding the Titanic.

Cnaan Liphshiz, his wife and eldest son in a tulip field near Amsterdam, April 3, 2016. (Courtesy of Liphshiz)
May 6, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

  AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Considering Marine Le Pen’s historical gains in the French presidential elections, the Dutch far-right’s rise and the assault on ritual slaughter in Belgium, this spring is shaping up to be a life-changing time for Europe — its religious minorities in particular. In other words, it’s… Read more »

OP-ED The war never ended for poor, elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union

Afim and Emma A. are clients in need of assistance from the Hesed social welfare in Rustavi, Georgia. (Sarah Levin of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee)
May 6, 2017 / David Schizer, JTA

  (JTA) — We Americans use the phrase “the greatest generation” to describe those who grew up during the Depression, prevailed in World War II and contributed to America’s postwar prosperity and influence. But on a visit last week to Jewish communities in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and Belarus’ Minsk and… Read more »

OP-ED Why Radiohead’s Israel show matters

Thom Yorke of Radiohead performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., April 21, 2017. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)
May 6, 2017 / Gabe Friedman, JTA

(JTA) — It may be the 20th anniversary of Radiohead’s seminal album “OK Computer,” but for some Jewish fans of the band, like me, all is not OK. You might even say I’m feeling “Let Down.” Here’s why: In February, the British band announced that it was playing Tel… Read more »