News
Purim and the Fragility of Pluralism
5+ hour, 6+ min ago (935+ words) As I sat in synagogue this week listening to the Book of Esther'the Megillah'I realized something I had not fully appreciated before. The Book of Esther is not only a story about Jewish survival. It is a study in what…...
David Axelrod Is Right About Antisemitism but Wrong About Why It Is Rising
5+ day, 7+ hour ago (805+ words) When Democratic strategist'David Axelrod warned'that chants of "tax the Jews" at a San Francisco political event echoed "another, very dark time," he was correct. Americans should be alarmed when anti-Semitic rhetoric reappears in civic life for it signals not merely…...
The Crisis in Jewish Education Is Not About Screens
2+ week, 4+ day ago (1082+ words) The Crisis in Jewish Education Is Not About Screens'American Enterprise Institute - AEI The Crisis in Jewish Education Is Not About Screens Jewish school head Adam Eilath's essential new essay in Mosaic opens with a striking contrast: Jewish students on the…...
The Real Threat to Jewish Learning Isn’t the Screen; It’s the Institution
3+ week, 5+ day ago (253+ words) But that is precisely where Eilath's essay has a conspicuous blind spot. He treats the institutional failures of American Jewish education as if they were primarily technological problems. They are not. They are failures of will, expectation, and communal priority…...
When Society’s Good Intentions for Jews Replace Equal Citizenship
3+ week, 5+ day ago (996+ words) A secular Manhattan school responded to October 7 by holding a Shabbat gathering. The head of school spoke with moral seriousness. Jewish families felt seen. Non-Jewish families showed up in solidarity. By any reasonable measure, this is a success story. And…...
When Antisemitism Stops Pretending
1+ mon, 6+ day ago (666+ words) Last week,I wroteabout how antisemitism at Sarah Lawrence College is routinely treated as background noise'acknowledged in theory, minimized in practice, and excused as political expression rather than confronted as civic failure. What has happened since makes that posture no…...
When Antisemitism Is Treated as Background Noise
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (552+ words) Universities have grown fluent in the language of harm. Administrators speak easily about hostile environments, symbolic violence, and the psychological burden of offensive imagery. In some cases, they act quickly: renaming buildings, removing art, or publicly acknowledging that no one…...
Anti-Semitism on the Couch
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (1056+ words) Shortly after October 7, 2023, an Arizona-based group called the Jewish Therapist Collective'received'a sharp increase in calls from Jewish therapists. The collective is an online community that offers support to Jewish therapists and helps Jewish... The post Anti-Semitism on the Couch appeared…...
Jewish America’s Future Depends on All Its Communities — Not Just the Coasts
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (345+ words) American Jewish life has long been anchored in a small number of powerful metropolitan centers. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and a handful of others remain indispensable. They house national institutions, sustain Jewish education at scale, train professionals, and…...
Jewish Communal Institutions Failed the Oct. 7 Test — Mergers, Consolidations, and Closing Some Institutions Is One Answer
1+ mon, 4+ week ago (845+ words) For years, Jewish leaders have warned of a "talent pipeline" crisis: too few professionals entering and remaining in Jewish education, campus life, advocacy, philanthropy, and communal leadership. The concern is real. But it is incomplete. The deeper problem is not…...