January 19, 2022
By JUDAH BERNSTEIN
(JTA) — Saturday’s assault on a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, has renewed the familiar yet always harrowing question: How should Jews combat antisemitism?
Contemporary Jewish leaders, organizations and pundits have offered various answers to this question in the past, but they rarely target the specific socioeconomic, technological, legal or other systems that give antisemitism life today. Beyond synagogue security measures, American Jews have yet to rally around...
January 16, 2022
We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The hostage situation at Temple Beth Israel ended in the best resolution that could be imagined: all the four hostages were released unharmed and the terrorist who held them for almost 12 hours was “neutralized.”
While some might argue the best resolution would have been to have ended the crisis without loss of life, we disagree.
Whether it be at the...
January 14, 2022
By JONATHAN S. TOBIN
(JNS.org) – Martin Luther King Jr. Day came early for some American politicians. President Joe Biden invoked Dr. King’s legacy during his speech in Atlanta six days before the holiday in which he advocated for passage of two bills that he and other Democrats say will ensure the right to vote. But as he had done days earlier on the Jan. 6 anniversary of the U.S....
January 07, 2022
By JEROLD S. AUERBACH
(JNS.org) – A newcomer to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict might ask: What is the West Bank? Where is it? Where are Judea and Samaria? Are they on the same land? If so, why do they have different names? Does history provide answers?
According to the biblical narrative, as far back as one can go in Jewish history, Judea defined the land south of Jerusalem and Samaria...
January 04, 2022
By RAHEL FRIEDMAN
(JNS.org) – The Jewish communities of North Africa and the Middle East are often inaccurately represented in academia and the mainstream media. Their rich, complex history is purposely obscured to undermine Zionism. Indeed, professors, anti-Israel student organizations, and influential figures have denied the unique indigeneity of Jews in the Middle East. Moreover, these groups have minimized the widespread historical subordination, persecution, and exile of Jews under...
December 31, 2021
By MOSHE DANN
(JNS.org) – For more than half a century, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the international community have been engaged in a relentless battle against the right of Jews to live in the misnamed “occupied Palestinian territories” of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.
Declaring all Jewish presence beyond the 1949 armistice lines “illegal,” they condemn Israel for violating the Fourth Geneva Convention (FGC)....
December 27, 2021
By DANNY DANON
(JNS.org) – This past Shabbat, we read the Torah portion of Shemot, where Moses is asked by God to go to Pharaoh and demand that he “let my people go.”
It is Pharaoh who recognizes that the Jews are a nation. He is the first to call us Am Bnei Yisrael. He recognizes the unity and destiny that the people of Israel share, and he is afraid of...
December 24, 2021
By SARA N. STERN
(JNS) – I remember my undergraduate days, several decades ago very well. It was a heady, wonderful time when I first discovered the life of the mind. My ideas and opinions were not always popular, but I knew I was able to speak for myself, without fear of being censored or silenced. As long as my arguments were backed up by the evidence, there was...
December 19, 2021
By ALAN BAKER, WADE ZE’EV GITTLESON and LEA BILKE
(JNS.org) – Recent media reports indicate that the Biden administration is seriously considering re-engaging with UNESCO and restoring its status to that of a full-paying member of the organization. The same reports relate to the fact that the United States is urging Israel to make a similar move.
This was recently confirmed by U.S. permanent representative to the U.N....
December 10, 2021
By DAVID M. LITMAN
(JNS) – A law journal at New York University recently committed to boycotting “Israel, complicit Israeli institutions, or their support and lobby groups.” The statement itself is quite telling. The authors had to caveat themselves out of actually applying BDS to the most important functions of a law journal (see footnote 7 of their statement) presumably knowing that to do otherwise would blatantly violate anti-discrimination law.
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