Category: Other

ECHOES OF SEPHARAD

Was Columbus Jewish?
Identity, Memory, and the Politics of Reputation

Was Christopher Columbus Jewish? The question refuses to die, and that persistence tells us as much about our changing views of Columbus as it does about…

When Donald Horne coined the phrase “the lucky country,” it was intended as a rebuke. Yet for those who arrived in the aftermath of the World War II, including my grandparents who were Holocaust survivors, it came to mean something else…

Daniel Biss, a Jewish progressive who is highly critical of the Israeli government, is virtually assured of a seat in Congress after prevailing in his primary in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District on Tuesday.

He…

The Portion of Vayikra begins with a simple but loaded verb [Vayikra 1:1]: “[G-d] called (Vayikra).” Before law, before procedure, before sacrifice, there is a summons. That opening move is easy to miss but it frames everything that…

Methuselah lived 969 years. Or did he?

The Torah records lifespans that seem extraordinary—far beyond anything we observe today. Adam lives 930 years. Methuselah reaches 969. Noah, 950.

Taken at face value, these numbers appear impossible….

As we begin rereading the Book of Vayikra, it is hard to ignore the discomfort.

A book of sacrifices, offerings, and priestly rituals feels far removed from the realities of today’s world. In an age of geopolitics, conflict, and ideological…

Operation Epic Fury Has Closed the World’s Most Critical Maritime Passage. The Humanitarian Consequences Are Only Beginning.

On 1 March 2026, the day after Operation Epic Fury began, not a single tanker broadcast an identification signal in…

Everything seems upside down. The US and Israel are  clobbering Iran. Iran is blocking the Strait of Hormuz, choking off much of the world’s oil. Trump asked NATO countries to help unblock the Strait, and they are refusing. This can affect…

Am I a Mossad agent? I ask because the coincidences have reached a density that even I find unsettling, and in a region where coincidence is never permitted to exist as a category – where every event must be the product of a hidden hand, a…