Opinion

NEW YORK (JTA) — In 1935, a trial was held in Bern, Switzerland, in which two individuals were being prosecuted for distributing the notorious anti-Semitic document “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” At the trial, witness after witness came forward testifying to the fraudulent nature of “The… Read more »

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an offsite bilateral meeting as part of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 28, 2012. (Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not meet, but they ended up sounding not so far apart. Netanyahu’s address to the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 28 in many ways echoed Obama’s speech there on Sept. 25, with both ratcheting up the heat… Read more »

Our agencies regularly provide background discussions concerning  Middle East negotiations, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA for the cream of the crop of North American Jewry, which includes clergy, students, academics and all streams of Jewish religious observance, from Orthodox Jews to Reconstructionist Jews. Whenever possible, we invite someone who… Read more »

My first column. What a lame subject for a first column. But I’ve been meaning to write this column for 20 years, and I’m only just now getting around to it. Seriously. I’ve had a lot to say. But more than that, I’ve had an extraordinary opportunity these 20… Read more »

I should like to clarify for Robert Varaday  (“No $1.5B to Muslim Brotherhood,” AJP 9/7/12) that Ken Miller was perfectly truthful about the gift of $1.5 billion to the Muslim Brotherhood. President Obama is forgiving a $1 billion dollar loan to them (out of a $3 billion loan), and supporting… Read more »

Living as Jews in America, we are slowly relinquishing personal and group responsibility to our government elites who are supposed to be stewards of our freedoms. Washington political elites pander to us as we lose more and more of our freedoms afforded us by our Constitution and our heritage.… Read more »

At first glance, Ein Prat, one of the many natural and historic sites hidden in the northern Judean Desert, looks like any other picnic site around the world. Large wooden tables and long benches are located strategically under shady trees on either side of a bubbling brook. Clusters of… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — For those who have been taught—by Peter Beinart or some other recent chronicler of Israel’s history—that Zionism only began to go awry after 1967, Patrick Tyler’s new book, “Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite who Run the Country—and Why They Can’t Make Peace,”… Read more »

(JTA) — The greatest Jewish success story in a quarter century has become unknown to many in less than a generation. On Dec. 6, 1987, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington, more than a quarter-million American Jews — Democrats and Republicans, observant and secular, and individuals representing… Read more »

One way to keep things even and even-tempered in your sukkah this holiday and election season. (Edmon J. Rodman)

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — In an election year, a sukkah divided against itself cannot stand. Especially in the swing states, where each party is basically claiming that if the other wins we’ll all be living in sukkahs, political dinner conversation this Sukkot could really topple an already shaky house.… Read more »

  I know how you’re feeling. Your despair is palpable. Your resignation is visceral; your frustration is visible. You open The New York Times, Ha’aretz or The Jerusalem Post and you think you don’t know the place anymore. You can’t swallow, you fume. You give up. You’ve always supported… Read more »

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

The start of the Jewish New Year, the month of Tishrei, is filled with holy days, among them four foundational celebrations: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah-Shemini Atzeret. They are quite different from one another. Yet we may also think of all four holidays as two pairs… Read more »

I applaud your comments associated with my letter to the editor on Aug. 24. It renews my faith in the objectivity of the AJP. Thanks for publishing both my and your comments. —Ken Miller… Read more »

Ken Miller ends his Aug. 24 letter by criticizing the Arizona Jewish Post for publishing a partisan viewpoint. Let’s leave aside Miller’s own partisan statement that a cartoon satirizing Romney’s Israel trip is “just another liberal attack on Romney.” Much more disturbingly, how can the AJP let stand Miller’s… Read more »

You remember the classical description of Jewish people and opinions? When two Jews are in discussion, there are three opinions. The AJP has no need to apologize for publishing a variety of viewpoints; it’s one of the paper’s, in fact, any paper’s, strengths. Additionally, it behooves those who write… Read more »

When Rabbi Shafir Lobb was first visiting Congregation Ner Tamid eight years ago, I was assigned the job of helping to make the landing in Tucson as soft as possible.  Now eight years later, I would like to acknowledge the contribution that Rabbi Shafir made beyond the Jewish community… Read more »

Every four years, the intersection appears: the Days of Awe cross paths with the final weeks of the presidential campaign. The debate grows more heated.  Talk of policy may dominate the conversation as we dip apples in honey on Rosh Hashanah or as we break the fast on Yom… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — When Congress declared Labor Day a public holiday in 1894, workers had more to lament than to celebrate: an economic depression, a growing concentration of corporate wealth and power, and the brutal suppression of their unions. A momentous national railroad strike to protest deep wage… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin apologized to Jamal Julany, one of the victims of a racist attack in Zion Square, during his visit to the 17-year-old. “We are sorry,” said Rivlin, a Likud Party leader. He went on to say, “It is hard to see you hospitalized… Read more »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Two mass shootings last month—in Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin—have focused American attention once again on the issue of guns.  Are guns a Jewish issue?  Jewish organizations have expressed their opinions by their statements and their silence. The Reform movement’s Religious Action Center has… Read more »