Israel is currently preoccupied with its election campaign and America with its newly divided government, leaving both countries little attention to spare for issues beyond day-to-day politics. But … more

This is a deeply personal story that begins before I was born, when my grandmother Fanya seized her slender teenaged daughter — my mother Edyka — and pushed her out of the small vent at … more

In last week’s parsha, Ki Tisa, we learned of the scandal of the Golden Calf. Infamously, the Jewish people sinned with idol worship. Following that breach, the concept of forgiveness for a … more

In the fall of 2012, Israel was again preparing for war in response to the thousands of missiles being fired indiscriminately from the Gaza Strip into the population centers of southern Israel. … more

To hyphenate or not to hyphenate? One of the more enduring debates among scholars of anti-Semitism is whether to include the hyphen in the spelling of the word. A growing number of … more

The Yalkut Shimoni’s opening comment in his Midrashic exposition on Parshas Vayakhel is translated as follows: “Vayakhel Moshe, and Moshe gathered: Our Rabbis, the master … more

In the West, we are being subjected to a manipulation of reality that could have been scripted by Franz Kafka. Last month, gay black actor Jussie Smollett claimed that he was set upon in … more

Vayakel and Pekudei are narrative Torah portions that describe the creation of the Mishkan and the bigdei kehuna. The word “vayaas” — “and he made” — is used … more

In Ki Tisa and in Vayakhel, we encounter the figure of Bezalel, a rare type in the Hebrew Bible — the artist, the craftsman, the shaper of beauty in the service of G-d, the man who, … more

Dear JTA, I am an elected official in a large democracy in the Western hemisphere. A lot of my colleagues have gotten into trouble recently for using anti-Semitic “tropes.” I know what … more