Many of Israel’s ardent defenders would sooner point to injustices taking place in other Middle Eastern countries than entertain the idea of having a discussion about what the Jewish State is doing right and what it is doing wrong. Israel…
Israel and apartheid: a lesson in the risks of media bias
For Israel, a country trapped under the brutally judgmental microscope of global scrutiny, public image is everything. A recent poll published on October 23, 2012 by Haaretz (a leading Israeli news source), and its accompanying piece by Israeli journalist Gideon…
Anti-Semitic graffiti “un-Kiwi?”
Sprayed in black, the swastikas show up clearly against the pale gray tombstones in a historic Auckland, New Zealand cemetery, where vagrants drift and troublemakers lurk. The Hebrew words meaning May his/her soul be bound into the bond of life…
Kosher Korner: Pumpkin Spice Latte
Despite the sweltering LA weather, it is indeed fall. What better way to usher in autumn than with a delicious pumpkin spice latte? Although many coffee shops offer tasty fall drinks, it’s often difficult to find kosher options and even…
Blurring democracy: the Orthodox vision of respecting women
It was my first time at the Western Wall. It should have been a beautiful and emotional moment, one that allowed me to connect to the history of the Jewish people. And yet, something irked me. Perhaps it was the…
Inked: a living Holocaust memorial
In Zakhor, the famous commentary on Jewish history and memory, historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi writes, “Only in Israel and nowhere else is the injunction to remember felt as a religious imperative to an entire people.” Confluent with that statement is…
Yiddishkayt’s Helix Project: a modern adventure into the forgotten Yiddish past
Cobblestone paths and narrowly winding streets. Freshly painted yellow buildings and crumbling courtyards boarded up in disrepair. Vilnius, summer 2012, or as the Yiddish speaking Jewish population called it prior to World War II, Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithuania. Ten…