Category: Other

There must be fifty ways to destroy life on earth

I have an answer that came as a byproduct of solving another question.

I don’t think any of this in itself is so special, but the way I treat the text shows how I approach these things…

For progressive Jews in New York City, the presence on the ballot of one of their own in June’s mayoral primary offered a moment of great excitement.

Brad Lander galvanized many progressive Jewish leaders, and polls…

LAS VEGAS — Ted Cruz warned of rising antisemitism on the right — and a lack of Republican voices calling it out — as he kicked off the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual summit Thursday night.

The speech…

When you’re overwhelmed or disappointed, consider the words of Mary Shelley, who, at age 19 wrote Frankenstein. “The starry sky, the sea, every sight afforded by these wonderful regions seems to have the power to elevate (the) soul from…

The Western Wall plaza is perhaps the most quintessentially Israeli space – a crossroads where holiness and national tension constantly collide. Thursday morning, arriving for Shacharit, the morning prayer, I witnessed that collision in…

Last night, I experienced one of those rare déjà vu moments on a beautiful late-October evening in Tel Aviv. As I exited the jam-packed Ayalon Highway, a familiar warmth washed over me — that sense of I’ve been here before. In an…

My connection with the city-state of Hamburg in Germany is due to the fact that my late father, Manfred Vanson, was born and brought up there. He lived there from his birth in 1916 untill 1938, when he managed to flee to England after the…

The incident in the Torah where Avraham asks Sara to say that she was his sister, is very puzzling. It looks like he is asking her to tell an outright lie.

Rashi justifies Avraham’s behavior by describing the lowly people of Egypt, and how…

This one race amplifies tensions and makes difficult Democratic Party dynamics even worse.

If Zohran Mamdani wins his race for Mayor in NYC, the effects will extend far beyond the largest city in the US. His victory will reverberate across…

In 1992, Fred Lebow told me a story he had never before told in public. It had to do with a chick.

The founder of the New York City Marathon and president of the New York Road Runners Club told me the chick story in an interview for a book…