Faith and Practice

New Teachings from Exodus: Berman & Waskow’s Freedom Journeys

By Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Egypt’s revolution should remind us of the Jewish “Passover” revolution there 3000 years ago. Freedom Journeys comes at just the right time.

Life and Action

Reflections After New Orleans: What Makes A Liberal?

By Eitan Isaacson

News and Politics

Analyzing Palestinian Ramallah Protests after Mubarak's Ouster

By Zachary Goldman

A bird’s eye view of Palestinian protests in Ramallah in the wake of Mubarak’s ouster; thanks to Ramallah Reflections which allowed us to reprint this essay.

Arts and Culture

Fiction: Girl's Night Out

By Joan Gelfand

The setting: Rosh Chodesh in the woods. Two long-time lovers, newly separated. A fire. And then, three men appear: “‘You shittin us. You witches! Look, there’s candles.’ He notices the tambourine, lying in the dirt.”

Events

Philly Feb 24: New Jewish Writing w/ Shahar Bram, Jessica Greenbaum, Bob Perelman, Rivka Fogel

Zeek presents New Jewish Writing

@Kelly Writer’s House, U. Pennsylvania

Feb 24, 2010, 6:00 PM

Click the event title for bios of the fabulous writers!

Arts and Culture

Lipstick on a Torah Scroll: A Review of the Zimmun Show

By David Sperber and Translated from the Hebrew by Sara Friedman

Israeli critic Sperber’s review illuminates the Jewish turn away from modernism towards a re-imagining of Judaica. He focuses on artists Dov Abramson, Ken Goldman and Arik Weiss.

News and Politics

What the Palestine Papers Mean

By Mitchell Plitnick

On January 23, Al Jazeera released the “Palestine Papers,” 1600 internal documents from Israel-Palestine peace negotiations. The documents show that it was Israel that was no partner for peace–and that the US failed to act as an honest broker.

Arts and Culture

Sarah Glidden's Israel

By Jillian Steinhauer

In Israel, the conflation of the personal and the political is unavoidable, where the simple fact of what neighborhood, city, or part of the country you live in has implications far beyond yourself.

Arts and Culture

“Certainly, the Jew is the Very Devil Incarnate”: Rethinking Antisemitism in the Merchant of Venice

By David Sokol

The Merchant of Venice provides us with a psychological portrait not of the Jews, but of antisemites, whose hatred relieves them from guilt while simultaneously helping them achieve a selfish goal.