Holocaust politics is bad for the Jews
January 20, 2020 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
At a time of rising antisemitism around the globe and threats from terrorism and nuclear blackmail aimed at the State of Israel, there are more important things to worry about than the question of who gets to speak at the ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem. Read more
A Jewish guide to death and bereavement
January 20, 2020 by Rabbi Raymond Apple
For Judaism, life is the supreme value, the great privilege, the precious opportunity…writes Rabbu Raymond Apple. Read more
Feintooner
January 20, 2020 by Feintooner
This week’s cartoon…SIRI-ial Terminator Read more
Chaim Soutine artwork exhibited for first time in Israel in 50 years
January 19, 2020 by Eliana Rudee - JNS.org
Now through March 21, Mishkan Museum of Art in Ein Harod, a kibbutz in northern Israel, is exhibiting the works of Chaim Soutine, one of the leading artists of the 20th century, for the first time in Israel in 50 years. Read more
What’s the alternative to Trump on Iran?
January 19, 2020 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
After months of focusing on domestic policy and their animus for President Donald Trump, this week the Democratic Party presidential candidates turned their attention towards foreign policy. Read more
In post-caliphate era, does ISIS still pose a risk to Israel?
January 19, 2020 by Yaakov Lappin
In May 2019, ISIS lost its final stronghold in Syria and what was left of its “caliphate”—namely, the territory and population that it had controlled—crumbled. The event was a far cry from its peak in 2012-14, when it controlled entire swaths of Syria and Iraq, and ruled over millions of people. Read more
On the other hand…120th edition
January 19, 2020 by Michael Kuttner
This is the 120th edition of “on the other hand” but unlike the traditional Jewish greeting I hope that the good news from Israel will continue for quite some time. Read more
Bombshells: a movie review by James Bernardinelli
January 19, 2020 by James Berardinelli - Reelviews
As a dramatic re-creation of the events leading up to the July 2016 ouster of Fox News honcho Roger Ailes, Bombshell is effective cinema. Read more
Genius & Anxiety by Norman Lebrecht
January 17, 2020 by Jeremy Rosen
Genius and Anxiety: How Jews changed the World 1847-1947 by Norman Lebrecht, is the best, popular Jewish interest book in years. Read more
Rabbi Brian Fox AM: A Leader of Great Influence
Federal Liberal MP Julian Leeser shares his memories of Rabbi Brian Fox, former spiritual leader of the Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney who passed away last week. Read more
You had better believe them
January 17, 2020 by Michael Kuttner
The new year has started off, as predicted, in spectacular fashion with more inflammatory rhetoric against Israel. Read more
Why Trump’s Middle East peace plan isn’t irrelevant
January 17, 2020 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
Three years in the making and long after most of the world had given up on it being rolled out, President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan may soon see the light of day. Read more
The West mourns the Jewish dead. But what about the living?
January 17, 2020 by Melanie Phillips - JNS.org
At Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on Jan. 23, some 46 political leaders and royals, including Britain’s Prince Charles, will be attending the fifth World Holocaust Forum to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Read more
Israeli Right does not seek overthrow of Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy
January 15, 2020 by David Singer
The claim that: “The Israeli right has no solution for civil rights for Palestinians after annexation, except for overthrowing Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy” – is a canard that must be totally rejected. Read more
Shemot and the world around us
January 15, 2020 by Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann
In the midst of World War II whilst stationed in Kaunas, Lithuania, Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara defied orders and distributed an estimated 6,000 visas to Jewish refugees, ensuring their escape and survival from Europe. Read more
Present Tense by Natalie Conyer: a book review by Geoffrey Zygier
January 15, 2020 by Geoffrey Zygier
In Bereishit, the first reading of the Torah, Eve picks a fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, despite the Almighty’s specific prohibition. Read more
John Bell’s Havana colours bring extra delight To Carmen: an opera review by Victor Grynberg
January 14, 2020 by Victor Grynberg
George Bizet died tragically at only 37 years of age, after 33 mixed-reviewed performances of his Spanish-themed opera Carmen. Read more
Lord Polak: British taxpayer dollars funding Palestinian ‘pay-for-slay’ terror campaign
January 14, 2020 by Eliana Rudee - JNS.org
“Israel is being singled out ‘with nauseating frequency,’ to borrow a phrase, and we are joining in,” said Lord Baron Stuart Polak, president of Conservative Friends of Israel, in a House of Lords speech on Jan. 7. Read more
Enough with the Trump and Netanyahu analogies
January 14, 2020 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
In the coming weeks, a U.S. Senate trial of President Donald Trump on impeachment charges is looming. Read more
Blaming antisemitism on capitalism
January 14, 2020 by Ben Cohen - JNS.org
It is progress of sorts. This week, one of the leading magazines of the American left published an article that took the phenomenon of antisemitism seriously. Read more
Is it OK to throw a divorce party?
January 14, 2020 by Rabbi Raymond Apple
Ask the Rabbi. Read more
Feintooner
This week’s cartoon…Iranian protests make strange bedfellows. Read more
New Israeli laser system to become latest defence layer against rockets
January 12, 2020 by Yaakov Lappin
Israel’s Ministry of Defence announced on Wednesday that its Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) has made a dramatic breakthrough in the world of laser weapons technology. Read more
Oppose Iran sanctions, but support BDS against Israel?
January 12, 2020 by Jonathan S. Tobin - JNS.org
The rising tide of Jew-hatred that is sweeping around the globe is no laughing matter. So the idea of having a vote to determine who is the “Antisemite of the Year” may strike some as more of a publicity stunt than a sober attempt to deal with the problem. Read more
Mengele: Unmasking the Angel of Death – a book review by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen
January 12, 2020 by Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen
In receiving this book, it brought back to me two issues. Read more
Antisemitism
January 12, 2020 by Jeremy Rosen
The Bible says that poverty will never cease from the earth. Sadly, hatred and prejudice will never cease either. Some hatreds are more widespread and persistent than others. Of these cultural and religious hatreds, antisemitism has always been the most persistent and widespread. Read more
On the other hand
January 12, 2020 by Michael Kuttner
At the moment Israelis are fully occupied in coping with torrential winter downpours, flooded roads and freezing temperatures. Read more
The perverse Western mourning for Qassem Soleimani
January 12, 2020 by Melanie Phillips - JNS.org
The liberal world is aghast. President Donald Trump has done something that repudiates the very rules of nature by which Western progressives live. Read more
Elections remain elusive for Palestinians, as Abbas searches for pretexts to postpone them
January 10, 2020 by Israel Kasnett - JNS.org
In an address to the U.N. General Assembly last September, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged to a sympathetic gathering of world leaders that he would hold parliamentary elections. Read more
Will we ever learn?
January 10, 2020 by Michael Kuttner
The long-overdue dispatch to “martyrs paradise” of one of the world’s leading plotters and purveyors of terror has unleashed a not unexpected avalanche of hypocritical hysteria. Read more
