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Members of the "Star Trek" crew, from left, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, and Nichelle Nichols, toast the newest "Star Trek" film at Paramount Studios on Dec. 28, 1988. (AP Photo/Bob Galbraith, File)

Leah Stern

Live long and prosper: The Jewish boys who imagined a better galaxy

Walter Koenig’s death sent me back to the Starship Enterprise, where the sons and grandsons of Jewish immigrants offered hope in a perilous time

Hiking in nature in the Lower Galilee, northern Israel, December 20, 2025. (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

Noah Efron

These elections are not a fork in the road

As we fret that the wrong outcome could spell catastrophe for Israel, it’s worth remembering what has happened here over the past 3 years

Samaritan pilgrimage on Mount Gerizim. (all photos, courtesy)

A midnight adventure into antiquity

PHOTO ESSAY: My wife and I joined the Samaritans for their 8-station pilgrimage on Mt. Gerizim, finding spirituality in the mist, amid white robes and silver-clad Torah scrolls

Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks from the podium, right, and opposition members shout at him from the side, in the Knesset, on March 22, 2023. (Noam Moskowitz/Knesset)

Keith Brooks

Happy Election Day. May the best coalition you hate win

Staying sane through Israel’s political chaos means accepting that no party is going to govern the way you want. Not even close

Selfie courtesy of Eli and the author

Sarah Tuttle-Singer

Four secular teens, a Haredi family, and a place at the table

The disagreements over religion and military service didn’t disappear, but for one holiday meal, they simply mattered less

Rebuilding Kibbutz Nir Oz, in southern Israel, two years after the October 7th massacre, on August 7, 2025. (Tsafrir Abayov/ FLASH90)

Not just a vote against: What a Zionist government must stand for

Five priorities for a Zionist government that aims beyond correcting this coalition’s failures to securing Israel’s long-term future

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to supporters during a campaign appearance at a market in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 22, 2026. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Ted Sasson

Netanyahu’s cryptocurrency gambit is really about the West Bank

The PM is signaling that, unlike his opponents, he will defy international pressure and keep building settlements, even at the risk of economic sanctions

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Oct 28, 2026, 10:24 PM

Vayera: Prove Yourself

The Internal Belief - Grok XAI

Sticking to a commitment eventually becomes who you are. Get married, do what married people do, stick around long enough, and become a parent. Choose a career and do the necessary work, don’t quit, and find success. Although success...

Oct 28, 2026, 10:15 PM

From Lab to Life: Coffee Helps Our Gut

A great many people around the world drink coffee – me included. “There are an estimated one billion coffee drinkers worldwide, or one person in every 12. The world drinks 2.25 billion cups of coffee every day (I drink...

Alexandre Gilbert

Oct 28, 2026, 10:13 PM

Ali Vahdati Daneshmand, Bernard Stiegler and the Crisis of Modernity XI

Ali Vahdati Daneshmand (copyright authorized)

The corridors of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Tehran offer an unexpected encounter between intellectual worlds. Classical Persian thinkers share the shelves with French philosophers such as Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, Nancy, Agamben and Bernard Stiegler. Their...

Oct 28, 2026, 10:10 PM

Israel’s Ethnonationalist Crisis

A careful examination of the election results, which are now beginning to emerge, and of how they are interpreted can teach us not only about the nature of political discourse and the character of Israeli society, but above all...

Oct 28, 2026, 9:07 PM

The Time Freed by AI: What Will We Do With It?

Work, Digital Distractions and Torah Study: A New Question for Israeli Society We often measure the revolution brought about by artificial intelligence by the number of jobs it could eliminate. Perhaps we should also measure it by the amount of time...

Oct 28, 2026, 9:02 PM

The People Have Done Their Job. Now It’s Time for Our Leaders to Do Theirs.

Yesterday was a remarkable day for Israeli democracy. At a time when so much of the conversation about Israel focuses on division, political instability and the challenges facing our democratic institutions, millions of Israelis did something that should make us...

Oct 28, 2026, 8:57 PM

Are Our Synagogues More Like Abraham’s Tent or Sodom’s Gate?

The spaces we inhabit reflect what we value and shape how we live. In a home filled with Torah books or with a tzedakah box place somewhere prominent, it may be much easier to make some time to learn...

Oct 28, 2026, 8:50 PM

Whitewashing failure: The ICC and the EU’s Sakharov Prize

The European Union has awarded the 2026 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought collectively to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its officials. The prize was established in 1988 and is named after Soviet-era physicist and political dissident Andrei...

Oct 28, 2026, 8:48 PM

The Piker Problem

As the American midterm elections inch ever closer, the old adage of “the friends they keep” has never been more relevant. Now, it is unfair to cast aspersions on somebody due to their acquaintances’ moral failings. Perhaps they kept...

Vorya Hossein Panahi Tazehabad

Oct 28, 2026, 8:42 PM

How Exploiting Religion Endangers Human Rights in the West and Beyond

Across the globe from the Middle East to democratic societies in Europe and the United States a destructive force is tightening its grip: the cynical weaponization of faith. Religion, which should serve as a moral compass for human dignity,...

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