Zev Farber, at The Blogs

Zev Farber

Apr 27, 2025, 12:35 PM

The criminal underbelly of free newspaper distribution

A pile of free newspapers in my local coffee shop - the reaching guilty hand is mine. Photo credit: Zev Farber's iphone13.

It's Friday at the bakery and an older gentleman gently accosts me: 'Psst, go get me one of those papers; they won't let me take another myself'

Dec 9, 2024, 2:53 PM

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Divide Syria

The Mediterranean coast of Syria at the port city of Latakia, in the Latakia Governorate of far northwestern Syria, near the Syrian-Turkish border. (Victor Ibrahiem Photographe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

In time, Latakia can be another Singapore, the Druze can border Israel, and a Sunni Syria can be extremist if it must (I'd prefer a peaceful, progressive state)

Oct 8, 2023, 12:23 PM

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The Gaza Disengagement just died. What happens next?

A car destroyed in the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists is seen in Sderot, on October 7, 2023. (Ohad Zwigenberg/AP)

First, end Hamas? Then, maybe retake the Strip? Try Palestinian autonomy again? Or we could aim for a completely new approach

May 16, 2023, 7:50 PM

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Standing up to Big Pita in the holy land

Illustrative. Shawarma from Shauli's. (Facebook)

In search of a good explanation for why my local shawarma place won't plate my meat with veg and hold the bread

Feb 13, 2023, 10:10 AM

A Conversation I Overheard on the Judicial Overhaul

Here is a conversation I overheard last night in a Jerusalem pub between two right-wing politicians on opposite sides of the judicial reform question. For the purposes of anonymity, I will call one of them Your Good-ole Likudnik (YGL)...

Nov 6, 2022, 4:41 PM

The Fantasy of the Center: A Preliminary Postmortem

Now that the 2022 Israeli elections are over, those of us who supported the Lapid block need to do a postmortem. To be clear, I don’t mean the unhelpful kind that includes blame and name-calling (if you are interested...

Jun 12, 2022, 5:57 PM

When Tactics Overwhelm Values

On Saturday night, Meretz supporters protested outside the home of MK Rinawie Zoabi because of her refusal to vote for the extension of the bill that applies Israeli law to settlers in Judea and Samaria. It was a surreal...

Apr 6, 2022, 12:38 PM

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Idit Silman, what are you afraid of?

MK Idit Silman speaks with MK Mansour Abbas at the Knesset on October 11, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

It's soft coercion, to be sure, but it is counterproductive; Judaism and the Jewish character of the State of Israel will suffer for it

Feb 3, 2022, 8:28 PM

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‘Is Israel an apartheid state?’ is not the right question

Palestinians shows their identity cards to members of Israeli forces as they make their way through a checkpoint to attend the first Friday prayers of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, in Bethlehem in the West Bank. April 16, 2021. (Wisam Hashlamoun/FLASH90)

When we ask whether the country treats its Arab population fairly, the answer is not so simple

Mar 7, 2021, 1:33 PM

You Do Not Vote Yair Lapid…? A Poem about Change

Zev-I-Am: Will you vote for Yesh Atid? Undecided Voter: I do not want Yair Lapid; I will not vote for Yesh Atid. Zev-I-Am: Small businesses with benefits; Prime Ministers with term limits. Undecided Voter: I back small business benefits; I stand for...

About Me

Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute's Kogod Center and the senior editor of TheTorah.com. He is also a novelist, writing as Z. I. Farber, and a humor writer (mostly on FB). His most recent (coauthored) book is, The Bible's First Kings: Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon (Cambridge).

Contact Me