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Jun 3, 2026, 8:04 AM

More Than a Diploma

One of the most formative experiences of my cantorial training took place during my final year as a student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, when I became the first cantorial intern in the history of Congregation Beit...

Gabrielle Bartelse

Jun 1, 2026, 8:05 PM

The university between truth and activism

On administrative cowardice, moral selectivity and the loss of academic Courage There are moments when a university must redefine itself—not through buildings, rankings or policy documents, but through the way it relates to truth, power and public pressure. The continuing...

May 28, 2026, 8:50 PM

From Lebanon’s Drones to AI, Robotics and Moon Missions: The Fiber Optic Age

From Israblog to the Battlefield: Israel’s Fiber Optic Revolution. As Israel now faces drones connected by fiber-optic cables — a technology capable of challenging even the “Startup Nation” — I was reminded of something I wrote nearly 20 years ago. In...

May 28, 2026, 4:00 AM

Reality Is Not What It Seems: A Scientific and Chassidic Exploration

At first glance, certain Chassidic stories can seem puzzling, even unsettling. They appear to defy the orderly structure of Halachah, time, and physical reality we are accustomed to. Yet when examined more deeply—especially in light of Chassidic teachings and...

Benjamin Birely

May 24, 2026, 11:49 PM

How I Became a ‘PhD Candidate in Genocide’

A little over a month ago, on Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day), I glanced at my phone on my way home. I hadn’t planned on being in Israel for Israel’s 78th birthday. I should have been back in Italy...

Tony D. Senatore

May 19, 2026, 12:05 AM

University: A Reckoning by Lee C. Bollinger

My years at Columbia University from 2013 to 2017 remain the most significant accomplishment of my life and among my most cherished memories. To be accepted was not simply an academic milestone, but a formative experience that shaped how...

May 18, 2026, 4:41 AM

H-Interfaith: The Global Academic Interfaith Space

The article, ‘Interfaith work has failed—we need to move to action’, published two months ago in Church Times, merits careful attention because it identifies a central weakness in contemporary interfaith practice: dialogue remains important, but it has proved insufficient...

May 17, 2026, 8:20 AM

When Walls Become a Window: How Light, Vision, and Torah Change Reality

The world appears solid, fixed, and immovable. A wall is a wall, a window is a window, and the difference between them seems obvious: one blocks vision, the other allows it. Yet upon closer examination—through both modern physics and...

Gordon Louis Aronoff

May 13, 2026, 9:38 PM

The Jewish Ghetto Redux

The Munkács ghetto in Hungary in April 1944. Courtesy of Yad Vashem (https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/jews-of-hungary-during-the-holocaust.html)

For much of the Medieval period, Jews in the West were subject to compulsory segregation, confined to urban ghettos in order to isolate, control, and monitor them. This segregation was justified as a form of moral protection for the...

May 7, 2026, 10:38 PM

Healing the War-Torn North by Building its Future

Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in Safed. Photo courtesy of Bar-Ilan University.

For two and a half years, life in Israel’s North has been anything but stable. Families have been uprooted, returned, and uprooted again—forced to live without any real sense of permanence. The latest escalation involving Iran and Hezbollah has...

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