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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks during the March for Israel on the National Mall, Washington D.C., November 14, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images via JTA)

Joel Rubin

The Hakeem Jeffries moment is great for the Jews

The New York congressman in line to become Speaker of the House has the chops to lead a divided Democratic caucus – even when Israel is on the agenda

Illustrative: Bedouin women wait to cast their votes at a polling station in the town of Rahat, Israel on Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2015 for parliament elections. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Mirvat Abu Hadoba-Frieh

My Bedouin mother wears a niqab. She voted for a better future

She tended sheep in the Negev sun so I could get an education, but the sight of a veiled woman casting a ballot fills some Israelis with suspicion

Martin Luther King, Jr. (center) and Abraham Joshua Heschel (2nd from front right), march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, March 21, 1965 (Wikimedia commons)

As a Black mother of a Jewish son, I know solidarity is not simple

Our two communities don’t have to agree on everything. We need to show up for one another – especially when our differences make that difficult

Kally Rubin Kislowicz

Yom HaAliyah: Words fail me

I have so much to say about moving to Israel — and even more ways to embarrass my kids by saying it wrong

Michigan Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed is the sole incoming anti-Zionist senator. (Photo: El-Sayed speaks at an election night event, November 4, 2026, in Detroit. AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Morris Levy

Israel hasn’t lost America – not even the Democrats

The loudest anti-Zionist voices are still a small minority. A post-Netanyahu government could find far more willing partners in Washington than Israelis expect

'Religiously we may be monotheistic, but politically we’re pagan.'

Rapha Manajem

A seat at the tabernacle

Two Jews, three opinions, 11 political parties, and a country that can’t form a government: How Israel can break its election cycle

Jay Abramson

88 years after Kristallnacht, why are Jews still targeted?

When Philadelphians cyclists go after Jewish-owned businesses, they normalize anti-Jewish hostility, discarding the essential lessons of the ‘Night of Broken Glass’

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Nov 10, 2026, 8:52 PM

It’s a Great Day for Democracy

Israelis march in Tel Aviv. Photo: Nili Bresler

Today, Israel’s 26th Knesset held its inaugural session. This newly elected parliament comprises a majority of members opposed to Netanyahu’s far-right government. And although the road to a ruling coalition is complicated for both sides, the odds are much...

Paul Mendlowitz

Nov 10, 2026, 8:27 PM

The Folly of Holocaust Museums at the Expense of Jewish Education

There is something profoundly disturbing about a Jewish community that can raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build magnificent Holocaust museums, construct elaborate memorials, preserve photographs of concentration camps, exhibit piles of shoes belonging to murdered Jews, and...

Nov 10, 2026, 8:21 PM

Cain and Hevel, Esav and Yaakov: Case studies of Midrashic slander (Toledot)

Nowadays there is a widespread religious fixation against gossip and slander, especially when it is false. Yet, when it comes to “lashon hara” – speaking ill about others – most of us remain guilty. And I most certainly speak...

Allen S. Maller

Nov 10, 2026, 8:16 PM

Google and Gilgul Make Very Good Partners

Google states that I, Rabbi Allen S. Maller (a retired rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, California) frequently writes about gilgul (the Kabbalistic concept of the transmigration or recycling of souls), specifically applying it to converts to Judaism...

Nov 10, 2026, 8:11 PM

Democratic Control of Congress Could Strengthen Trump’s Gaza Plan

The Conventional Wisdom May Be Missing the Real Political Story The dominant interpretation of the recent midterm elections is that President Trump emerged weakened while Democrats emerged strengthened. From that perspective, any major foreign policy initiative associated with the administration...

Elham Golkhandan

Nov 10, 2026, 7:41 PM

You are invited!

Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi was in Krakow receiving an award when I opened an old photo on my phone and could not look away. It was our front door in Iran. I had taken it myself, early one morning years...

Nov 10, 2026, 7:02 PM

Learning Hebrew, with my little friend

I'm learning Hebrew with my little friend. ChatGPT. People are surprised when I tell them. And I'm surprised that they're surprised. It seems to me such an obvious way to make the most of AI. It's always available, endlessly patient, obedient, adaptable...

Jonathan Nierman

Nov 10, 2026, 6:56 PM

At Camp Koby and Josef in Kfar Pines, Israel, August 2026.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, I watched Israel come under attack from a hospital bed in Boston. I had been there for months by then, on a pump, waiting for a heart transplant. I could not get up....

Nov 10, 2026, 6:53 PM

To British member of parliament, Zarah Sultana

Some of you may be familiar with British Member of Parliament (MP) Zarah Sultana, elected to represent Coventry South in England, a constituency facing serious socioeconomic challenges, including housing pressures, fuel poverty, inequality, and severe constraints on local government...

Valerie Robin Clayman

Nov 10, 2026, 6:48 PM

Fan Girl Harsher: The Life of a Zionist Music Fan

My copy of Boy Harsher’s latest CD, GET MEAN, and my copy of Daniel Rachel’s excellent book, This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll.

I am feeling guilt and shame for something I did, and I am having a difficult time unpacking it. Back in August, a friend invited me to go with him to a concert here in Montréal at the 2300-capacity...

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