Western Jews

As far-right violence against Jewish people rises, the Jewish idea of an “eruv” can teach us all to enlarge our humanity. By Svante Myrick | ( Otherwords.org ) – Jewish communities across the country have been targeted with violence or harassment as anti-semitic hate crimes reach record levels. In late January, a man tossed […]

American Jews

Ken Burns’ Holocaust Documentary should set our Hair on Fire about the Creep of Trumpian Fascism

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland (Special to Informed Comment) – The genius of Ken Burns’ documentaries is his ability to personify history. Watching the documentary by Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein on the U.S. and the Holocaust is a challenging experience for most people, and is especially difficult for those from Jewish families that include survivors. I learned […]

Apartheid

Israel’s Apartheid Law Causes Bennett Government to Fall, on Eve of Biden’s Visit

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will dissolve parliament and go to new elections. His government has lacked a majority in parliament for some time and recently lost an embarrassing vote on applying Israeli law to squatter-settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Theirs will be […]

American Jews

The Lingering of Trumpian anti-Immigrant Hate, and Commemorating victims at Tree of Life Synagogue

H. Scott Prosterman

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 […]

Haredim

Israeli Olympic Gold Medalist Isn’t “Jewish Enough” to Marry in Israel

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – How convenient that the dynamic of sports and politics now collides with the question of “Who is a Jew?”* And just in time for the closing ceremonies of the 2020 Olympics. The prompt for this age-old dialectic comes back to who has a right to marry whom in […]

Islam

Islamic Judaism? (Video)

Emir-Stein Center

John Tolan | Emir-Stein Center “In the 19th century, some Jewish scholars in Central Europe looked to early Islam and in particular to the Prophet Muhammad for inspiration and consolation. For these scholars, the Muslim prophet could serve as a heuristic model for reforming Judaism. John Tolan, Professor of History at the University of Nantes, […]

Antisemitism

The Republican Party’s Iran-Level Superstitious Anti-Semitism: Greene claimed Jewish Space Laser started Cali Wildfires

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Golnaz Esfandiari reports on controversies currently roiling Tehran over the belief in supernatural beings, genies (jinn or djinn), among the country’s ruling ayatollahs. Esfandiari writes, that Iran’s clerical Leader recently said, “There are enemies from among both genies and human beings, and they help one another. The security services of […]

Antisemitism

Auschwitz 75 years on: preserving survivors’ voices and listening to those of their children

The Conversation

By Sara Jones | – In December 2019, four people were shot dead at a kosher market in New Jersey, a horrific knife attack was perpetrated at a rabbi’s home in a New York suburb, and antisemitic graffiti was daubed on a synagogue and several shops in north London. Despite what many might think, antisemitism […]

Antisemitism

How American anti-Semitism reflects the centuries-long struggle over the meaning of religious liberty

The Conversation

By Tisa Wenger | – Americans recently observed the first anniversary of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, in which 11 were killed and six wounded. A year earlier, white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville, Virginia, chanted the slogan, “Jews shall not replace us.” Synagogues around the country have also been defaced […]