(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Whether this week marks the last of Benjamin Netanyahu’s record-setting tenure as prime minister or is just a prelude to another never-count-him-out comeback, it seems a fitting moment to try to understand why he has...
Dan Buffa, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published June 11, 2021
When it comes to general movie fans, Steven Spielberg's name brings out a few different film classics: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Saving Private Ryan," and "Jurassic Park." Maybe a few others. But they often forget about gems such as "Catch Me...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood is known as a center of gentrification and a gathering place for the cool young hipsters of New York City. A short walk from the Lower East Side over the Williamsburg Bridge, it’s...
The world moves so fast that what seemed groundbreaking just a week ago already feels like a distant memory.
Last Friday, I arrived back home after leading the first solidarity mission of Jewish leaders from North America to arrive in Israel following...
This article originally appeared on The New York Jewish Week.
Just a few weeks ago, the streets of New York City were filled with thousands of people shouting “intifada” while also claiming “Black Lives Matter.”
In that same period, a violent...
(JTA) — My grandpa once told me a story about when my great-grandparents were on a steamship emigrating from Ukraine to Cuba in the 1920s, shortly before my grandpa was born. As the story went, my great-grandmother saw a Black man for the first time...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — In the 1960s, the Communist Party cut the Russian Jews off from the Jewish people. They prohibited them from wearing tefillin, or celebrating b’nai mitzvah, or expressing support for the State of Israel. They intimidated...
(JTA) — “Rabbi Adar, is it dangerous to wear my Jewish star?”
In 12 years of teaching “Introduction to the Jewish Experience” through HaMaqom|The Place in the San Francisco Bay Area, no student ever asked me that question in those words....
JOSHUA SHANES, THE FORWARD
• Published June 1, 2021
This story originally appeared on TheFoward.com
One hundred years ago, a pogrom destroyed a community. A pogrom is, according to John Klier, who was the subject’s leading authority and author of numerous seminal studies on Russian Jews, “an outbreak...
The recent rocket attacks fired at Israeli citizens shocked and horrified us all. Indiscriminate attacks on civilians are the very essence of terrorism, and we are at a critical moment in time where Israel, facing existential threats on...
This article originally appeared on Kveller.
Obviously these past few weeks have been difficult for so many people, mainly the Palestinians and Israelis who have been enmeshed in conflict and under fire. Thankfully there’s now a cease-fire that everyone...
(JTA) — I was riding my bike last week when I passed a convoy of honking cars sporting Israeli flags and balloons in various shades of blue and white — and immediately felt a wave of clashing emotions.
I felt the pang of recognition I feel...
