Opinion
Peter Beinart’s Attack on Me and Cory Booker
Last week Peter Beinart wrote a column on The Daily Beast called “Cory Booker’s Rabbis” which surmised that my 20 year friendship with the Democratic Senate Candidate in New Jersey, and my having brought him to the Jewish community, might be pushing him toward too much of a pro-Israel posture. Peter, whom I also know from Oxford when he was a Rhodes scholar and whom I like and respect amid...
June 28, 2012 8:05 am
Israel Going Up in Flames
Among the important Israeli news items that went largely underreported this week, was one highlighted...
June 27, 2012 4:33 pm
Iran Declares War Against the Jewish People
The Iranian government, long known for its Holocaust denial and anti-Zionism, has now declared...
June 27, 2012 12:59 pm
The Incredible Shrinking U.S.-Israel Security Cooperation
In light of increased sensitivity to intelligence leaks, it seemed innocuous – or even...
June 27, 2012 12:53 pm
The White House Should Follow Congress’ Lead on Jerusalem
Recently at a Jerusalem Day celebration on Capitol Hill, nine members of Congress declared...
June 26, 2012 3:19 pm
We Better Hope Saudi Arabia Isn’t Next
As Egypt goes, so goes the Arab world. With 83 million people in its midst, Egypt stands as...
June 26, 2012 2:15 pm
Rewarding Moments: Prizeworthy vs. Praiseworthy
Awards and prizes appear to be the ultimate credential, from the Oscar to the Grammy. But...
June 25, 2012 3:15 pm
Give Iran the Bomb? A Very, Very Bad Idea
Worried about a nuclear Iran? Do you think such a development would not only threaten Israel’s...
June 25, 2012 1:27 pm
Syria: The International Travesty
After fifteen months of relentless slaughter, the developments in Syria, with shockingly...
June 24, 2012 12:53 am
Antisemitism With a Literary Glow: Alice Walker’s Ugly Caricature of Israeli Jews
“Jesus, a Palestinian – is still being crucified.” (Alice Walker’s blog, per CAMERA.) “[Israeli]...
June 24, 2012 12:23 am
Pondering the Limits of Conversation
The Jewish Agency’s third Global Jewish Forum is just a stone’s throw away on the calendar....
June 22, 2012 4:19 pm
Inaction in Syria Means a Nuclear Iran More Likely
For more than a year, the international community has dithered and delayed action to stop...
June 22, 2012 2:37 pm
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author, Destroys Dr. King’s Dream
As a young child living in Park Forest, Illinois, a southern suburb of Chicago, I vividly...
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Personalities Sports
NBA Finals a Time to Remember Legendary Jewish Coach Red Auerbach
JNS.org - At the start of each nationally televised game of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat, ABChas aired a film-clip montage of basketball’s great players and coaches—a montage that includes Jewish coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach, the mastermind behind nine championship teams for the Boston Celtics. Red was one of four children of Marie and Hyman Auerbach. Hyman was a Russian-Jewish immigrant who left Belarus when he was 13. The couple owned a deli and [...]
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Arts and Culture Jewish History
The Marx Brothers and Jewish Identity
JNS.org - The sons of Jewish immigrants from Germany and France, the Marx Brothers became zany masters of stage and screen who continue to captivate audiences. But in addition to providing comic relief, their films captured the drama of the entry of their marginalized religion into the U.S. Wayne Koestenbaum, author of the 2012 book The Anatomy of Harpo Marx, explains that the Marx Brothers’ Jewishness as a family “was evident, marked, thoroughly legible.” “Within a family already marked as Jewish within [...]
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Arts and Culture Jewish Identity
SuperJew
For my shekels, the question of whether the comic book character Superman, is Jewish or not shouldn’t even be questioned. Born and named Kal-El by his father Jor-El, “El” is one of the ancient names for God used throughout the bible and found in great prophets such as Samue-el, Dani-el and angels Micha-el and Gavri-el and of course, Isra-el. As Simcha Weinstein in his entertaining book, “Up, Up And Oy Vey” points out, “Kal” is the root of several Hebrew [...]
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Israel Sports
Formula 1 Road Show Thrills Jerusalem
JNS.org – Some 100,000 people attended Israel’s first-ever Formula 1 Road Show in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. For several hours, the controversies that normally characterize Jerusalem were put aside, and a diverse mosaic of Israelis watched up close as the motor-sport stars temporarily conquered the city. “It was an amazing experience, the most fast and furious thing I have seen,” spectator Masada Porat told Israel Hayom. “It was a rare, extreme event that explodes in your face.” Spectator Irena [...]
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Book Reviews Jewish Identity
Klara’s Journey Casts Jews in Fast-Paced Adventure Through Russian History
JNS.org – “If you’re sick, move away. Have some consideration for others,” a red army soldier scolds a slow-moving old man selling train tickets. “No, fires back the old man, proud, haughty, not realizing it’s a new country, a Bolshevik country where force heads the list instead of civility,” reads the following line in Ben G. Frank’s new novel, Klara’s Journey, released June 1. Reminiscent of Boris Pasternak’s Dr. Zhivago—whose backdrop is also a train ride across the Russian frontier during the [...]
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Personalities Theater
Nora Ephron, Famed Jewish Screenwriter, Remembered Through Tribeca Film Festival Prize
JNS.org – For filmmaker Meera Menon, no honor could have been more fitting than winning the inaugural award named after famed Jewish screenwriter and novelist Nora Ephron, the woman whose work inspired her. At the recent 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, Menon was named the first recipient of the $25,000 Nora Ephron Prize, given to a writer or director whose work embodies that of the late Ephron, who wrote the scripts for a number of hit films, including “When Harry Met [...]
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Book Reviews Personalities
Book Review: ‘Jewish Jordan’ Memoir an Important Guide for Players and Coaches
JNS.org – Despite his friends’ and family’s doubts that a young Orthodox Jewish athlete could ever play college or professional basketball without compromising his religious values, between 1999 and 2009 the “Jewish Jordan” defied conventional wisdom and found his place on the court. In his new memoir, Jewish Jordan’s Triple Threat, Tamir Goodman describes his triumphs and disappointments in life, crediting his practice of Judaism for shaping his identity as an athlete and his understanding of basketball as a team sport. [...]
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Blogs Sports
Omri Casspi, ‘Jewish Jordan’ Partner on Basketball Camps to Inspire Youths On and Off the Court
Tamir Goodman (left) and NBA forward Omri Casspi—pictured on the court of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls—together run basketball camps that seek to inspire youths on and off the court. Photo: Courtesy Tamir Goodman. JNS.org – Before last year, basketball camps for Jewish youths never had an instructor quite like Omri Casspi, a forward for the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Cleveland Cavaliers and the first Israeli-born player in NBA history. Casspi is a de facto ambassador for [...]
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