Opinion

Oct. 7: From disaster zone to construction site This is not the day’s main headline — but it should be. Take a look at what is happening right now in Kibbutz Kissufim, step by step: First of all, the members of...

David French is not a US Senator. Too bad. He has principles, unlike Senators Charles Schumer and Bernie Sanders, who are both Jewish, and who both rationalized away Graham Platner’s Nazi Totenkopf tattoo — which he kept for 18 years and which, one of his (many) ex-girlfriends told the NYT, he called “my Totenkopf.”

Amidst all of her bobbing and weaving, obfuscation, indirect answers, non-answers and deflections, Melat Kiros still manages to make herself clear. When asked whether Israel has a right to exist, and why she will not condemn the firebombing of a predominantly Jewish group that injured many and killed one Jew on June 1 in Boulder, Kiros’ intent becomes clear.

The list of non-Jews, non-Israelis and non-Palestinians who I won’t be taking guidance from about Judaism, Israel and anti-Semitism continues to grow. The newest addition: Melat Kiros. The Democratic nominee for Colorado’s Congressional District 1 joins a long list.

In most visitors, Alaska inspires wonder at its beauty, awe at its wildlife and admiration for the hardiness of those who make their lives in its vast backcountry, enduring some of the harshest conditions on earth. For Israelis, it can also inspire humility. Not because the Jewish state is smaller than Denali National Park, but because in Alaska one is reminded that the world neither revolves around Israel nor is obsessed with it.

The anti-Zionism of today — the latest iteration of assimilation — is worse than the anti-Zionism of the Pittsburgh Platform. The early anti-Zionism damaged the Jewish body politic spiritually but did not damage Jews physically. There was no immediate threat to Jewish life in the assertion of anti-Jewish nationalism in the Pittsburgh Platform.

It stopped me in my tracks. A yahrzeit candle perched on a stone plaque right by the Danube River. At the edge of a quiet, tiny town. A pit stop kind of a place, as you’re weaving through bigger cities. I’m not...

As thousands of educators gather in Denver this week, July 3-7, for the National Education Association’s annual Representative Assembly, delegates will make decisions that influence what educational resources will be used by educators across the country. Historically, some delegates have pushed for the NEA to use anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist or biased  materials about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those decisions raise an important question that extends well beyond one convention.

Penning a column due to be published on America’s semi-quincentennial is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I better do a darn good job, right? As an American turned dual American-Israeli citizen, I see America’s 250th birthday as an opportunity to reflect on some of the values implanted within me growing up. One of those is dialogue across divides, or sharing friendship despite different communal, political or religious affiliations.

Whither USA on the birthdayof the world’s oldest democracy? Judging the foundation of the United States of America by the norms of the time, the signing of the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago was a fabulously positive turning point...