The Black and White Anti-Israel World of Ta-Nehisi Coates

In a nation torn apart by political divisions, high-octane intolerance, cancellation craziness, fixed binary choices, fashionable antisemitism and, worst of all, exploited racial tensions, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book, “The Message,” couldn’t have come at a worse moment. Coates is America’s most widely admired and richly awarded Black public intellectual. The fact that his greatest success […]

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Answering Our Own Prayers

My father (the rabbi) had invited the congregation to pray silently during the evening Rosh Hashanah service when my 9-year-old daughter leaned over and whispered. “Are you allowed to tell me what you are praying for? Or will it not come true, like birthday wishes?” No, I can tell you, I replied. I am thinking […]

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The Jewish Mosaic

Representations of Jewish culture in American popular culture typically take the form of bagels and cream cheese and matzah ball soup from Eastern Europe, not the Yemenite kubaneh bread and spicy chili schug of my grandma and my childhood, or the foods and cultures of other Middle Eastern and North African Jews, or of Jews […]

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The Light Within

This fall, my son joined the Me’ever Youth program at the Safra Center in New York City. Me’ever is focused on building teen leadership skills. In stark contrast to millennial stereotypes, GenZers are eager to learn how to become Maccabees, especially right now.  “We teach high school students how to become their best selves,” according […]

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