Guests and Blogs

Could Pharaoh be Irish? As we read this last month’s Torah portions, about the ancient idiosyncratic behavior of an Egyptian despot, we think such personalities can’t happen in our world, in our times.  Well, a film with nine nominations for Oscar awards, admirably shows it can transpire in ordinary human behavior.

When Eric Goldstein speaks, Benjamin Netanyahu must listen. Even more so than when others speak, such as U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, Israeli business executive Eynat Guez, 100,000-plus protesters in Tel Aviv and Israeli expats in New York and Los Angeles.

Notwithstanding how often a newspaper may write or a television commentator may say that Israel "captured" the "West Bank" and "East Jerusalem" in June 1967, it is not so.

After nine days as dean of students at a middle school, Michael Woodberg resigned. The offense? Being Jewish.

A new record may have just been set—for the most Hitler analogies in a 24-hour period.

Our very first “Jew-ish” congressman established himself as a serial liar, a possible criminal suspect and a punchline. Until Tuesday. Now it is far worse: George Santos is scary, and maybe dangerous.

When it comes to Jew hatred, one can draw a direct line from Louis Vuitton and Vichy to Louis Vuitton and Bella Hadid.

"When I'm davening I'm talking to Hashem, not looking at the clock."

If American Jews “decide to remain apart,” antisemitism will rise to the point that “blood will be spilled,” one of America’s most prominent educators reportedly warned, one hundred years ago.

It was the devil…er, Itamar Ben-Gvir…who made me do it.

On two recent occasions, Whoopi Goldberg, a celebrity with a very high profile platform called "The View," has promulgated the ahistorical fantasy that the Holocaust of six million Jews had absolutely nothing to do with race.

Team Bibi’s plans to transform Israel’s legal system boils down to a perversion of our most basic biblical teachings. They will forsake justice to feed their political appetites.

Nearly four years ago, Liz Cheney and 22 other Republicans voted against a motherhood, apple pie-style resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives denouncing antisemitism, Islamophobia, sexism, racism, homophobia and all other forms of bias.

The true affront to the vast majority of American Jews and “our values” is that, like anti-Zionist Berkeley Law student groups, we now have 330 rabbis pledging not to invite any speakers whose views they oppose.

Most American Jews and possibly almost half the Israeli electorate would concur with my neighboring diners that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich could be disasters waiting to happen. I do not sympathize with those diners or Palestinians as a society, though I certainly fear for peaceful, rational Arabs caught in the middle.

At "progressive" cocktail parties,  at "mideast studies programs" across America and among mainstream media "mideast experts," the phrase "Israel apartheid" is always applauded.

Top federal officials and Jewish leaders spoke to each other, and together they spoke to the public at large, the public that reads newspapers, watches television news programs and listens to those who run our government. But they did not speak to the people that count.

The Three Stooges of Mar-a-Lago launched a hate-fest that is hardly the first that is directed at Jews. Nor are Republicans alone in enabling antisemitism in America. Democrats have been restrained in responding to antisemites in their own ranks and advocacy groups have failed to deter antisemites and other bigots.

Earlier this year the Harvard Crimson enthusiastically supported Omar Barghouti's antisemitic genocidal BDS movement.

The morning before Thanksgiving, the Schupaks could not escape the enmity toward Jews when Aryeh was murdered in the first of two bus stop bombings in Jerusalem.

But why, what possible reason could Trump have had for allowing lunatic antisemite Kanye West to visit him after all of West’s frightening hate was made public, despite it intentionally being relegated to Tucker Carlson’s cutting room floor?

Jewish Texans, estimated to number 176,000, should probably worry about the deep in the heartlessness of the Texas abortion law - with the reporting of Amanda Eid’s near-death experience.

Jared Polis, Joshua Shapiro and Lee Zeldin ended the day, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, able to claim vast political accomplishments. All three can be credited with consolidating or augmenting power in their states for their respective political parties.

No question that American Jews should be anxious about the future of an Israel in Bibi’s hands. There will likely be two prime forces at work that can intensify the conflict with the Palestinians.

The 2022 Boulder Jewish Festival Film series, highlights several Holocaust related movies. One of the most prominent is "Plan A," the true story of attempted revenge on the Nazis by some Jewish groups. This article discusses some of the complex issues brought up by this film.