They Didn’t Teach Me Ḥanukah
byIt wasn’t until some years after I had left the Jewish education system that I realized I didn’t actually know the story behind Ḥanukah.
Opinion
Z’khor Y’mot Olam: Ḥanukah
byWe refer to our enemies in this period as ‘Yevanim’ not for geopolitical reasons, but for the primordial cultural force that they represented and spread via their temporal power.
Dr. Israel Eldad on the 29th of November
byOn a simple level there was happiness. The simple, apolitical happiness of Jews, happiness of ‘we will have a state of our own’ by those who only yesterday didn’t believe independence possible or necessary.
Israel, the West & the Conflict with Edom
byJust as Roman citizenship cost submission to Roman imperial culture, the cost of inclusion into liberal Western society always came with a subtle demand for cultural assimilation.
White Nationalism, Squirrel Hill, & Leaning into Our Jewish Identity
byAn important takeaway from last week’s Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre: White Supremacist Nationalism views most minorities as inferior, as people that need to be subject…
Thoughts and Prayers Aren’t Enough
byWhen they rant about “white genocide” & “cultural Marxism,” they may not mean that Jews are literally out to kill white people. But they do mean we’re undermining the very foundations of White society.
The Challenge of Jewish Indigeneity
byJewish indigeneity to the land of Israel can’t just be a pro-Israel talking point. It must be an identity Jews internalize as part of our own decolonization.
Canary Mission and the Failure of American Zionism
byBy ignoring our national aspirations & questions about the next stages of Jewish history, pro-Israel Diaspora Jews have directed their energies to merely defending the State of Israel’s policies & image.
The Legacy of Oslo: 25 Years Later
byBy now we should know that peace won’t come to this region through imposing Western nation-state structures and drawing neat lines that separate peoples from their identities and sacred lands.
Jewish solidarity with Im/migrants, Asylum Seekers, & Refugees
byThe role anti-Semitism has played in maintaining oppressive systems of power is very similar to that of anti-im/migrant oppression.
The Sabbatical Year in the Hebrew Economy
byShmita not only expresses the Jewish people’s unique and intimate relationship with the land of Israel but also frames how we relate to economic activity and experience time.
Struggling with the Fast of G’dalia
byOf all the Jews murdered throughout history, why should we fast for G’dalia ben-Aḥikam? There must be a reason beyond the assassination itself.