Opinion

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Seventy-five years ago this month, a handful of rabbinical students in New York City helped mobilize hundreds of churches and synagogues nationwide to cry out against the Nazis’ mass murder of European Jewry. That remarkable interfaith protest is omitted from the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s new… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal, is bad policy and calls into question America’s international credibility. Mr. Trump has now set the international community on a slippery slope, imperiling the national security… Read more »

(JTA) — In recent years we have witnessed anti-Israel demonstrations that have turned overtly anti-Semitic and even violent, but police ignored initially as only political activity. We have seen prosecutors and judges rule that an arson attack on a synagogue is not anti-Semitic because the perpetrator was motivated by… Read more »

[L-R): Holocaust survivor Walter Fantl, former President of Austria Heinz Fischer, Holocaust survivor and former Tucsonan Alfred Schreier at the imperial palace in Vienna, Austria, in 2017.

As a former member of the Southern Arizona Holocaust Survivors Group, I was touched by the article about Fort Huachuca (“Army dedicates plaque to survivors at Fort Huachuca Holocaust ceremony,” AJP 4/20/18). I had the privilege of attending the ceremonies on two different occasions while I lived in Sahuarita,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — For decades, world Jewry helped Israel. Organizations gathered and sent funds to the feeble, small state; our Air Force and Navy were formed and trained by Jewish volunteers from around the globe. As we celebrate our 70th Independence Day, we should thank the previous generations while… Read more »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — 1993 was a dramatic year in the memorialization of the Holocaust. In April, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened its doors; 45 million visitors later it is a fixture adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., not only telling the story of the Holocaust… Read more »

SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — My Dear Land, It is almost your birthday. At 70, you are not a young country anymore. Some will consider me a stepdaughter because I left you, deciding to move an ocean away. I left behind me the battles,… Read more »

(JTA) — This is a hypothetical memo from two members of the U.S. House of Representatives to the nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. To: Mike Pompeo From: Nita Lowey, Chris Smith Mr. Pompeo: Last week, many of our constituents, as well as Jewish families here and abroad, sat… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — All too often, when I ask campus organizations that are pro-Israel and deeply Zionist why they avoid using the “Z-word” in their messaging and literature, I’m told, “Zionism doesn’t poll well.” True, not polling well is one of today’s great sins. But imagine what our world would be… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Engaging young people in their 20s and 30s, the so-called millennial generation, is a high priority for Jewish philanthropists. Some funders have banded together to create new initiatives, including free trips to Israel, with the express purpose of drawing members of this generation into Jewish life.… Read more »

Set during the Spanish Civil War years before World War II, Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” tells the story of a valiant, but ultimately doomed, attempt by a group of republican rebels to launch an attack against the Fascist powers in Spain. Their heroism is often magnificent,… Read more »

IRVINE, Calif. (JTA) — When most people think about the intersection of faith and political activism, the religious right comes to mind. And there’s no doubt that the current leaders of our government are closely aligned with the agenda of religious conservatives, even if they often don’t live up… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Slate podcaster Mike Pesca has a theory that whenever President Donald Trump says “everybody” it means “almost nobody,” and when he says “nobody” or “anybody” it means “almost everybody.” Try it: When Trump said, “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated” — well, nearly everybody disagreed. And when he says,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Dr. Stephen Hawking was a rare and inspirational man whose deep insights into the mysteries of the physical universe were matched only by his courage in the face of a cruel, debilitating illness, which he met with good spirit and a unique sense of humor. In the wake… Read more »

CHICAGO (JTA) — I’m a sophomore at Ida Crown Jewish Academy, the largest Modern Orthodox high school in the Chicagoland area. When I heard about the #ENOUGH national school walkout, I immediately wondered how my school could participate. Our school motto is “Inspiring Bnei and Bnot Torah to thrive… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Recent alarming events in Poland, most notably a law “protecting the reputation of the Polish nation” by criminalizing certain speech regarding the Holocaust, have led me to reflect on my own relationship with that country. It’s a relationship that spans three decades, dozens of visits, various… Read more »

On Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 the Board of Appeals of the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued its final opinion in which it voted unanimously “in the interest of substantial fairness” to reverse my suspension (reported here in the Arizona Jewish Post in September) and reinstate me immediately.  I… Read more »

(JTA) — In the aftermath of the fatal mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Jewish community should take note: Teenagers are not just the future of the Jewish people; they are the dynamic force driving social change today. Today we are witnessing history unfold as the American teenage populace… Read more »

(JTA) — I don’t know if Wayne LaPierre is anti-Semitic. In many ways, I don’t care if Wayne LaPierre is anti-Semitic. But the executive vice president of the NRA gave a speech this week that was heard as anti-Semitic by two kinds of people: left-leaning Jews and hard-right anti-Semites.… Read more »

(JTA) — In the many years between my first job at JTA and returning as its editor in 2016, I would joke about a headline it published in 1999: “Two Turkish Jews killed in quake.” Perhaps you’ll remember that 17,000 people died in the Turkish earthquake that year. That headline seemed… Read more »