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Aug 25, 2026, 6:08 PM

The Power We Have: Jewish Soft Power in an Age of Hard Questions – Ki Tavo

The Power We Have: Jewish Soft Power in an Age of Hard Questions Yossi Klein Halevi has offered a useful way of thinking about the radically different circumstances of Jews in Israel and Jews in America. Israel possesses what we might...

Lonye Debra Rasch

Aug 25, 2026, 3:29 AM

The Complexities of Teaching the Virtues of Honesty: A Grandmother’s Dilemma

Image courtesy of Hadassah.

As Grandparents Day 2026 approaches – this year falling on September 13, the second day of Rosh Hashanah – I find myself reflecting on the virtues of honesty. On Rosh Hashana, we Jews are mandated to move beyond self-deception...

Aug 25, 2026, 3:10 AM

Hadassah Hospital Hospice Diaries: Eliezar and Michelle

The author on the patio of Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus Hospice. Photo courtesy of the author.

This is the second of an ongoing series on volunteering at the Ina and Jack Kay Hospice at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. "Suffering is only intolerable when nobody cares. One continually sees that faith in God and his care is...

Aug 25, 2026, 3:07 AM

It’s Not Bravery. It’s Fear Demanding Action

Sometimes fear is the reason to act before the danger becomes harder to stop.

People sometimes tell me I’m brave for speaking up against antisemitism. I understand why they say it, but bravery isn’t how I experience it. I speak because I’m afraid of what happens when people recognize a danger and choose...

Aug 24, 2026, 7:36 AM

Palestine Is to Israel What Persia Is to Iran

Palestine is to Israel what Persia is to Iran. The name changes. The identity does not. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Palestine Is Israel. Persia Is Iran. And Cows Eat Hay. Palestine is to Israel what Persia is to Iran. That simple parallel exposes one of the greatest identity distortions in modern history. Persia = Iran. Palestine = Israel. Different names. Same land. And in both...

Aug 24, 2026, 12:25 AM

For the Patrilineal Jews: You Are Jewish

The Davidson Archaeological Park in Jerusalem, October 2021 - Courtesy of the Author

I am not a “patrilineal Jew.” My mom is Jewish, and so is my dad. I am simply Jewish. But I believe the same principle of belonging should extend to Jews whose Jewish identity comes through their fathers. The term...

Aug 23, 2026, 6:15 PM

Bringing First Fruits from the Periphery

In Parashat Ki Tavo, the Torah outlines the mitzvah of Bikkurim—bringing the first fruits of the harvest to the central sanctuary. The farmer goes out into the field, identifies the earliest ripened figs, grapes, and pomegranates, ties a reed...

Yochanan Schimmelpfennig

Aug 23, 2026, 11:34 AM

When a Jew Kills

Rafael Lemkin gave the 20th century a word it desperately needed: genocide. Jewish memory learned to ask with extraordinary precision what happens when a Jew becomes available to violence because he is a Jew. The harder question begins when...

Andy Blumenthal

Aug 22, 2026, 11:37 AM

The Work of Living After October 7

ALS scares me. So does terrorism. Both force us to confront how suddenly life can change. I did not come to Tuesdays with Morrie as someone revisiting an old favorite. I came to it after October 7, carrying questions I...

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...

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