Opinion

With all the conversations surrounding the allegations against my congregation’s former rabbi, Barry Freundel, no one is saying what desperately needs to be said — that voyeurism is sexual assault and that eliminating sexual assault in our communities should be the direction of our next steps. In emails, blogs… Read more »

A man views a bullet hole inside the Jerusalem synagogue where two terrorists with a gun and knives killed five people and injured eight during morning services, Nov. 18. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash 90)

After a gruesome attack by two Palestinian cousins left five dead at a Jerusalem synagogue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu singled out one person for blame: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In a statement issued by his office, Abbas denounced the Tuesday morning attack, saying he “condemns the killing… Read more »

Yesterday’s appalling tragedy has shaken Jews the world over. In the peaceful, beautiful neighborhood of Har Nof, Jerusalem, worshipers at a synagogue were brutally attacked by Palestinian terrorists wielding guns and butcher cleavers. Within a half hour, five women became widows and 24 children became orphans. The enormity of the tragedy… Read more »

We are still reeling from the horrible terrorist attack on a Jerusalem synagogue in which five people were killed during morning prayers, leaving four widows and 24 fatherless children on a single street in the neighborhood of Har Nof. What is the correct response to such an outrage, and… Read more »

A Torah reading at Adas Israel Congregation, a Conservative synagogue in Washington. (Courtesy Adas Israel)

NEW YORK (JTA) — As the Jewish Federations of North America held its annual General Assembly this week, newly emerging evidence from the Pew Research Center’s 2013 “Portrait of American Jewry” points to enormous challenges facing federations, Jewish philanthropy and organized Jewish life, more generally. Virtually every Jewish institution… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Joe and Bibi? Still buddies. U.S. and Israel? Still allies. Agreement on Iran and the Palestinians? Well. The governments of President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were back on joshing terms this week, but the deep differences that led to recent name-calling exchanges still… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Each year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we recall the opening salvo of the violent assault on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust and ask ourselves what should have been done at that moment. In thinking about Kristallnacht, we should also consider the outpouring of violence… Read more »

Participants taking in a session at the 2013 General Assembly in Jerusalem. (Courtesy Jewish Federations of North America)

(JTA) — Reinventing. Rethinking. Rebranding. Innovating. They’re all buzzwords we hear today whether talking about education, health care, product marketing or Jewish communal work. We’re living in a time in which endless access to information and 24-hour communication is challenging us to question just about everything. As a result,… Read more »

“A cold man who is developing a grudge against Israel is now sitting in the White House,” a leading Israeli journalist wrote some years back. Today, many in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, might share this view. At the same time, there is no love in the White… Read more »

A protester at a vigil for 18-year-old Michael Brown across the street from the police station in Ferguson, Mo., Oct. 20, 2014. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS (JTA) — Early last week, national faith leaders called rabbis, pastors, priests and imams to Ferguson, Mo., a city rife with racial violence and pain. Along with my rabbinic colleagues from Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Justice, I responded to the call to the people of Ferguson that… Read more »

Sixty years ago the Algerians revolted against the French who had ruled them for more than 120 years. On Nov. 1, 1954, the National Liberation Front, the leading Algerian underground, issued a proclamation calling upon the French government to enter negotiations which would eventually lead to the creation of… Read more »

When it comes to a long-term solution for our conflict with the Palestinians, there is no unanimity among Israelis. Many feel that the two-state solution is the only realistic option, while others believe that a Palestinian state would endanger Israel and therefore a regional agreement is needed to address… Read more »

MODIIN, Israel (JTA) — With the news that Rabbi Barry Freundel, a prominent Orthodox rabbi, has been arrested for peeping at the naked bodies of his female congregants through a secret camera in the mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath, many disturbing questions are being raised about the implications of… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) — Four rabbis are engaged in an animated debate about Jewish law. Three of them agree, but the dissenter is adamant that he’s got it right. He cries out: “A sign, God, I beg You, a sign!” It begins to rain, but the three in the majority… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Once again the love affair between the Jewish people and higher education is back in full bloom. The start of a new school year, and the Jewish New Year, marked the beginning of robust programming for Jewish college students across the globe. As students dig into… Read more »

Demonstrators in new York protesting the Metropolitan Opera's decision to produce "The Death of Klinghoffer," Sept. 22, 2014. (Raffi Wineburg)

NEW YORK (JTA) — On Oct. 8, 1985, our 69-year-old wheelchair-bound father, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot in the head by Palestinian hijackers on the Achille Lauro cruise ship. The terrorists brutally and unceremoniously threw his body and wheelchair overboard into the Mediterranean. His body washed up on the Syrian… Read more »

Hillel students (Courtesy Hillel International)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Once again the love affair between the Jewish people and higher education is back in full bloom. The start of a new school year, and the Jewish New Year, marked the beginning of robust programming for Jewish college students across the globe. As students dig into… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is talking tough. And Israel and the United States don’t seem to mind too much — or else think their best option at this point is to grin and bear it. Abbas used his Sept. 26 speech to the United Nations… Read more »

The good news is that Israelis are still willing to sit down and talk with the Palestinians. The Peace Index, a monthly survey run by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, has just found out that “the rate of those who favor renewing the talks (50 percent)… Read more »

Lora Stern Druker wrote this essay in August 2014. I live in Israel. I’ve lived here for over 30 years. I first set foot in Israel when, as a teenager, I joined with a group of Jewish youth from all over the United States to visit Israel. Our journey of… Read more »