News and Politics

Response to Akiva Tor

Racism remains a problem for both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict, argues Moshe Yaroni. However, it is not anti-Semitic to oppose the Occupation.

News and Politics

BDS and Hopelessness: Response to Moshe Yaroni

By Akiva Tor

Israeli diplomat Akiva Tor witnessed the April 29, 2010 divestment deliberations at UC Berkeley. According to the Consul, such events should make us fear for the peace process. May 20, 2010: new comment follows by Dina Omar, of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Faith and Practice

Micro-Shechitah; Local, Seasonal, Organic, & Kosher

By Micah Becker-Klein

I had not eaten meat in 12 years. But I became convinced that meat could be an ethical choice for me–if I the animals were raised locally and sustainably, and if I slaughtered the animals myself, according to the values embodied in the Jewish laws of shechitah, kosher slaughter.

Life and Action

Like Honey and Milk Under Your Tongue

By Angela Himsel

If sukkot is a gift of fruit, and pesach the sacrifice of lamb, what is shavuot?

Arts and Culture

Daughter of Iraq: An Excerpt

By Revital Shiri-Horowitz

Middle Eastern Jews have their own aliyah stories, too. Israeli novelist Revital Shiri-Horowitz paints a portrait of an Iraqi woman planning her departure.

Arts and Culture

The Promised Land

By Mya Guarnieri

Alma prepares to be redeemed at AA meetings. Not by sobriety, but by Brooklyn, where being Jewish is no big deal, and difference means equality.

Faith and Practice

The War Against Tolerance (with response from Phyllis Chesler)

By Rachel Tabachnick

Rifqa Bary is an Ohio teen who ran away from home after converting to Christianity. Jews and Evangelicals banded together to save her from her Muslim family. They saw their effort as being part of a global struggle against Islam. What they were really fighting was multiculturalism. Phyllis Chesler, quoted in the article, responds.

News and Politics

Prescription for Survival

By Moshe Yaroni

Israel will only survive as a democracy if it recognizes the equal rights of its citizenry, frees itself from the grip of the rabbinate, strengthens its courts, and protects its NGO communities.

Arts and Culture

Beasts in the Jungle

By Cynthia Hoffman

The ways in which we’ve been taught to remember the Holocaust have made us indifferent to the tragedy. According to novelist Yann Martel, the only way to re-sensitize ourselves is to imagine how we might tell the story differently.

News and Politics

Road to Nowhere

By Mya Guarnieri

Some Israelis consider him an extremist. Some American neocons love him. Salam Fayyad wants to unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood. Mya Guarnieri thinks it’s a very bad idea.