Category: Science and Health

Who knew barbarism as a career path pays so well? With the ostensible objective of bringing the war in Gaza to an end—and the moral perversity of punishing Israel for the continued endangerment of Gazans at the hands of Hamas—the leaders of France, the U.K. and Canada have announced their nominal recognition of a Palestinian […]

One of the most consequential but least-covered stories of the year came out of a radio station in Sacramento last week. Sportscaster Grant Napear, who was fired five years ago for tweeting “All Lives Matter,” is back at work, taking over the weekday afternoon slot on Fox Sports’ local station. The man will make a […]

Eli Sharabi was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7th, and taken hostage by Hamas. Sharabi had never recited the Shema. Until he was in Gaza. Even though he was never a religious man, the Shema gave Eli enormous comfort; and he repeated it over and over again, as if it were […]

There’s a simple, obvious truth that helps explain why the Jewish community gets so agitated about acts of antisemitism, and it’s not just the hatred. Everyone knows that our world is filled with racists and bigots and haters of all kinds. But we also know that one of the unwritten rules of society is that […]

My Third-grade rabbi told me he wanted to strangle me. Both my fifth- and sixth-grade teachers called me an idiot. “Mark, I know that there is a brain in there somewhere. Please find it and use it.” My mother told me she didn’t know what to do with me. “We know you’re not stupid, so […]

I adore roller coasters – the initial gradual climb leading higher and higher; the rapid descent; the exhilarating feeling as you return to where it all began.  But as Jews have discovered in recent years, when it comes to Israel and antisemitism, living a roller coaster life is something quite different. The climbs are scarier, […]

In the wake of October 7, many American Jews have been forced to confront a bitter reality: The institutions they helped build and sustain—elite universities foremost among them—are now home to voices not just indifferent to Jewish pain, but also hostile to the very existence of the Jewish state. So what are we to make […]

Jews around the world are mourning today. We’re mourning tragedies that go back centuries—the destruction of two massive Temples, pogroms, Crusades, the Inquisition, the Shoah, Oct. 7, among other tragedies. How can we mourn all this in one day? We can’t. We can’t focus on only one target of grief—there are too many. So I […]

Mourning is unfashionable. A popular platitude is that funerals are meant to be a “celebration of life.” This seemingly innocuous phrase is actually a subtle form of peer pressure, demanding the heartbroken mourners remain upbeat so they don’t drag the mood down for the rest. The bereaved are counseled to look for “closure” and find […]

A sign in a Shtiebelech (small synagogue) in Golders Green, London, caught my eye shortly after I returned from a long stay in Los Angeles. It began with the words: “Due to the situation in Israel…” My mind raced, anticipating the rest of the sentence. The year was 2002, the height of the Second Intifada. […]