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Pope Benedict XVI to Step Down at the End of the Month
Citing advancing age and diminished energy, Pope Benedict XVI will reportedly become the first pope in six hundred years to voluntarily resign from the post. The 85-year-old pontiff announced that he...
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Israel’s Latest TV Star Is a 17-Year-Old Orthodox Girl Named Ofir Ben Sheetrit
Last month, when the new season of the Israeli reality show The Voice—the local version of NBC’s hit singing competition—debuted, no one expected extraordinary drama. Marching up to the studio’s stage,...
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'Zero Dark Thirty' and Israeli Doc 'The Gatekeepers' Bring Terror to the Oscars
As the Arab Spring has turned into an Islamist Winter, Western filmmakers have been exploring how free societies can best combat terrorism. Can liberal societies bound by the rule of law defeat...
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An Admiring Glance Brings a Married Woman’s Anxieties to the Surface
I arrived at a café in L.A. for my monthly writing group last spring and walked to the counter to order tea and a slice of cake. As I headed back to the table, I noticed one of the other patrons...
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Daybreak
• The Women of the Wall had their biggest prayer service at the Kotel to date, with hundreds of participants, including former IDF paratroopers. In addition to ten arrests made following the service,...
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The Powerful Alliance Between the Women of the Wall and IDF Paratroopers
There may not be a more potent symbol of the Western Wall’s liberation than the very Israeli paratroopers who daringly took it in 1967, giving the Jewish people control over its most holy site for the...
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Breaking With Burekas: The Traditional Shapes of Burekas Are Under Assault
Who moved my cheese? That’s the question currently occupying Israel’s Chief Rabbinate’s Kashrut Division. Like the famed business book of the same name, theirs, too, is a struggle (h/t Yuval Alexander)...
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Tel Aviv Is More Expensive Than San Francisco
According to a report (and, perhaps, numerous tent protestors), Tel Aviv is among the most expensive cities in the world. The survey, used by multi-national companies factoring cost of living expenses...
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Happy Birthday, Max Baer: Watch Him Take Down Max Schmeling
Max Baer, whose 104th birthday would have been today, is remembered best for a few things: knocking out Primo Carnera for the heavyweight title, beating Frankie Campbell (who died the next morning),...
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Jack Antonoff: From Solomon Schecter to the Grammys
What on earth is there left to say about “We Are Young,” easily one of the most cloying songs in recent history? Over a year ago, it was featured in a Super Bowl ad, setting off a frenzy. It was then...
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Holocaust Holograms: The Newest Way To Hear Survivor Testimonies
As the number of Holocaust survivors diminish, the natural fear is that their stories–some written down, others recorded–will fall hollow on or seem impersonal to future generations. But a new...
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Sundown
• Early speculation about Pope Benedict XVI’s successor suggests that the decision may be determined by the candidate’s ideology rather his location. [NYT] • Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv’s mayor, has...
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When Love Falls Prey to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
It is rare for an Israeli and a Palestinian to fall in love. There are physical barriers— Israelis can’t enter Palestinian areas, and Palestinians can’t enter Israeli areas, without special permits....
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Seeking Perfection: Week 23 of Our Literary Critic’s Daf Yomi Talmud Study
Literary critic Adam Kirsch is reading a page of Talmud a day, along with Jews around the world. Writing last week about the Talmud’s rule that you cannot extinguish a fire on Shabbat, I noted that...
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In Jerusalem, Haredi Teens Are Leaving Yeshiva—and Their Families—To Serve in...
In an office in downtown Jerusalem earlier this month, two 20-somethings slurped homemade chicken soup leftover from the previous week’s communal Shabbat dinner. In T-shirts and jeans, they blended...
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Daybreak
• In some troubling news, North Korea confirmed that it had conducted its third nuclear test earlier today. It was an explosion yield with several kilotons. There is wide speculation about the...
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Has Iran Suddenly Changed Its Tune on Nukes?
Buried beneath the news of the pope’s resignation, buried like–one might say–the Fordo nuclear complex, is a recent spate of good news about Iran and its nuclear program. Last week, Iran finally agreed...
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The Story That the World Can Read, But Israelis Cannot
All over the world, newspapers today are reporting about Prisoner X, an alleged Mossad agent gone rogue, who had hung himself in 2010 in a maximum security Israeli prison. Israelis, however, woke up to...
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Terror Alert Issued in Jerusalem
The hypochondriac in me sees Terror Alert in Jerusalem and immediately feels the need to post. My Israeli counterpart Liel Leibovitz says the terror alert is not such an infrequent thing....
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Is This Unaired 'Saturday Night Live' Skit Worthy of an ADL Condemnation?
An unaired skit by the sometimes-funny cast of Saturday Night Live is getting the “Abe Foxman Bump” following its condemnation by the Anti-Defamation League. In the video, which was released on NBC’s...
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