Category: Other

The calendar says it’s time to celebrate the birthday of trees. Here in frigid Boston, tree limbs sag with two inches of snow. It’s a jarring contrast. But then Tu B’shvat has always been an incongruous holiday for me.

Long ago, in my…

How African Systems of Learning Preceded and Surpassed Europe’s for Centuries

Series Introduction

History is often taught as if formal education followed a single European path—from classical Greece to medieval monasteries to Renaissance…

For more than two years, one of the most morally explosive questions of the Gaza war has often been framed as if it had only two possible answers: either you “believe Hamas,” or you “stand with Israel.” The dead, in this framework,…

Dalia and Jean had been talking about Israel for years.

Dalia, who is Jewish, felt an increasing pull to visit, especially after the attacks of October 7. Jean, born in Haiti and raised in Brooklyn, felt something very different. Traveling to…

A few days ago, I found myself reading the news with a sense of profound shock and deep sadness as I learned about the Israeli Ministry of Education’s decision to cancel the Devorah Omer Prize for Children’s and Youth Literature. As…

Zionism: The Jewish Right to Self-Determination

Zionism is often misrepresented, deliberately distorted, or reduced to slogans that strip it of history and meaning. At its core, Zionism is simple, ancient, and profoundly Jewish: it is the…

Since the horrific Hamas attack on October 7, a veritable firestorm of debate has erupted around antisemitism. This whirlwind has highlighted yet also obscured the vital distinctions between legitimate criticism of Israel and Zionism, and…

In South Asia, political alignment is not a secret. One side is clearly closer to India’s strategic interests. Another side traditionally aligns with Pakistan. This reality has existed for decades. Both sides have supporters, and this is…

Has Islam been the one religion acceptable to God since the days of Prophet Muhammad? Does Islam claim to replace Christianity and Judaism, the way most of Christianity claimed (until recently) to have replaced Old Testament Judaism?

One does…

There’s a familiar lament echoing through Jewish conversations right now — on social media, at dinner tables, in comment sections:

How can they chant “Free Palestine” and say nothing while Iran slaughters its own people?
How can they…