This post exists because my mother screamed at me on the phone. She asked who I was voting for, and before I could get a word in she told me, in no uncertain terms: “We are Likud!!” My...
Rabbi Dov Lior Says You Can “Take” Palestinian Olives. Let’s Grade the Excuses.
Last Friday, Rabbi Dov Lior, the former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba (the settlement next to Hebron), issued a halachic ruling, meaning a ruling on Jewish religious law, that Jews are allowed to...
A Defensible Call, a Terrible Meeting, and Cenk: What the Leaked CBS Tape Actually Shows
On the third anniversary of October 7, CBS News ran a piece by veteran correspondent Holly Williams on its evening newscast. Before it aired, the network’s new foreign editor rewrote parts of...
Sinatra and Bacharach Are Back in New York, and We Have Free Tickets.
New York has had a turbulent few months at City Hall, and plenty of Jewish New Yorkers have felt it. Happily, the city still does one thing better than anywhere else, which is put on a show. Two...
A 102-Year-Old Is Jumping Out of a Plane for Lone Soldiers. What’s Your Excuse?
Last Thursday I went to The Michael Levin Base annual gala at the Jerusalem Theatre, which I wrote about beforehand. Now that I’ve sat through it, I have a few things to add and one urgent ask...
Were Jews Expelled From 109 Countries? We Counted.
The 109 countries thing is back. (Was it ever gone?) It turns up mostly in replies, tweets etc. as a sort of conversational shrug: Jews have been expelled from 109 countries, so maybe ask yourself...
Mamdani Never Said “Jews.” His Own Side Booed Him Anyway
Not Once Did He Say “Jews.” His Own Side Booed Him Anyway. Zohran Mamdani spent the third anniversary of October 7 trying to please everyone. He pleased nobody, and the people who paid...
They Buried It in Milk Cans: The Warsaw Ghetto Archive Comes to NYC
They Buried It in Milk Cans So You Could Read It In 1999, UNESCO added three collections from Poland to its Memory of the World register: the scientific works of Copernicus, the masterpieces of...
October 7th: Three Years Ago This Morning
I’m writing this at about the same hour I woke up three years ago. That Saturday morning the walls of my apartment in Jerusalem started shaking from booms, and at 8:15 the sirens went off. It...
Mamdani’s Antisemitism Plan Comes With a Receipt, and It’s Made Out to CAIR
Last week Zohran Mamdani stood in front of a camera to launch his antisemitism plan, and told New York’s Jews that, in his words, “antisemitism is real, and it is growing.” Very...