Judaism
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the recent bipartisan passage of a $14.3 billion military aid bill to Israel, without imposing any conditions, a “great victory” for the Jewish state. In an exclusive interview, Schumer said he dedicated significant time to discussions with House Speaker Johnson, emphasizing the importance of passing the comprehensive foreign aid package, crucial for Israel’s defense.
News about the demonstrations spreading at colleges in the United States has been dominating the headlines here. All of the 21 Israeli Jews we spoke with perceive protesters’ rally cries as attacks on Jews writ large. Most also said, without evidence, that American college kids are being manipulated, if not also paid, by Hamas, Qatar, Iraq or China to undermine Israel and Jews.
As pro-Palestinian protests spread to college campuses across America and around the world, three conservative Christian activists staged a “United for Israel March” at Columbia University on Friday night. The group of a few dozen people carrying American and Israel flags gathering before marching to Columbia’s gate, accompanied by a snare drum.
The Jewish festival of Passover recalls the biblical story of the Israelites enslaved by Egypt and their miraculous escape. During a ritual feast known as a Seder, families celebrate this ancient story of deliverance, with each new generation reminded to never take freedom for granted. Every year, a written guide known as a “Haggadah” is read at the Seder table.
Columbia University’s president canceled all in-person classes and urged faculty and students who do not live on campus to stay away, after a weekend of anti-Israel protests swelled and included threatening messages to the school’s large Jewish student population. The extraordinary move was announced in an early-morning Monday email.
Jewish students concerned about their safety amid a new wave of anti-war protests at Columbia University received mixed messages on Sunday about staying on campus during the holiday of Passover. Rabbi Elie Buechler, who leads the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus at Columbia and Barnard, advised students to return home until it is safe for them to be on campus again.
(OPINION) Is the conflict between Israel and Iran about to explode? Are we on the edge of World War III, if not Armageddon? The answer to all these questions is the same: not likely. But in saying this I do not claim supernatural, prophetic insight.
Every year at Passover we are commanded to imagine ourselves leaving Egypt — Joel Silverstein painted himself into the picture. In “The Brighton Beach Bible” — an art book with narrative commentary — Silverstein envisions the boardwalks and abandoned attractions of his childhood in Brooklyn as the staging ground for the Exodus and 40 years in the wilderness.
(REVIEW) The average religious viewer will likely also find little offensively objectionable in the portrayal of the Biblical story. They take the story, with its miracles and supernatural elements, as if they all really happened. The flaws in Moses’s character are all ones that come from the Biblical accounts.
Amid what many consider an increasingly hostile climate for Jewish students on campus, Hillel has updated its college guide, including a new feature that indicates whether students at a particular school have held a vote to boycott Israel.
(OPINION) As expected, in retaliation for Israel’s killing of a top Iranian general and seven other senior military leaders on April 1 — all of whom were suspected of having Israeli blood on their hands — Iran struck back on Saturday night, launching roughly 350 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles on Israel. What will Israel do in response? And what does this mean for the region and the world?
When Jews gather around their Passover seder tables on April 22, most will read in the hagaddah prayerbook a simple tale of four children who are tasked with learning of the Jewish exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt: The wise child, the wicked child, the simple child, and the child who does not know how to ask.
(ANALYSIS) “Judaism Is About Love” is a new book that thoroughly and poetically shatters the misconception that the God of the Hebrew Bible is about law, while the God of the New Testament is about love. As a result, it creates healthy parameters for disagreement between Jewish and Christian believers.
(ANALYSIS) Fourteen of the NBA’s 30 franchise owners are Jewish. Two of them absolutely despise each other. And it has nothing to do with basketball. Instead, it’s about … mortgages? The rivalry between Mat Ishbia, owner of the Phoenix Suns, and Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, dates to long before Ishbia bought the Suns in 2022.
(ANALYSIS) Sen. Joe Lieberman died on March 27 at age 82, ending a career defined as much by his life as an Orthodox Jew as by his attempts to remain a centrist as Democrats kept moving to the cultural left. While voting with his party on issues such as abortion, gun control and gay rights, he was a strong supporter of religious liberty — including for conservatives who frequently clashed with his party.
Many Americans particularly sense that discrimination against Muslims and Jews has risen since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The vast majority of U.S. Muslims and Jews agree: 7 in 10 Muslims and 9 in 10 Jews surveyed said they have felt an increase in discrimination against their respective groups since the war began last October.
(EXPLAINER) Since 2000, the two holidays have overlapped every year but four — in 2005, 2008, 2016 and this spring. Easter is calculated based on the Christian liturgical calendar tied to the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Passover, on the other hand, is determined by the Jewish calendar, which is also lunar-based. That’s where the similarities end.
(ANALYSIS) The American novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson has accumulated numerous literary prizes, among them the 2005 Pulitzer, but also honors in religion. Her new non-fiction book “Reading Genesis” wrestles with the grand themes and thorny issues raised in the Bible’s first book. It’s a climactic testament at the twilight of a distinguished life and career.
(ANALYSIS) Ultra-Orthodox resistance to conscription is nothing new. But the forcefulness of this declaration is new, especially coming in the midst of a war. And Yosef is not any random rabbi. He is the son of Ovadia Yosef, who was the spiritual leader of the Shas Party: an important partner in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing and religious governing coalition.
The Playhouse Cinema in Hamilton, Ontario, about 40 miles from Toronto, became the latest venue to call off a Jewish-themed event when it announced Tuesday that the annual Hamilton Jewish Film Festival would not be held in the theater as scheduled in April. The festival is sponsored by the local Jewish federation.
A new exhibit, “Kingdom of David and Solomon Discovered” — on display now through Jan. 31, 2025, in the lobby of the Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma — reflects on the panoply of the royal house of Judah, whose influence extended from Tyre in ancient Phoenicia, today Lebanon, to Sheba or Saba, in what is modern-day Yemen and Ethiopia. On display are 49 outstanding artifacts illuminating the material culture of those Hebrew monarchs.
Acutely aware of the painful history of Christian participation and complicity in antisemitism, and a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents nationally and globally, Christian scholars and clergy are calling for a new level of reflection and accountability for churches, starting from the pulpit.
AIPAC lobbyists are headed to Capitol Hill this week to increase pressure on Congress to pass a bipartisan Israel aid bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson has so far resisted bringing a $95 billion foreign aid bill to a floor vote. That bill, approved by the Senate last month, would support Ukraine in its efforts to repel Russia’s invasion, and send $14.1 billion to Israel, which is fighting against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah on its northern border.
(ANALYSIS) The April issue of the ever-interesting Atlantic magazine features an 11,400-word blockbuster by staff writer Franklin Foer, a prominent Jewish journalist who was formerly editor of The New Republic. The provocative headline of his state-of-the-union assessment proclaims that “The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending.” Big — if true.
Unlike at other rallies for a ceasefire in Gaza, you aren’t likely to hear calls for Palestine to extend “from the river to the sea” at the one in New York’s Union Square. And there will be few or no denunciations of Israel as a “settler-colonial” state. Rather, rallygoers call on both Israel and Hamas to agree to a “bilateral ceasefire,” humanitarian aid for Palestinians and the release of all hostages in Gaza.
A federal investigation or lawsuit related to antisemitism on college campuses has been opened or filed nearly every other day on average since Oct. 7, according to a new report. The complaints describe a range of incidents, including white supremacist flyers at Montana State University and a drunken assault at the University of Tampa.
(OPINION) According to a quote widely attributed to Winston Churchill, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” This is absolutely true when it comes to reporting about Israel, except even more so. We could say that anti-Israel lies become canonized, even becoming part of sacred religious lore, before the truth even gets out of bed.
Aaron Lansky, who went looking for Yiddish books as a graduate student and ended up preserving the language and its culture with a collection of 1.5 million volumes, is retiring from the Yiddish Book Center that he founded in Amherst, Mass., in 1980.
(ANALYSIS) For Maimonides, a 12th century theologian, philosopher, rabbi and physician, there is no true faith without reason. His writings spurred centuries of conflict and were even banned in some Jewish communities. Yet he also penned one of the most famous guides to Jewish law and still stands as one of the most influential rabbis to have ever lived.
A quiet weeknight at UCLA descended into mayhem after hundreds of pro-Israel protesters descended on the campus and began trying to dismantle a pro-Palestinian encampment. Violence raged outside the encampment for nearly three hours — from around 11 p.m. Tuesday to a little before 2 a.m. Wednesday — before police officers arrived at the scene and began dispersing them.