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Binyamin Jayson

Aug 21, 2026, 9:53 PM

The paradox of self-care: The self beyond the self

Two weeks ago I was speaking with an atheist about religion. She said to me that faith exists because it provides people comfort. My instinctive reaction was to push back. I replied by stressing Judaism’s intellectual tradition, its thousands of years...

Julian Ungar-Sargon

Aug 21, 2026, 7:45 PM

Sometimes the dead do not wait for us beneath the earth. They wait within the letters that still bear their names. I remember almost nothing of the walk through the abandoned cemetery. Only the shock. One tall granite stone. Standing. Alone. Every other monument had yielded to weather, neglect, and time. Broken. Fallen. Swallowed by grass and silence. Yet...

Aug 21, 2026, 6:22 PM

Mark Twain Saw Israel Coming

What happened when the Jews found out their strength I recently came across an essay by Mark Twain called “Concerning the Jews,” published in 1899. It is admiring, provocative, occasionally stereotypical, and at moments so eerily prescient that Twain seems...

Yochanan Schimmelpfennig

Aug 21, 2026, 5:39 PM

The Jewish Question in the 21st Century

The modern Jewish political imagination has long been organized around a seemingly unavoidable question: what political space is available to Jews in the modern world? For generations, the principal answers appeared clear. Jews could become equal citizens within democratic...

Gershon Blumstein

Aug 20, 2026, 8:42 PM

A Jewish Guide for When Faith Breaks Open

What do we do when the vessel of faith cracks? The question arrives quietly. You’re standing for the Amidah on a Shabbat morning, the familiar melody rising around you, and suddenly you realize the words are passing through you like...

Aug 20, 2026, 1:09 PM

We Don’t Walk Away

Created by Gemini AI 8.20.26

For more than 40 years - having stepped into this sacred calling when I was barely more than a young man myself - I have had the profound privilege of serving as a mohel. Over those four decades, standing...

Aug 19, 2026, 2:56 AM

Reflections On A Week In Berlin

You walk down the street – past people of all ages advertising colorful tattoos and piercings, others in natty suits while holding briefcases. A dizzying array of Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, vegan, German and other dining options confuse the yearning...

Aug 18, 2026, 2:10 PM

The identity crisis some messianic jews struggle with

If one peruses online on YouTube into the niche world of messianic jews one can easily find themselves consumed by the back and forth between the Orthodox anti-missionary camp and messianic Jewish apologists. It's a little like the endless...

Anastasia Torres-Gil

Aug 18, 2026, 3:05 AM

Lifechanging: How Hadassah Connected Me to a Wonderful Global Community

Sixteen years ago, I wasn’t the same person I am today. My mother had just died –unexpectedly – at the too young age of 72. My heart ached. My world felt upside down. I needed something new. Something different....

Gershon Blumstein

Aug 18, 2026, 12:40 AM

A Judaism That Honors Every Individual

Judaism has never been an abstract system. It has always been a lived experience — fragile, intimate, human. I have watched people walk into Jewish spaces hoping to be seen, only to walk out feeling smaller. If Judaism is...

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