Opinion

NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s not that often that Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah fall so close together on the calendar. This year they are but three days apart, providing an opportunity for some introspection on an issue that should be of concern to the entire American Jewish community:… Read more »

A week before Yom Kippur 1973, I moved from Hazerim air force base to Jerusalem to study history at Hebrew University. Yet it was life, not university, which actually taught me a history lesson. Early in the morning of Yom Kippur, I woke up amid the half-opened boxes to… Read more »

 JERUSALEM (JTA) — The scene is familiar to us all. Women of the Wall come to the Kotel to worship in the shadow of the Temple Mount. Haredi Orthodox worshippers respond by disrupting their prayers, sometimes pelting them with eggs and other objects. Underlying these clashes are distinctly modern… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta, let’s begin by stating for the record: No, the Leo Frank case was not the impetus for the founding of the Anti-Defamation League. It is true that the organization, now… Read more »

 “A good village, built of stone, containing about 300 Arabs and 100 Druze, situated on hill-top, with gardens and extensive vineyards.” This is how two lieutenants of the British Army, Claude Conder and Herbert Kitchener, described Beit Jann in their “Survey of Western Palestine” (1881). Today, this village in… Read more »

Ruth Messinger

NEW YORK (JTA) — Each year when I sit in synagogue during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I’m struck by the complex stories we read about biblical women and by the wisdom these stories offer about ensuring the dignity of women and girls today. The past year was one… Read more »

Rosh Hashanah is traditionally a time for rabbis to weigh in about the Jewish and American issues closest to their heart — and many also devote one of their High Holiday sermons to Israel. It’s an opportunity to speak to a sanctuary packed full of people, most of whom… Read more »

There’s a funny thing about anniversaries — just as we look back with nostalgia on the way things were, too, do we inevitably reflect on how things have changed in the intervening years. So it is as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — It’s not that often that Labor Day and Rosh Hashanah fall so close together on the calendar. This year they are but three days apart, providing an opportunity for some introspection on an issue that should be of concern to the entire American Jewish community:… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta, let’s begin by stating for the record: No, the Leo Frank case was not the impetus for the founding of the Anti-Defamation League. It is true that the organization, now… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — In 5773, the religious wars just would not go away. In Israel, elections that extended Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister delivered big wins to two anti-Orthodox-establishment upstarts, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett. For the first time in nearly two decades, Israel’s coalition government included… Read more »

 While the bloody civil war in Syria rages on, Israel keeps a watchful eye on the Israeli-Syrian border, making sure the fighting between the rebels and the Assad forces doesn’t spill over into the Golan Heights. One of the rebel groups calls itself the Martyrs of the Yarmouk Brigades.… Read more »

This is in response to David E. Steinberg’s letter, “WWII end near before bombs dropped on Japan” (AJP, 7/12/13). I’m a World War II Navy veteran. In late spring 1945, my unit (all 10 of us) was awaiting deployment orders in San Bruno, Calif., when unexpectedly we were transferred… Read more »

    Reform leader Rabbi Rick Jacobs, shown speaking at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly in Baltimore, November 2012. (Robert A. Cumins/JFNANEW YORK (JTA) Try telling agunot, women who are chained to their husbands unable to obtain a get, a religious divorce, that they are equal… Read more »

FC Barcelona at the Western Wall (Tazpit News Agency)

At the Washington press conference held on July 30, US Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the Israelis and Palestinians will aim to reach a final status agreement to end their conflict in the time frame of nine months. He also had some words to say about the… Read more »

This week the EU took three steps that together prove Europe’s ill-intentions towards the Jewish state. First, last Friday the EU announced it is imposing economic sanctions on Israel. The sanctions deny EU funds to Israeli entities with an address beyond the 1949 armistice lines. They also deny EU… Read more »

This week’s news cycle opened with a flurry of reactions to Secretary Kerry’s announcement last Friday evening that “an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations” had been reached. On Thursday, the Israel Policy Forum sent a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu signed by 140 prominent American Jews… Read more »

Rashad Hussain

WASHINGTON (JTA) — During Ramadan, Muslim communities around the world experience a month of fasting, devotion and increased consciousness of their faith. They also remember those who are suffering around the world and seek an end to the forces of hatred that lead to violence against people of all… Read more »

In your June 14 issue you feature an interview with the WWII veteran Nathan Shapiro (“Nathan Shapiro: Boy cantor at 10, active senior and ‘lucky guy’ at 95”). Mr. Shapiro is quoted as saying that the U.S. “would have lost hundreds of thousands of men” more in the war… Read more »

I have just read the Shout Out column written by Michaela Davenport (“For Tucson teen, March of the Living trip is heartwrenching, empowering,” AJP 6/28/13) and was incredibly moved. I had to re-read the brief notice about Michaela as I found it hard to believe that she is only… Read more »