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Maldives Foreign Minister Ahmed Shaheed addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005. (AP Photo/John Marshall Mantel)

Felice Gaer

UN finally confronts anti-Semitism as a human rights problem

A UN human rights expert confirms the rise in attacks and bigotry and proposes new steps to stem the tide of abuse

Ibex. (Courtesy, Alon Tal)

Alon Tal

The remarkable return of the ibex

The ancient wild goats that dominated the Negev were nowhere to be seen for decades; their resurgence is a lesson in what a little planning can accomplish

Illustrative. Sumac. (iStock)

Ronit Peskin

Delicious delights in the rain

Even when the land seems parched, there is so much goodness to be found and foraged, if you know where to look

Ruthi Soudack

A conch, a didgeridoo, and my shofar at a dance retreat for peace

I joined the Dances of Universal Peace last year, and relish how interpersonal barriers and political stereotypes dissolve like magic

Ian McKellen as Magneto in X-Men: The Last Stand (20th Century Fox)

Thomas Brown

Would a race change for Marvel’s Jewish Magneto be anti-Semitic?

Some fans are outraged that the X-Men villain with a Holocaust survivor backstory may become a black man. They have a point

Avinoam Bar-Yosef

WATCH: Israel, the most tolerant nation ever

Jewish Israeli or Israeli Jew? What it means to be a secular Israeli Jew with so much Judaism in the national culture

Police officers in Halle, Germany, October 9, 2019

Sean Goldman-Hunt

In synagogue, listening for gunfire instead of God

Halle, Poway, Pittsburgh: These attacks force us to turn synagogues into fortresses and corrupt our bonds to each other

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Oct 17, 2019, 10:25 AM

Lebanon, Dreamland

In 1928, my father, César Assad Chelala, emigrated from Lebanon to Argentina and made there his permanent home. The love for his country remained unaltered, and for the rest of his life he dreamt of going back. Although he...

Oct 17, 2019, 1:04 AM

Israel’s airspace and the canaries at the coal mine

It may sometimes be hard to understand the extent of the aggression against the Jewish people. The most recent terrorist attack in the city of Halle, Germany, claimed the lives of two innocent people who were at the wrong...

Oct 17, 2019, 12:49 AM

I learned a new English word today. It is from the 15th century English language, a word meaning beauty or physical attractiveness. Our Israeli countryside has much pulchritude to be seen and enjoyed, whereas there seems to be a great...

Melody Sucharewicz

Oct 17, 2019, 12:48 AM

The anti-Semitic attack in Halle – a tsunami of deja vus

Two images dominate the memory of my childhood in Munich. The first: the puzzled face of a boy in elementary school when I slapped him in the face after he said he had a problem with me being Jewish. This...

Oct 17, 2019, 12:48 AM

Feeling the Shekhina: Past, Present and Future

When I was three years old, my family lived in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma When sukkot came around, we built our sukkah in the front of our house in the driveway. It was wooden and painted a green color very...

Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden

Oct 17, 2019, 12:45 AM

Simply be happy

A sermon that’ll leave you feeling good

Oct 17, 2019, 12:44 AM

A Yizkor Message

At Yizkor we gather to remember the ones we miss. The ones who knew your world. The ones who grasped the corkscrew twists special to your own soul. What we miss, and what we crave, is the intimacy that assures...

Robbie Michaelson

Oct 17, 2019, 12:43 AM

We Can Only Count On Ourselves

So much for Donald Trump being the best President for Israel since Harry Truman. So much for Prime Minister Netanyahu's "special relationship" with the erratic American President and why Israel was better off as a consequence. So much for America...

Jonathan Muskat

Oct 17, 2019, 12:43 AM

Sukkot: The Holiday of Beauty to Combat Materialism

A story is told of a girl who turned to her friend and said, “I spend hours in front of the mirror admiring my beauty. Do you think that’s vanity?” The second girl said, “No, that’s not vanity. That’s...

Sean Goldman-Hunt

Oct 16, 2019, 10:17 PM

"It's a lemon." "It's not a lemon." "I'm telling you, it's a lemon." "It's not a lemon." "Oh my god. It. Is. A. Lemon. Okay? Why would I lie? What do I have to gain from lying about this?" "I'm not saying you're lying…just...

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