Opinion
Iran President-Elect Hassan Rohani and the Long Road to Change
JNS.org - How can reforms be implemented in Iran without breaking from the Islamic system? That is the necessary, yet complex, challenge facing Iran president-elect Hassan Rohani. Rohani will have to please both sides. On one end, there is the regime, from which Rohani hails, that seeks the preservation of the status quo. On the other, there is the Iranian people, or more specifically, the 18 million...
April 30, 2013 1:11 am
The Cost of Inaction in Syria
Pressure is mounting on the Obama Administration to respond more decisively to the situation...
April 30, 2013 1:05 am
Want it all? Get your Head Back in the Clouds
By Gideon Ben-Zvi You may have missed it, but being mediocre is all the rage. Talent, ambition...
April 29, 2013 1:25 am
America’s New Isolationists Are Endangering the West
The spectre of isolationism is stalking the Republican Party. It is still far from dominant,...
April 28, 2013 11:12 am
Multiculturalism and the Decline of American Values
Liberal academia has always displayed a notoriously poor track record of anti-Americanism...
April 28, 2013 11:11 am
Imagine a Boston Bombing Every Week
I genuinely empathize with the victims of the Boston bombing. They were killed, maimed,...
April 26, 2013 3:09 pm
Pope Francis and the Argentine Rabbi
One of the first things Argentinian native Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio did after being elected...
April 26, 2013 2:54 pm
Boston, Cameras, and Civil Liberties
America is a crazy land of contradictions, and yet if ever there was an argument in favor...
April 25, 2013 6:50 pm
Choosing Life in Israel, by P. David Hornik (REVIEW)
Choosing Life in Israel, by P. David Hornik (Ontario: Freedom Press, 2013). The first two...
April 25, 2013 7:13 am
Algemeiner Jewish 100: The Full List
The Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life 2013 ACADEMIA Ruth Wisse Robert Wistrich Hagit...
April 23, 2013 1:52 pm
The Boston Marathon Bombing and America’s So-Called Faith Privilege
The Boston Marathon bombing provoked enactment of what has emerged, since 9/11, as a ritual...
April 23, 2013 2:29 am
Syria, Hezbollah, and EU Appeasement
The Syrian civil war may undo the European Union’s attempts to appease Hezbollah, and has...
April 23, 2013 2:22 am
Why Abe Foxman Was Wrong on Islamic Attack on the Boston Marathon
Abe Foxman, the ADL’s longtime National Director, seemed to want to do everything possible...
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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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