Opinion

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 »

Andrew Silow-Carroll

In one of his best known poems, “El Male Rachamim,” the late Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai enters into a dispute with God by subverting the words of perhaps the most moving of all funeral prayers. The poem begins as the prayer does — “God-Full-of-Mercy” — then takes a sharp… Read more »

Alan Elsner

A recent announce­ment that I had joined J Street as vice president of communications raised some eyebrows among some of my friends in the Jewish community. After all, as recently as two months ago, I was a member of senior management at The Israel Project, a very different organization.… Read more »

Recently, while browsing through news clips I have collected over the past 30-plus years, I came across a story I wrote when I was a very young reporter for The Jerusalem Post. “Dayan: Israel needs civilians in W. Bank,” the headline said. The story ran at the top left of… Read more »

AVENTURA, Fla. (JTA) — Anyone committed to financial support of Jewish causes likely has grappled with the questions of where to give, what to give, how to give and, of course, why to give. As the end of the year approaches and organizations seek those last of our 2012… Read more »

If there were a prize for the Arab country that has done most to promote Arab-Israeli peace recently, I’d seriously consider nominating Saudi Arabia. Admittedly, that’s a counterintuitive choice: Riyadh doesn’t even recognize Israel and shows no signs of doing so anytime soon; moreover, it finances the spread of… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA)  — Those who view American-Israeli relations through a dualistic “are you pro-Israel or anti-Israel” lens must be confused. In one week, the United States stands virtually alone with Israel against the Palestinians’ upgrade of their status at the United Nations, then immediately condemns Israel’s settlement expansion. Similarly,… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Jerusalem, Aug. 1, 2012. In 2013, Netanyahu will have to deal with a new U.S. defense secretary on sensitive issues like Iran. Some pro-Israel officials have objected to the rumored top pick, Chuck Hagel. (U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Will we fall of the fiscal cliff? Plunge into war with Iran? Dive into contentious confirmation battles? One thing’s for certain: There will be plenty of action in Washington that the Jewish community will be watching closely over 2013. Here are some likely focal points: Fiscal… Read more »

Do rebels have what it takes to overthrow Bashar al-Assad’s government? Why hasn’t the United Nations or the European Union taken action to stop an ongoing massacre in Syria that has thus far claimed more than 40,000 victims? Why does Iran support Syria? How do the events currently unfolding… Read more »

Brighton, UK – During the violence between Gaza and Southern Israel last month, I was shocked that some of my friends were posting images on Facebook that supported the disproportionate force Israel used against Gazans. When I asked why, they all believed that Palestinians wanted to wipe out Israel.… Read more »

The Silverman family's kindness yard at night in Winterhaven (Gila Silverman)

I live in a neighborhood known for its Christmas festival. Several years ago, I wrote an essay for this paper, describing our decision to build a giant dreidel for the festival, and reflecting on the experience of living here. That essay ended with this thought: Sometimes a giant dreidel… Read more »

This is the speech President Barack Obama should have given in the wake of the mass shooting on Friday morning at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. The shooter killed 28 people, 20 of them children between the ages of 5 and 10. This speech begins the same way… Read more »

The sages of the Talmud had a debate about how we are to light the Chanukah menorah: Should we begin with eight candles and remove one each night, or begin with one and add through the holiday? After hearing different views, it was resolved that we must add a… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Hamas was quick to declare victory in the latest conflict with Israel. A closer look at the price it paid in terms of personnel and equipment shows that its bravado was false. But the fact that Israel was able to destroy so many installations, weapons teams, smuggling… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Twenty-five years ago, I joined hundreds of thousands of my fellow Americans — Jews and others — on the National Mall to draw attention to the plight of Soviet Jews. We were united by a simple belief that the Soviet Union, by denying its Jewish… Read more »

BOSTON (JTA) — At the 2009 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington, 50 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jews and their allies gathered in a small room on the ninth floor of the conference hotel. The event was not part of the official GA… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Exactly 25 years ago on Dec. 6, more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington to call on the Kremlin to open the gates and let Soviet Jews emigrate. Freedom Sunday, as it came to be known, was the largest Jewish-organized gathering in American history. The… Read more »

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich. (JTA) — It’s no secret that Henry Ford was a notorious anti-Semite, and his company’s dealings with the Nazi Party during the Holocaust are well documented. But the company’s story has changed drastically in recent years. The Ford family’s donation of a rare 500-year-old Torah scroll… Read more »

On Nov. 14 — in response to an escalation of rocket attacks from Gaza — the Israeli Defense Forces initiated Operation Pillar of Defense. Since the launch, and the killing of Hamas commander and chief of staff Ahmed Jabari, Hamas has launched both a military and public relations campaign… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The recent conflict in Gaza and Israel casts a vivid spotlight on the need to strengthen relations between Jews and Muslims in countries around the world. It is crucial if we are to avoid importing the violence that has rocked the Holy Land to our… Read more »