Category: Science and Health

After the Seder, sometime around midnightwhen everyone has said the grace after meals, the singing begins. People break out tunes like, “Echad Mi Yodea (Who Knows One)” and “Let My People Go.” For years, comedian Daniel Lobell has sung a bluesy version of the song, “Chad Gadya,” about a kid goat who gets eaten by […]

I couldn’t help feeling a weird sense of guilt as I read Elly Katz’s new book, “From Scientist to Stroke Survivor: Life Redacted.” Elly has spent most of her life struggling with physical pain. In a piece we published in The Journal five years ago, she wrote: “I crafted this autobiographical sketch while braced in […]

The ruling regime in Iran continues its war-mongering policies—fueling the Gaza war to distract from domestic uprisings while supporting proxy forces like the Houthis and Hezbollah. At the same time, mass executions and environmental destruction persist across the country. Under these circumstances, the Iranian year 1404 (according to the solar calendar beginning March 21) will […]

  Freedom,  Beauty and Truth  – Comments before Passover (coinciding with Torah portion VaYikra) Passover is our holiday of freedom. Our tradition provides a wonderful insight on the nature of freedom through a play on words. We find this wordplay in the Talmud, based on Exodus 31:16.  That verse describes Moses coming down from Mt. […]

Rabbi Mordechai Lebhar, the rosh kollel at LINK in Pico-Robertson, understands that the term “rosh kollel” — leader of committed learners — may intimidate some Jews. But LINK, he said, is an outreach kollel. “It doesn’t matter if you are minimally observant, not observant at all or observant,” he said. “Everyone is welcome in the […]

Algeria has charged as a terrorist Boalem Sansal, a former high-ranking Algerian government official, and its most internationally acclaimed writer since Nobel Laureate Albert Camus. Citing his publications and comments to journalists, Algeria has now denied him access to his lawyer Francois Zimeray, saying he is “too Jewish.” Algeria’s shocking barring of French Jewish Zimeray from […]

This is an awful time to explore career options in terrorism—perhaps the worst ever. Its once dreamy cachet has cratered. Choose this treacherous path and you’ll find yourself very much on the move, forever looking over your shoulder. IDF soldiers here; ICE agents there. And there’s absolutely no opportunity for advancement. Every time a new […]

Recently, the Law Student Association (LSA) at UC Davis passed a resolution endorsing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. The goal was to prevent LSA funding for companies listed by the BDS National Committee; a flyer announced that there would be “NO FUNDING IF YOUR EVENT HAS THE FOLLOWING” and proceeded to list several major […]