Friday, June 5, 2026 – כ׳ סִיוָן תשפ”ו When American Jews hear the term “anti-Zionist,” fairly predictable images come to mind: a campus protest, a keffiyeh, a chant about the river and the sea. The anti-Zionism that dominates our communal conversation is the kind that comes from outside — from the progressive left, from Islamist […]
May 28, 2026 – On Tuesday, May 26, 2026, the Park Slope (Brooklyn) Food Co-op voted to boycott Israeli products. Sixty-seven percent of more than 17,000 members on a Zoom call raised their virtual hands (likely using Israeli-made technology, mind you), and just like that, a beloved Brooklyn institution — a place famous for its […]
Minister May Golan’s recent attack on MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv and all Reform Jews in an antisemitic screed accusing him/us of “marrying dogs in your delusional synagogues,” was not merely a political insult aimed at one member of Knesset or one Movement. It was an attack on the religious identity and legitimacy of millions of […]
Friday, May 15, 2026 – כ״ח אִיָּיר תשפ”ו There is a dangerous instinct that has been emerging in the Jewish world right now and increasing in intensity over the past few years: the belief that we must choose between defending Israel and defending moral clarity. This belief claims that if one acknowledges the horrors committed […]
Friday, May 15, 2026 – כ״ח אִיָּיר תשפ”ו Today, Israel marks Jerusalem Day (well, actually yesterday because of Shabbat). Few cities occupy the Jewish imagination as much as Jerusalem does. It lives in our prayers, our poetry, our liturgy, our grief, and our dreams. Three times a day, Jews turn toward Jerusalem. At weddings, we […]
Friday, May 8, 2026 – כ״א אִיָּיר תשפ”ו Two ‘Old-New’ stories are unfolding in Israel this week. One is a legislative move building on a continual discussion that has been weighing on the fundamental identity of the Jewish State since its inception. The other, a polemic, touches on the forever conversation between the Jews of […]
May 1, 2026 – י״ד אִיָּיר תשפ”ו At a time when many American Jews feel fundamentally like there is not much we can do to change what happens in Israel and the Middle East. We often find ourselves waiting with bated breath. We agonize over negotiations with Iran, the fragile prospects of a ceasefire with […]
April 23, 2026 – ז׳ אִיָּיר תשפ”ו In her recently released memoir, When We See You Again, published this week between Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut, Rachel Goldberg-Polin offers a searing and intimate account of the two years since October 7, 2023. On that day, her son Hersh was taken captive by Hamas terrorists from […]
Friday April 17, 2026 – ל׳ נִיסָן תשפ”ו There is a moment that happens every year in Israel just after sundown on Yom HaZikaron, Israeli Memorial Day, when the flag at Har Herzl (Israel’s National Cemetery in Jerusalem) is raised from half-staff to full height. In the span of a few seconds, the country pivots […]
Friday April 10, 2026 – כ״ג נִיסָן תשפ”ו I first met Lt. Col. David Benjamin when we were both in the army. I was accompanying him to a speaking engagement as a representative of the Army Spokesperson’s Unit. Despite being in uniform, we quickly discovered something deeper that connected us: we were both native English […]
