Daniel Gordis, at The Blogs

Daniel Gordis

Jul 30, 2025, 6:02 PM

For these do I weep: For walls breached again

Cars destroyed by Hamas terrorists in the October 7 attack on southern Israel, made into a memorial wall near Moshav Tekuma, seen on January 3, 2024. (Moshe Shai/ FLASH90)

I'd thought vibrant Israel had so changed the Jewish experience that it made the mourning of Tisha B'Av rote ritual. October 7 proved me wrong

Nov 20, 2023, 12:08 AM

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How my toddler grandson convinced me it was time to leave Conservative Judaism

The Jewish Theological Seminary of America building in Morningside Heights, New York, June 11, 2021. (CC BY 2.0/ JTS)

When it comes to Israel, the Movement tolerates hostility it would never permit regarding gays, lesbians and African Americans

Feb 18, 2021, 7:03 PM

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When Jews rush to mourn Rush

Rush Limbaugh, next to his bust, in 2012. (Progress Missouri, Wikipedia)

I do not celebrate radio personality Rush Limbaugh's death at all, but we must acknowledge that the world is a much, much better place now that he is off the air

Dec 10, 2020, 2:15 PM

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What would the Maccabees think of us?

In this horribly broken world, now's not the time to declare victory and go out of business (iStock)

If the true Jewish revolt is a countercultural rebellion of ideas, here are some of the ideas we should be challenging today

Nov 23, 2020, 3:35 PM

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Who will steer our ship?

With an increasingly fractured America, it is our job to ensure that Israeli society is one that thrives – one that does not unravel

Aug 28, 2020, 3:27 PM

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What if Seth Rogen wasn’t (entirely) wrong?

Seth Rogen. (Stephen McCarthy/Collision via Sportsfile/ Wikimedia Commons)

If we want our young people to take Israel seriously, we must offer them a sophisticated discussion on peoplehood, history, and culture, not a list of wars and conflict

Jul 8, 2020, 4:24 PM

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End the Jewish State? Let’s try some honesty, first

Peter Beinart and Daniel Gordis share their different views on issues relating to Israel and Jewish life, The 2017 Hyacinth & Harold E. Hoffman Memorial Lecture, at Temple Beth El, Stamford, CT. (YouTube)

To read Peter Beinart’s piece is to slog through an array of misrepresentations and omissions, and to feel dismissed because we know he hopes we don’t know enough to catch him

Apr 26, 2020, 3:58 PM

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Only here

Illustrative: A Jewish man prays at his homes the city Safed, April 13, 2020. (David Cohen/Flash90)

As we heard our Jerusalem neighbors' Sabbath prayers, I thought: we are locked down in the one place Jews would want to be locked down

Apr 13, 2020, 9:32 PM

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‘Not Us’ + ‘Not You’ = ‘Not Anything’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his son Avner hold a Passover Seder, April 8, 2020. (video screenshot)

The many Israelis who hold themselves apart from everyone else do no worse than the leaders who exempt themselves from the rules they impose on the rest of us. All to our detriment

Mar 23, 2020, 1:06 PM

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‘We will guard and protect you’: Our forgotten promise to Israel

A man surveys the Carmel market in Tel Aviv on March 23, 2020, following the government's orders to shut down markets in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Why are so many of us – rabbis, backpackers, politicians, with their recklessness during a pandemic – willing to endanger the extraordinary Jewish life we've built here?

About Me

Daniel Gordis is Distinguished Fellow at Shalem College in Jerusalem. His book, "Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn" (Ecco/HarperCollins), won the 2016 Jewish Book Council "Book of the Year" award. His Substack blog and podcast, "Israel from the Inside" are at https://danielgordis.substack.com/.