Opinion

(JTA) — This week, Pope Francis will be making a pilgrimage to Poland, visiting Auschwitz – the notorious death camp in Poland where 1.1 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Auschwitz is comprised of two camps: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II, also called Birkenau. Birkenau is the actual… Read more »

David M. Elcott (Courtesy of Elcott)

  NEW YORK (JTA) — We met Demoz Deboch at services in Gondar, Ethiopia. It was Friday night in June of 2013 and we were surrounded by hundreds of white-clad Falash Mura, the descendants of Jews who were now living a Jewish life in neighborhoods near the Jewish compound set up by… Read more »

MIAMI (JTA) — Growing up, I always dreamed of being a mom. Even as a kid I would brainstorm baby names, tell my dolls bedtime stories and swear that I would be a cool mom and let them eat cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had it all… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Ever since the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel began picking up steam three years ago, its proponents have brazenly declared the movement’s inevitable triumph. In April, for example, a pro-divestment group at the University of Chicago issued a statement proclaiming that by the school’s… Read more »

It finally happened. My son is almost 9 months old, and this week, for the first time, a stranger came up to me and asked me to “take him somewhere else.” Even worse, it happened at synagogue. The woman who approached me was quite obviously not a member of… Read more »

(JTA) — Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign never recovered after he was caught on video telling a group of millionaires that 47 percent of Americans will always vote for Democrats because they don’t take “personal responsibility” for their lives and are “dependent upon government.” The incident has become a… Read more »

  (JTA) — On my bookshelves there are two rows of volumes on the Soviet Jewry movement. Squeezed in among the tomes is a small, well-worn paperback with pages no longer attached to the spine, “The Jews of Silence,” by Elie Wiesel. This slim volume is, however, a bridge.… Read more »

  (JTA) — Dirty, hot and exhausted Israeli soldiers waiting for their bus home from the army base tend, understandably, to be in a hurry to get on board. But when I was living in Israel during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, soldiers didn’t jostle to be first in… Read more »

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Religionization! Religionization! To read the newspaper headlines in Israel, to view its documentary films and attend its expert panels with academics, a stranger might think that upon landing at Ben Gurion Airport, he or she will have arrived at nothing less than a Hebrew-speaking version… Read more »

Idit Klein (Courtesy of Keshet)

  BOSTON (JTA) — In the wake of the Orlando shooting, statements of solidarity with the LGBTQ community quickly tumbled forth. Some expressions of support came from unlikely sources such as the Orthodox Union and the Catholic Church. But what does a statement of solidarity mean in response to… Read more »

(Kveller via JTA) — My dear innocent child, Something terrible happened. A very bad man took a gun and went into a place where there were many kind, innocent, loving people, and he shot them. He killed many and injured even more. No, none of our family members were… Read more »

Dear friends, On the evening of June 26, the Jewish History Museum will host the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona (JFSA) Pride program Celebrating Marriage Equality, an event that will mark the one year anniversary of the Marriage Equality Act, a landmark moment for our country and for LGBT… Read more »

  (JTA) — Donald Trump is doubling down on “America First.” After Trump used the term “America First” in late April to describe his policies, the Anti-Defamation League sent him a letter urging him to drop the historically tainted slogan — speaking for Jews and others who remember it as the… Read more »

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA) — Normally, to quote the famous song, “I love a parade.” Except when I don’t. This weekend was the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the reunification ofJerusalem during the Six-Day War. The anniversary was accompanied by gleeful — one might even say ecstatic — observances throughout the… Read more »

OMER, Israel (JTA) — As Jews, we tend to pride ourselves on our tradition’s values and how we pass them on to future generations; values such as education, tzedakah, loving the stranger, pursuing justice and tikkun olam, “repair of the world.” But if you were to start a conversation today… Read more »

Rabbi Joshua Stanton

  HOBOKEN, N.J. (JTA) — Kosovo is a “newborn” country, a majority Muslim state that fought for its independence from Serbia only eight years ago. Yet it has erected a Holocaust memorial outside its parliament, elected a female president, held pride parades in support of LGBTQ rights and supported the building… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In Israel, when the two-minute siren sounds at 11 a.m. on Yom Hazikaron, the Jewish state’s Memorial Day, the nation comes to a halt. As we saw just two weeks ago, cars on streets and highways pull over, and drivers and passengers get out of their vehicles… Read more »

Editor’s note: Join the Weintraub Israel Center for Tucson’s Yom Hazikaron ceremony on Monday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. NEW YORK (JTA) — This year I will mark two of Israel’s most important national holidays – Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) and Yom Hazikaron… Read more »

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (JTA) — Recently, in an article for JTA, “The Missing Left: Where’s the support for liberal Zionists on campus?,” Andrew Silow-Carroll noted that “many American pro-Israel organizations and leaders ignore or ostracize liberal Zionists.” In the absence of progressive Zionist groups on campus, who should be… Read more »

(JTA) — They survived unimaginable horrors, yet went on to live productive lives, despite the haunting memories, the profound loss and physical scars from years of deprivation. Now many Holocaust survivors need our assistance so they may live their twilight years with dignity in their homes and communities. Most… Read more »