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Jun 13, 2026, 5:23 PM

Returning to Israel With My Brother — This Time, to Serve

Illustrative. The author, left, and his brother. AI image created by the author.

The first time I went to Israel, I was 20 years old. My older brother David was 27. We visited Sharm el Sheikh. We trekked through Sinai, which today is part of Egypt. I remember the desert — not perfectly,...

May 24, 2026, 12:31 AM

The Mandalorians: Jews of the Star Wars Galaxy

Mandalorian helmet from a scene in Lucasfilm's THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

This weekend marks the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars film in cinemas since 2019. To prepare, I decided to rewatch the Disney+ show, The Mandalorian. I made a jaw-dropping discovery: the titular group of...

Feb 22, 2026, 11:37 AM

Mr Bronfman and Mr Solomon: A Generation Responds

The author (middle) alongside two Taglit-Birthright Israel Participants in Jerusalem in March 2024 before a festive Shabbat

"מה נשתנה הדור הזה מכל דורים?" “Why is this generation different from all other generations?” This generation is the first to inherit a sovereign Jewish state at seventy-five years old. The first to come of age with a fully built Jewish...

Feb 20, 2026, 1:30 PM

Judaism needs stakeholders, not spectators

'The Jewish Tabernacle and Priesthood,' by George C. Needham, 1874. (Wikimedia Commons)

When Jewish leadership pitches the religion as there for the taking, many opt out, but when God needs every Jew's involvement, who'd want to walk away? (Terumah)

Feb 11, 2026, 5:12 AM

Next Year’s Jewish Super Bowl Ad—The Diaspora Self-Defense Fund

As I watched this year’s Super Bowl advertisement addressing antisemitism, a series of questions ran through my mind. Did this 30-second commercial hit its mark? Will it prevent one Jewish kid from being punched in the nose? Did it resonate with Jewish...

Feb 3, 2026, 5:17 PM

Billie Eilish’s Attempt to Appropriate Jubilee: Her Slogan Meets Torah Wisdom

To me, Billie Eilish's Grammy speech line, "No one is illegal on stolen land," strikes me as profoundly reductive. It turns centuries of complex human history into a simple moral binary of victims and thieves. The phrase ignores the...

Jan 26, 2026, 8:33 AM

Maybe the last captive and fragile path to peace

“We make war that we may live in peace.” - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics The Israel–Palestine conflict has long demonstrated that wars rarely move toward resolution through decisive moments alone. More often, they are shaped by unresolved particulars that accumulate moral, political,...

Jan 2, 2026, 8:36 PM

The mechanics of defiance

If Israelis can dance in the rain while the world condemns them, then despair loses its foothold. Joy becomes an act of insurrection, the physical insistence on life

Dec 27, 2025, 11:32 PM

A flicker in the dark: my day at Nova

As news of the Bondi Beach attack began to surface on social media, I was getting ready to travel to Re’im, the site of the Nova massacre. I had been in Israel for about a week by then, as...

Dec 12, 2025, 5:53 PM

To Dr. Miriam Adelson About Netanyahu’s ‘Pardon’

Dear Dr. Adelson, I am writing to ask that you use your unique relationship with US President Donald Trump and persuade him to step back from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s request for a “pardon.” Many people know Netanyahu, his motives and his...

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