Opinion

One act, more than any other, is indispensible from the Passover story: If God had not intervened, we would still be slaves. There would have been no Exodus, no Sinai, no bright future for the Jewish people. For the sake of a future nation, God intervened to save 600,000… Read more »

Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter appears on a hologram-like interactive presentation developed by the USC Shoah Foundation. (USC Institute for Creative Technology)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In a dark glass building here, Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter shows that his memory is crystal clear and his voice is strong. His responses seem a bit delayed — not that different from other survivors I have known who are reluctant to speak openly about… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — As of 2012, one in 20 Americans is identifying themselves as an atheist, agnostic or unbeliever. According to the research done by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released last year, nearly 33 million Americans list themselves with no religious affiliation. While it’s… Read more »

Probably no more than the top 10 percent of Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jews will ever shop at Pomegranate, the luxury kosher supermarket recently featured by The New York Times columnist David Brooks in a column titled “The Orthodox Surge.” Brooks chose the upscale kosher version of Whole Foods as the… Read more »

Israeli President Shimon Peres presents the Presidential Medal to President Obama at Peres' residence in Jerusalem, March 21, 2013. (Mark Neyman/GPO/Flash90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — President Obama had three goals for his first presidential trip to Israel. He wanted to persuade Israelis that the United States is committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He wanted to promote the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, albeit without any specific “deliverables.” Most… Read more »

(Miami Herald) While stories about the formidable Mossad, Israel’s parallel of the CIA, endow the agency with a nearly mystical aura, Israelis, ever quick to slaughter a sacred cow, tell this joke: A Mossad agent is sent to London on a covert mission. His contact in London is a… Read more »

It’s rare for light to be cast on the origins of a rumor.  But a recent revelation about a charge made against Chuck Hagel before his confirmation as Secretary of Defense does that – and might provide us all some illumination too. (Contrary to what some have surmised, I… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — It seems as though the Oscars writers think that Hollywood is so liberal that they can get away with making offensive comments because everyone knows they’re “just joking.” I don’t agree. Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony featured a not very subtle onslaught of sexist, racist,… Read more »

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish identity and connection are the birthright of every Jew. So why do so many Jewish institutions discriminate against Jews with disabilities? It keeps happening because we let it happen. We make excuses by saying there isn’t enough support or enough dollars, or because we value… Read more »

Uri Dromi

The announcement that President Obama will visit Israel in the spring came as a total surprise. Not that a visit of the leader of the greatest nation on earth (still) and the closest ally of Israel should be unwelcomed, but the circumstances seem a bit odd. First of all,… Read more »

  The public face of world Jewry will change this summer. Come September, both England and Israel will install new chief rabbis. Jonathan Sacks, the brilliant and widely published chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, is retiring to be succeeded by the affable Ephraim Mirvis, currently rabbi of the… Read more »

One of the seminal slogans of the 20th century was the historic refrain “Never again!” This cry that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust was meant to ensure that there would be no repeat of the greatest tragedy in modern European history. The refrain remains hollow if it… Read more »

Khaled Abu Taomeh

The truth sometimes hurts; that is why the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been working hard to prevent the outside world from hearing about many occurrences that reflect negatively on its leaders or people. In recent years, the PA leadership, often with the help of the mainstream media in the… Read more »

This year, U.S. Jews, like other Americans, mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by remembering him as a powerful voice against racism and for civil rights. But, for Jews, Dr. King was also something else: a uniquely important ally in the fight against anti-Semitism and for a secure Israel.… Read more »

For almost two years, Chavez has been fighting cancer. And for most of that time, he has been claiming —falsely — to have been cured. But less than two months after winning a fourth term in last October’s election, Chavez was spirited back to Cuba, where Fidel Castro’s doctors… Read more »

It’s easy to dismiss the antics of “Warrior of the Wall” Anat Hoffman. Her guerrilla gatherings of women in vocal prayer services at the Kosel Maaravi, or Western Wall, in defiance of an Israeli Supreme Court decision and in affront to the traditional Jewish men and women who most… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — For those of us who closely follow the progress in America in the battles against racism and anti-Semitism, the observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this year has particular relevance. First, the King holiday, which this year is observed on Jan. 21,… Read more »

In the decade since the attacks of 9/11, the United States and its allies have portrayed terrorism as primarily al Qaeda-centric. This, in turn, has led, logically, to a search for the origin of the terrorism aimed at us. Thus, after 9/11, many American analysts wondered, “Why do they… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Israel uses the pretense of law to dominate and disenfranchise Palestinians in the territories. So argues Ra’anan Alexandrowicz in his documentary “The Law in These Parts,” a recent favorite on the New York film circuit. Since the film has garnered nearly universal acclaim, it is… Read more »

Dear Erica, I am very frustrated with the leadership of my children’s preschool. After the Newtown killings, I went straight to the head of the school and asked why we can’t have an armed guard outside the building. The school did send out an email to the entire school… Read more »