By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS) It was in 1896 that Theodor Herzl published his groundbreaking book, The Jewish State, which launched the modern Zionist movement. Though his project was, as he noted in his book, “very old” and indeed rooted in the prayers of Jews for nearly 2,000 years, it would only be 52 years […]
Can You Imagine a World Without Israel? Read More »
International, Middle East, Opinion, USA
By Ron Dermer (JNS) Israel was not established because of the Holocaust. In contrast, it is because of the modern State of Israel that there has not been another mass Jewish genocide, according to former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer. Speaking on this week’s “Diplomatically Incorrect” podcast with JINSA’s David Makovsky, Dermer
Ron Dermer on Israeli Independence Day: ‘From Powerlessness to Power’ Read More »
Middle East, Opinion, USA
By Moshe Dann (JNS) Arab riots on the Temple Mount in opposition to any Jewish presence on the Jewish people’s most holy site have exposed what the Arab-Israeli conflict is all about. It’s not about the lack of a Palestinian state or Israeli concessions to the PLO, Hamas or other terrorist organizations. It’s about what
An Independence Day Question: Why Do Arabs Riot on the Temple Mount? Read More »
Middle East, Opinion
By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Last Friday’s Harvard Crimson editorial starkly proclaims: “We support the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement as a means of achieving that goal.” Since the editorial lacks a byline, we can only guess who wrote it. My prime suspects are Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Who else? The editorial follows
Who Actually Wrote the Harvard Crimson’s Pro-BDS Editorial? Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Opinion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
By Alex Gordon, Ph.D HAIFA, Israel — The Jews came out of Egypt long ago, they came out of the Soviet Union, but they did not go out of fashion at all: at every stage of history someone was bound to seek to throw them into the sea. The Jews, however, had already been to
Democracy from the Perspective of a Native of a Totalitarian State: From Kiev to Israel Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Opinion
By Shira Klein ORANGE, California — “Come on, they’re just Arabs,” laughed my friend Yogev. We were 19 years old, both soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces, enjoying a weekend leave on the colorful streets of Tel Aviv. Yogev had been showing me a couple of IDs he had taken from Palestinians, “for fun,” he
This Yom Ha’Atzmaut, I’m Talking to My First-Grader About Palestinians Read More »
Middle East, Opinion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
By Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D JERUSALEM — The big news of last week concerned the Strauss Chocolate Company, and the discovery of salmonella in some of its products. We’ve gone forward and backward on this for several days, with a giant company having to accept a major recall, and then the closing of its production
Lots Happening in Israel Before Independence Day Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, Opinion
By Ben Cohen (JNS) A recent letter delivered to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres by 200 former senior U.N. officials included a bleak warning regarding the consequences should diplomacy fail to end Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Such an outcome would mean that “the U.N. becoming increasingly irrelevant and, eventually, succumbing to the fate of its predecessor,
Can the United Nations Survive the War in Ukraine? Read More »
International, Opinion
By Hillel Newman (Jewish Journal via JNS) Last Thursday, April 21, 2022, the eve of the second festival of Passover, the eve of “Good Friday” for Christians and during the Ramadan period for Muslims, a few demonstrators gathered in front of the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. Watching, I asked myself how ignorant, misled or
By Dan Elbaum (JNS) Mark Twain once wrote, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” For decades, many mainstream Jewish communal
Embracing a Data-Driven Approach to Engaging Jewish Young Adults Read More »
International, Middle East, Opinion, USA
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — We all make decisions in our lives. Someone like me (i.e., a very old person) has had to make decisions at many points in my life — what to study, whom to marry, where to work, where to live, whether to have another child, what to cook for
The Road Not Taken Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Holocaust, International, Middle East, OpinionBy Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Looks like I may soon have the same challenge as an antisemitic co-worker years ago at a medical publishing company in New Jersey, all thanks to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). I was passing through a hallway when my uncollegial colleague blurted out to a small crowd that she
Muslim ‘Lioness’ Growls at the Christians Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Opinion, USA
By Natasha Josefowitz, ACSW, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California — “They don’t allow it,” you’re told. “They wouldn’t like it….” “They have decided…” “It’s up to them.” We hear such common pronouncements often, but who are they? They are “the powers that be,” the nameless, faceless others who control our lives. They are the systems, institutions,
Roles, Tasks, Resources — Understanding the Controlling Forces Read More »
Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, OpinionBy Steve Kramer KFAR SABA, Israel — There’s been a lot of mayhem lately at the Temple Mount (the summit of Mount Moriah) in Jerusalem, which is a magnet for religious Jews, especially during Passover. Because this year Passover, Easter, and the Muslim holiday of Ramadan coincided, more violence than usual has resulted. The current
Jerusalem’s Temple Mount: The Epicenter of Violence Read More »
Middle East, Opinion, Steve Kramer