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Kathleen J. Rusnak

Aug 21, 2026, 1:16 AM

How Western Dreams of Peace Crash on Israeli Soil

Western Peace Gestures Meet Israel's Raw Realities

Liberal peace initiatives and even “woke” ideals are familiar concepts to me. Born in Euclid, Ohio and ordained as an ELCA Lutheran minister, I’m also a member of an Episcopal church in New Hampshire. Additionally—having lived in Israel—I feel...

Lauren Gladstone

Aug 14, 2026, 8:21 AM

Can You Belong to a Place You’ve Never Lived?

Above the orignal entrance to "De Dierense Shul". Photo taken by the author

I have never prayed in the synagogue in Dieren, the Netherlands. I don't know the rabbi. I've never attended a Shabbat service there or celebrated a holiday with its congregation. I don't receive its emails or know the people...

Aug 12, 2026, 2:24 PM

Why Did the Kessim Laugh at Elijah’s Chair?

At the most recent session of Ono Academic College’s Beit Midrash of Bete Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) Rabbis and Kessim (traditional Bete Israel spiritual leaders), one of the Kessim looked around with a half-smile and asked: “What is this thing...

Aug 11, 2026, 8:27 PM

The Boy In The Bar Never Questioned Hashem

I grew up inside, so nobody needs to sell me on it. The meals that show up after a birth. The loan with no interest and no questions asked. The chevra kadisha. The man you barely know who finds...

Aug 10, 2026, 8:17 AM

Israel Is Surrounded Today. Are You Aware of What Comes Next?

Since October 2023, Israel has fought on six fronts: Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Five of them were not countries in any useful sense. They were militias holding ground inside countries, armed and paid from the same...

Micah Ben David Naziri

Jul 22, 2026, 9:20 PM

No, Karl Marx was not ‘Jewish’

In the 2001 film The Believer, starring Ryan Gosling as Daniel “Danny” Balint, a Jewish-born neo-Nazi, the protagonist asks whether antisemites hate Jews for entering spaces where they supposedly do not belong or for remaining separate; for hoarding money...

Jul 10, 2026, 9:16 AM

A Man Is His Word (Matot-Masei)

This week's Torah reading, Matot, opens with a sentence that sounds simple until you try to live by it: “If a man makes a vow to God or takes an oath imposing an obligation on himself, he shall not...

Jul 4, 2026, 10:48 AM

Mizrahi Civilization

Mizrahi Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“The Yiddish people must be counted among the founder nations of Europe.” — Paul Kriwaczek, Yiddish Civilization The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation In his acclaimed book Yiddish Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation, historian and writer...

Jacqueline Snidman-Stren

Jun 27, 2026, 6:11 PM

The Many Faces of Jewish Identity

The Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group with shared origins in the Land of Israel, but Jewish history has unfolded across many different regions over thousands of years. Because of exile, migration, and diaspora, Jewish communities developed distinct ethnic...

Michael Feldstein

Jun 21, 2026, 6:21 PM

What’s in a Name?

Credit: Gemini

Have you ever wondered how we decided on our deeply ingrained customs for naming children? If you grew up in an Ashkenazi household, you probably take it for granted that you name a baby after a beloved relative who has...

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