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Mar 28, 2025, 6:37 PM

The theater of the absurd, from Gaza to Belfast

Over the past three days, something extraordinary happened. In Gaza, a place too often reduced to statistics and headlines, tens of thousands of people did something brave, something dangerous: they took to the streets to protest Hamas. They risked their lives, quite literally, to demand...

Mar 22, 2025, 7:05 PM

Time to use community cash and creativity to push back all the lies and libels

Tony Blair’s mantra “education, education, education” has been playing on a loop in my head since I saw the film “September 5” about the deadly attack on Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympics. It resonated because it highlighted the contrast between the...

Mar 10, 2025, 3:45 PM

How to throw out the filthy ‘BBC News’ bathwater but save the baby

In response to a recent Facebook post about UK comedian and journalist Josh Howie saying he will refuse to pay his BBC licence fee as a protest against the overt and egregious anti-Israel bias seen in its coverage of the Middle East, a well-known broadcaster...

Mar 9, 2025, 12:26 AM

Tetzaveh: Illumination

Photo by Marcus Dall Col via Unsplash (2016)

Embroidered with an image of eternal light, Tetzaveh’s opens with the commandment for the Israelites to bring pure olive oil to the Mishkan למאור להעלת נר תמיד, ‘to light the lamp constantly’ (Ex. 27:20). Appearing suddenly, this verse is situated within the wider narrative’s descriptions...

Mar 5, 2025, 9:06 PM

Terumah: The First Synagogue

'Entry of a Synagogue in Jerusalem' by Levi Meir Clancy (2021)

ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. (Ex.25:8) Filled with intricate detail, Terumah introduces us to the Mishkan or the Tabernacle, the precursor to the Bet HaMikdash in which the nomadic Israelites could serve G-d...

Feb 27, 2025, 7:03 PM

Why is it so controversial that the Auschwitz Museum confiscated hostage flags?

The Israeli flag with the yellow ribbon

It was reported yesterday that the Auschwitz Museum confiscated hostage flags belonging to a group of British Jews who were touring the memorial site. Although national flags are permitted these flags seem to have violated the museum’s rules. As the flags had symbols on them...

Feb 21, 2025, 8:07 AM

Mishpatim: Empathy

Photo by Denisse Leon (2018)

Mishpatim opens, in media res, with laws pertaining to how one must keep and treat one’s servants. It is a curious thing to begin with, given the previous parashiot’s overarching emphasis on the theme of freedom. Here, rather than completely abolish slavery, the Torah sets...

Feb 17, 2025, 12:18 AM

Yitro: Experiencing G-d

Mount Sinai via Wikipedia

The revelatory moment at Mt. Sinai in which the Jewish people receive the Ten Commandments is central to Jewish history, belief and thought. It is a moment of unique magnificence, marked by G-d’s direct interaction with the Jewish people themselves, rather than solely through an...

Feb 7, 2025, 6:14 PM

Beshalach: True Freedom

Photo by Peter Kang via Unsplash

Moving through the desert, the freed Israelites find their source of food in G-d’s manna, the ground around them being covered in dew overnight, waiting to be baked into bread. The Torah is very specific, however, that ביום הששי לקטו לחן משנה, ‘on the sixth...

Feb 6, 2025, 8:05 PM

Judaism’s Intrinsic Link To Zionism And Why Anti Zionism IS Antisemitism

On October 31, 2024 I debated Abdullah al Andalusi from the Muslim Debate Initiative at Manchester University (UK) on the subject of “Is Anti Zionism Antisemitism”. This is my opening statement. “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.” Who said this? Not...

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