We begin our year by turning the Torah scroll to the story of the first Nakba, the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, a story of shame, guilt and moral failure.
Israel/Palestine
Netanyahu Needs A War
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Yoav Peck, an Israeli peace activist, emphasizes the need for Israelis to come together to overcome the evils of Netanyahu.
Israel/Palestine
Jewish Prayers Turn Violent
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Read Antonio Di Gesù’s report on a recent instance of violence against Palestinians.
Israel/Palestine
Anti-Semitism, Uprootedness, and Zionism: My Voluntary Political Exile from Israel
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A critical discussion of Zionism in the midst of present and historical anti-Semitism by a widely respected teacher of non-violent communications.
Politics & Society
A Two-State Solution is the Only Option
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Alon Ben-Meir writes: “Israel and the Palestinians must choose to either live in peace or in a state of constant hostilities and bloodshed. The Palestinians’ right to a state of their own, coupled with unanimous international support, makes the two-state solution the only viable option.”
Analysis of Israel/Palestine
Moving Beyond Despair
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Don Waxman proposes a pragmatic approach which will “focus on campaigning for interim measures that Israel could easily adopt, measures that would dramatically improve the lives and enhance the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Articles
The Forbidden Conversation: A Photo Essay from the Open Hillel Conference
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So what does the conversation between Jewish students, activists and scholars look like without Hillel International’s guidelines? What is so scary about an open and honest Jewish debate?
War & Peace
Transformative Reconciliation: Meeting the Family of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill My Wife
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Meeting the family of the man who bombed the Hebrew University cafeteria in Jerusalem was the first step toward healing from the traumatic attack.
Articles
Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Israeli
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Living in the polarizing atmosphere of the Middle East, I feel the need to reassert the very basics — like affirming that Palestinians and Israelis are all human beings. I say this only somewhat facetiously, as dehumanizing, collective rhetoric justifies violations of many individuals’ basic rights.
Articles
Elements of a Philosophy for Diaspora Judaism
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Why be Jewish? Why join temples? Why bother to introduce our children to Jewish ideas and practices? Answers to these questions vary from person to person and from age to age, but the questions persist. The questions seem as perpetual as the Jewish people itself.
Z Archive
Lebanon, 1982: Facts and Films
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“Waltz with Bashir” and “Lebanon”: Review by Ralph Seliger
2004
Israeli Utopianism Today
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An interview with Adi Ophir, one of the central intellectual figures of the contemporary Israeli Left.
Z Archive
Israeli Feminism: The Impact of Women’s and Gender Studies on Jewish Studies
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In Israel, where the rabbinate together with the army give patriarchy a stranglehold on civil society, the potential impact of the feminist study of Judaism is of far more than personal significance. Nevertheless, it is only recently that the isolated efforts of a few scholars working in different institutions have begun coming together to form a vibrant and distinctive Israeli branch of feminist Jewish women’s studies, bringing a breath of fresh air and activism to a field dominated by conservative Judaic studies faculties and yeshivas. This in itself is one of the most important messages to emanate from the conference on “The Impact of Women’s and Gender Studies on Jewish Studies” held in Jerusalem in June 1999.