Na’vi and Goliath: Palestinian Protesters Dress as Avatar Underdogs
Many Israelis and Jews took to Avatar with aplomb, likening it to Kabbalah and turning out in record numbers in Israel. But it remains to be seen how Jews and Israelis will respond to Palestinian protesters who, dressed as the film’s besieged protagonists, aim to position themselves in the hearts of observers as the sympathetic underdogs.
Changing the Jewish State and the State of Jews: J Street and the Future of Israel
The Israeli ambassador to the US recently joined the American right charging that pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian J Street put the very “survival of the Jewish state” into question. Indeed, recognizing the full humanity of Palestinians would require a radical transformation of Israeli, Zionist, and even Jewish-American identity.
Goy to the World: What Does Hanukkah Have to Teach Us About Living in Empire?
A goyish writer wrestles with the anti-imperial themes of Hanukkah and the discomfiting questions it raises for citizens of the American empire. Might an empire be a force for good? Is “force for good” an oxymoron? And finally: how does a Roman manage, in practical terms, to say no to Rome?
The Orthodox Jews of Lakewood, New Jersey, are worried about supporting the rights of gays and lesbians to marry because it might reflect badly on the community. Rabbi Justus N. Baird offers a corrective.
Chabon, Safran-Foer, Krauss—the “New Yiddishists”—Don't Speak Yiddish
On Vanity Fair's profile of the post-Roth and Bellow generation of Jewish novelists.
A new study appears to beg the question: what does it even mean to be Jewish?
Catholic-Jewish Tension and the Rededication of Catholic Holocaust Memorial
At a time when the Pope isn’t doing much to help Jewish-Catholic relations, the Boston Diocese reaches out.
New Poll Reveals Jews May Be Open to Change in Israel Policy
Don't break out the Ram's Horn just yet, the Devil's in the details.
Christian Silence on Banking Due to Concerns of Anti-Semitism?
Is this deference to bankers among the American religious an historical curiosity or de rigueur behavior? Let us hear from you!
It’s Hard to be a Jew
A scholar of nonviolence shares his struggle with Jewish identity during a time of escalating conflict and violence in Israel.
The door is not just open to Muslim Americans; we are not sitting in the living room; there is a room for us in the house now.
RDPulpit: Israel, The Great Unmentionable
Christians should neither excoriate Israel nor remain silent in the face of horrendous attacks in Gaza and elsewhere. Rather, according to Rev. Laarman, American Christians must heed King and make the issue about US policy and the kind of nation we aspire to be.
Covering Religion in The New Year: The Atheist Bus And More
Rolling with the atheists in the UK; rich men, camels, and needle's eyes; Jews, Christians, and Gaza; the Obamas on Sunday mornings...all this and more on the religion writer's beat as the year begins.
‘Jews Who Were Israelis’: Anti-Semitism and the Mumbai Chabad Center
Though Mumbai militants were instructed to kill “Jews who were Israelis,” few of the victims had any ties to Israel and at least one was an Ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist. Comprehending the conflicting notions of Jewishness is essential to understanding whether this was an act of anti-Semitism or not.
Selective Sympathy and the Mumbai Chabad House
Are the deaths of “our” people more important to us? What were two Brooklyn Jews doing in India anyway? Our columnist reflects on the selective sympathies of Westerners—of Jews in particular—upon hearing the news of the murder of an Orthodox rabbi and his wife during this Indian national tragedy.
RD News Round-Up: November 17, 2008: New surveys on the faith vote; Rev. Moon's plans for the UN; Jews to Mormons: lay off the dead; plus Jill Stanek, Tom Minnery and Joel Hunter
Pariah or Charmed Hero: America's Obsession with Jews and Israel
Listening to Palin and Biden, one is reminded that American support for Israel borders on obsessive. The biblical story of the golden calf reminds us that obsession does not usually produce good gods—or good policy.
Connecticut legalizes gay marriage; Religious voters favor Obama; Blame the Jews for Wall Street; Gay marriage ‘worse than radical Islam,’; McCain to Gays: Thanks, but no thanks.
A rural town in Iowa is the home of the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant, a facility that–while already under scrutiny for its poor treatment of workers and animals–was recently the scene of the largest immigration workplace raid in history...
A religio-immigration-labor story, the Midwest, and Orthodox Jews. Oh my.
Letters to the Editors: On Gandhian Nonviolence
Two scholars respond to Shalom Goldman's essay, "Gandhi, His Grandson, Israel, and the Jews."
A Lone Blogger vs. the McCain-Hagee Alliance
A blogger exposed Hagee’s hate-speech and challenged McCain’s hypocrisy in seeking the controversial pastor’s endorsement.
Cremation is increasingly acceptable to Jews but is it as ecologically friendly as we’re led to believe?
PBS’ The Jewish Americans covers three hundred fifty years of Jewish-American history with only a few glaring omissions.
The religious right leader’s apology for offensive remarks to the Jewish and female senators falls flat.