Opinion

False accusations of anti-Semitism hurt the Jews more than you realize

Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, shown in 2018, was recently accused by his state's Jewish leaders of peddling anti-Semitic tropes when he sent out a letter accusing George Soros and Michael Bloomberg of having "bought" the media. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
August 9, 2019 / Rabbi Hershel D. Lutch, JTA

BALTIMORE (JTA) — As Americans of conscience, many of us are deeply troubled by the hyperpartisan tone that seems to color almost every news story and cycle. The sensationalism that is so often present within our nation’s discourse undermines our collective ability to assimilate information and reach well-reasoned conclusions.… Read more »

What The New York Times got right and wrong about BDS: An exchange

A New York Times explainer of the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel; a gathering on the International Day of Quds in Times Square, NYC. (Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
July 30, 2019 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, Laura E. Adkins, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – The Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s editor in chief, Andrew Silow-Carroll, and its opinion editor, Laura E. Adkins, shared their thoughts on a recent New York Times article answering “some of the most difficult questions” about BDS, or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Andrew… Read more »

The Lubavitcher Rebbe died 25 years ago, but his impact lives on across all Jewish denominations

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, at the microphone, shown in New York circa 1975. (Tim Boxer/Getty Images)
July 16, 2019 / Sue Fishkoff, JTA

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — When the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, died in July 1994, I was one of many journalists in the Jewish media who did not see how the Hasidic movement he led could survive, much less thrive, in his absence. It has, of course. That… Read more »

Mad magazine taught me to think like a furshlugginer Jewish intellectual

A cover of Mad Magazine, which will no longer publish new content, from 1968. (Elizabeth W. Kearley/Getty Images)
July 12, 2019 / Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA

Mad magazine is on life support, and I can’t say I’m either surprised or all that sad about it. DC Entertainment announced last week that the satirical magazine will stop publishing new content. It was like hearing about a beloved old relative who passed away: I hadn’t had any… Read more »

An Israeli cop shot an unarmed Ethiopian teen. Here’s why American Jews should care.

Family and friends mourn at the funeral of Solomon Tekah, outside Haifa, July 2, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) *** Local Caption *** ?????? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ???????
July 12, 2019 / Mijal Bitton, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) – Israeli society has been gripped over the past week by the killing of Solomon Tekah, an unarmed 19-year-old Ethiopian Israeli. On June 30, an off-duty Israeli police officer shot and killed Tekah under highly contested circumstances. While emerging evidence seems to indicate that the policeman was not… Read more »

Intermarried Jews are not a second Holocaust

A Jewish wedding ceremony. Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz caused a stir when he compared Jewish intermarriage to a "second Holocaust." (Frank Rosenstein / Getty Images)
July 11, 2019 / Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, JTA

PHOENIX (JTA) – Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz’s recent tone-deaf declaration that intermarriage is akin to a “second Holocaust” was shocking and shameful, and desecrates the memories of those who perished in the Holocaust. While Peretz leads the Jewish Home party as well as the United Right coalition, and is… Read more »

Legacy institutions don’t get to dictate how Jews use the lessons of the Holocaust

Protesters demonstrate against the Trump administration's immigration policies at a Never Again Is Now rally on Independence Mall in Washington D.C., during the city's Independence Day festivities, July 4, 2019. (Michael Candelori/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
July 10, 2019 / Elad Nehorai, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – At the annual Christians United for Israel conference, Vice President Mike Pence lambasted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for comparing U.S. migrant detention centers to concentration camps. “This slander was an insult to the 6 million killed in the Holocaust, and it should be condemned by every American… Read more »

Get ready for the new wave: Young, passionately Jewish — and anti-Zionist

A Jewish woman holding a candle, with a "We Will Outlive Them" banner in the background, at a New York vigil for the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh. (Gili Getz)
July 10, 2019 / Spencer Sunshine, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) – In 2019, there are more haters than lovers of the Jewish Left. Especially in the United States, the mainstream Jewish community reviles left-wing Jews who embrace anti-Zionism. Meanwhile, the Jewish Left itself is split. On one side are the “Left Zionists” who support a two-state… Read more »

The new Netflix show ‘Family Business’ is a French-Jewish version of ‘Breaking Bad’

Jonathan Cohen, third from left, is seen with other members of the Netflix series "Family Business." (Netflix)
July 10, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — One fan’s recent description on Twitter of the new Netflix series “Family Business” isn’t too far off: a “French Breaking Bad but with weed.” The French series, which debuted last week, is a wacky comedy about a Parisian Jewish family, the Hazans, that turns its failed kosher… Read more »

Untold stories: Jews in Arab countries suffered unbearable discrimination

A Jewish mother and her children are photographed outside a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, Jan. 1, 1950. Some 850,000 refugees from Tunisia and other Arab countries were expelled from their countries after the creation of Israel.
June 28, 2019 / Miriam Shepher, JTA

June 20 was World Refugee Day. And according to the United Nations page devoted to this commemoration, every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. I am one of those people. In 1948, when I was 6 months old, my mother risked everything to… Read more »

Why the Supreme Court’s decision to let a taxpayer-funded cross stand is dangerous for American Jews

The World War I memorial cross in Bladensburg, Md., is built on public land and its maintenance is paid for with public funds. (Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images)
June 26, 2019 / Joshua Z. Rokach, JTA

(JTA) — On June 20, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a four-story-high cross on government land abutting a major road — brightly lit at night and maintained by taxpayer funds — can continue to loom over drivers because the monument has stood for almost a century. In doing… Read more »

What preparing a Jewish body for burial is really like

Hundreds attend the funeral of former Israeli army's chief rabbi, Avihai Ronsky, in the Jewish settlement of Itamar, April 1, 2018. In Jewish tradition, the body must undergo a series of rituals after death and before burial known as tahara, performed by a chevra kadisha, a holy society of volunteers. (Miriam Alster/Flash 90)
June 26, 2019 / Anonymous

(JTA) — In Jewish communities around the world, there is a little known group of men and women dedicated to performing the mitzvah of preparing a body for burial, a ritual called tahara. The group is called the chevra kadisha, the holy society. The chevra kadisha isn’t a secret… Read more »

We need fewer stereotypical Jews on TV — and more Walter Sobchaks

John Goodman, right, plays Walter Sobchak in the Coen brothers' classic film "The Big Lebowski" opposite Jeff Bridges in the title role. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
June 26, 2019 / Molly Pascal, JTA

(JTA) — The other day, my Catholic mother-in-law again implored me, her sole Jewish daughter-in-law, to watch “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” The third season of the award-winning show is expected to air in a few months, so I dutifully resigned myself to the task. But as I watched, I… Read more »

The Catholic Church has finally gotten serious about handling sexual abuse. Here’s what Jewish institutions could learn from the process.

Pope Francis, flanked by cardinals and bishops, attends a closing Mass of The Protection of Minors in the Church meeting in Vatican City, Feb. 24, 2019. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
June 19, 2019 / Bethany Mandel, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – In May, Pope Francis issued a detailed ruling on how officials in the Roman Catholic Church must handle cases of clerical sexual abuse, the first official codification of the church’s global policy. Though abuse survivors have criticized the pope’s ruling as not strong enough and for… Read more »

We Orthodox Jews desperately need gay rabbis

Israelis participate in the Gay Pride Parade on July 30, 2015 in Jerusalem, Israel. The Hebrew signs read, "Come out from the closet, the closet is death." (Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images)
May 31, 2019 / Rabbi Daniel Landes, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — On May 24, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that I would be ordaining a gay Orthodox rabbinical student who was denied the opportunity to receive smicha from his own Orthodox yeshiva. On May 26,  I did so, ordaining Rabbi Daniel Atwood during a ceremony attended by more… Read more »

What Jewish law really says about abortion

Protesters on both sides of the abortion issue gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building during the Right To Life March in Washington, Jan. 18, 2019. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
May 31, 2019 / Ephraim Sherman, JTA

(JTA) – Alabama and Georgia have passed laws recently that limit or forbid abortions in unprecedented ways, joining a growing number of states that are attempting to dramatically restrict abortion access. During these charged times, it is appropriate for the Jewish community to remind ourselves that halacha (Jewish law) has a… Read more »

Want your kid to excel in college? After high school, try a break in Israel.

Tech whiz Asher Dale, second from right, hikes with friends in the Negev Desert during his gap year in Israel. (Courtesy of Dale)
May 16, 2019 / Ben Harris, JTA

Within months of graduating from a Jewish high school near Boston in 2017, Asher Dale had an internship that he “absolutely loved” at Forter, an Israeli technology startup that sells online fraud protection services. The company, which processes more than $50 billion in transactions annually for a global network… Read more »