Jewish History

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – The “3rd Commemoration” of the 2018 Pittsburgh, Tree of Life Synagogue massacre occurs on October 27. When one Jew is mourned on the anniversary of passing, we call it a yahrzeit (Yiddish). When eleven are mourned from the same act of violence, it is a commemoration. The Pittsburgh […]

astronomy and outer space

Did a Cosmic Airburst inspire the Myth of Sodom and inadvertently Spark millennia of Homophobia?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – In a new paper in Nature archeologists Ted E. Bunch and Malcolm A. LeCompte et al. present their findings that a cosmic airburst destroyed an ancient city in 1650 BC (about 3600 years ago) at the site of today’s Tell el-Hammam in western Jordan near the mouth of the Jordan […]

Jewish History

Startling Discovery of New Dead Sea Scrolls sheds light on Jewish Revolts against Imperial Rome

The Conversation

By Gareth Wearne | – On Tuesday news broke of the discovery of fresh fragments of a nearly 2,000-year-old scroll in Israel. The fragments were said to come from the evocatively named Cave of Horror, near the western shore of the Dead Sea. The finds were announced with attention-grabbing headlines that these were new fragments […]

Antisemitism

How to fight Holocaust denial in social media – with the evidence of what really happened

The Conversation

By Adam G. Klein | – One in four American millennials believe the Holocaust was exaggerated or entirely made up, according to a recent national survey that sought to find out what young adults know about the genocide of nearly 6 million Jews at the hands of Nazis some 80 years ago. That startling statistic […]

Antisemitism

From Kristallnacht to the Berlin Wall: The Tragedies and Triumphs of Nov. 9 remind us of the Dangers of Racism and the Beacon of Liberty

Adrienne Redd

Philadelphia, Pa. (Special to Informed Comment) – November 9 is momentous. We move forward with new hope. However, we must not forget to be humble and compassionate, to remember that of which people are capable, both the evil and the triumphant. On November 9 and 10, 1938 (called Kristallnacht), mobs rampaged through Germany, smashing windows, […]

Jewish History

On Jewish Revolutionary Internationalism

Alan M. Wald

I. The Prisoner in the Dock ( Against the Current) – THE JEWISH REVOLUTIONARY Internationalist commitment to the indivisibility of justice was on full display in palpable if muted form on April 26, 1964. That day, in Pretoria, South Africa, a tall, handsome man stood boldly in the prisoner’s dock of the Supreme Court. Well […]

Antisemitism

Knowledge of the Holocaust wanes for Millennials, Gen Z, Even as Anti-Semitism Rises

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Jonmaesha Beltran | – (Cronkite News) – PHOENIX – Seventy-five years after the atrocities of Auschwitz, memories of the Holocaust are fading for younger generations who learn little about genocides in school, according to education advocates who believe they have the answer: Make it Arizona law to teach about the horrors of the Nazi’s […]

Jewish History

Universal ethical truths are at the core of Jewish High Holy Days

Juan Cole

By Ronald W. Pies | – My most vivid adolescent memories of the Jewish High Holy Days are the painful rumbling of my empty stomach as I fasted on Yom Kippur, and the sharp blasts of the shofar – the ram’s horn – sounding from the synagogue pulpit. I was one of millions of Jews […]

Christianity

Why Good Friday was Dangerous for Jews in the Middle Ages and how that Changed

The Conversation

By Daniel Joslyn-Siemiatkoski | – As Christians observe Good Friday they will remember, with devotion and prayer, the death of Jesus on the Cross. It is a day of solemnity in which Christians give thanks for their salvation made possible by the suffering of Jesus. They prepare for rejoicing on Easter Sunday, when the resurrection […]