Shabbat Shoftim: Kings and Judges

Read more

A Saudi deal would be a gamechanger on judicial reform

It would be some sort of irony if President Biden was to provide Prime Minister Netanyahu with a pathway out of his current situation. If that does happen and that is a big if, Biden will have done it for his own domestic political reasons, not for Netanyahu’s, but who would never the less, likely be a significant beneficiary. Read more

Monument

A Melbourne theatre review by Alex First Read more

Funny You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humour from the Silent Generation to Millennials

Rabbi Jeffrey Cohen reviews a book by Jennifer Caplan Read more

I’ve been mulling over David Miller

You may never have heard of him. Read more

Guys and Dolls

A Melbourne theatre review by Alex First

Read more

Escaped Alone and What If If Only

A Melbourne theatre review by Alex First Read more

Dry Bones:  The Saudis want to take over responsibility for management of the Temple Mount?

The Saudis want to take over responsibility for management of the Temple Mount? Read more

From New Zealand’s Jewish past: Abraham Hort – one of the founders of the New Zealand Jewish Community

Abraham was born in 1790 and was known as Abraham Hort Senior a prominent member of the London Jewish Community. Read more

Saudis seek to reboot Temple Mount’s status quo with peace deal

The timing was not accidental when Saudi Arabia announced over the weekend that its ambassador to Jordan will also take on the roles of ambassador to the Palestinian Authority and consul general in eastern Jerusalem. Read more

Dry Bones: Moment of Truth

That Israelis would actually refuse to do military service is frightening. That they would do so in order to bring down the democratically elected government is unacceptable. Read more

Into the Fray: Distorting the Declaration

The focus of Israel’s Declaration of Independence is overwhelmingly on Jewish sovereignty and political independence in the ancestral Jewish homeland—not on liberal democratic governance. Read more

Aug-22 6pm Sydney: The launch of Alex Ryvchin’s latest book

The Australian launch of Alex Ryvchin’s landmark new book, “The Seven Deadly Myths – Antisemitism from the Time of Christ to Kanye West” investigating the conspiracy theories behind antisemitism Read more

Aug-22 6pm Sydney: The launch of Alex Ryvchin’s latest book

The Australian launch of Alex Ryvchin’s landmark new book, “The Seven Deadly Myths – Antisemitism from the Time of Christ to Kanye West” investigating the conspiracy theories behind antisemitism Read more

Is gambling a sin?

Read more

Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine & Saudi-Israel peace deal on hold

Hopes of a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel are on hold following a report in the Wall Street Journal that – according to US officials – the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have agreed on the broad contours of a deal for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel in exchange for concessions to the Palestinians, U.S. security guarantees and civilian nuclear help. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon:  Prisoner swapping bait and switch 101 Read more

A Gallant attempt

As every cartoonist knows, once you create a character, if they’re successful, they just start doing what they want. Read more

Antisemitism still haunts the European left

France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin last week ordered the dissolution of a Catholic traditionalist association named “Civitas” following claims of antisemitism against one of its leaders. Read more

On the other hand

It is common knowledge that in Israel, if you need help in a health emergency, trained personnel are almost instantly on the scene. Read more

Self-flagellation

Surprising as it may seem, this ancient form of afflicting the body is still practised among various groups these days. Read more

Synagogue or Temple

This month of August is the season of travelling, going on vacation in the northern hemisphere. Read more

Dry Bones

U.S. President Joe Biden’s attempt to cobble together some kind of Israeli-Saudi normalization deal before the 2024 American election is, it seems to me, doomed to fail. It feels like Joe has been led astray by Tom Friedman at the New York Times. Read more

What deal are the Americans and Saudis negotiating?

Under the headline, “U.S.-Saudi Deal Sets Path to Normalize Kingdom’s Ties with Israel,” on Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal published a detailed report of the content of U.S.-Saudi discussions. Read more

Israel’s hasbara failure on full display, again

The killing of Muhammad al-Durrah has gone down as one of Israel’s most colossal PR failures ever. Read more

Potential Saudi normalisation raises questions about the Palestinian Authority

Progress towards a potential normalisation agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia is raising the question of how the Palestinian Authority would fit into such a significant regional maneuver. Read more

Shabbat Re’eh: Adding or Subtracting

Read more

Asteroid City

A movie review by Alex First Read more

Dry Bones: The Magician

When I was a kid (those many years ago), jugglers, tumblers, contortionists and acrobats astounded and amazed us with acts in what was then called vaudeville. Read more

Inspired by Hebrew, scholar helps revive dying aboriginal Australian languages

Amid the COVID pandemic in 2020, Ghil’ad Zuckermann drove to Cardabia Station in a remote part of Western Australia. The coast reminded the Tel Aviv-born scholar of the shorelines of Eilat. Read more

« Previous Page — Next Page »