Новости за 01.04.2016

Among the many bizarre quirks of this presidential election is the fact that the case for Donald Trump is hardly ever made in print by people who actually agree with him. There have been numerous attempts at understanding the grievances and overall logic of Donald Trump’s supporters, but they’ve been the work of journalists who would never consider voting for the man. Take, for example, Tablet columnist James Kirchick’s recent reporting for the National Review on “white identitarian” support for Trump... Читать дальше...

(Images courtesy of the author)

On Thursday, I felt the Bern. It was cold, the way ice cream should be, and covered with flecks of political chocolate.

You see, I was one of hundreds of people who had been wooed to New York’s Union Square on the promise of a scoop or so of Ben and Jerry’s new ice cream flavor, “Bernie’s Yearning.” But it wasn’t just the ice cream I came for. No, I was present for the opportunity to meet Ben and Jerry, who are long-time supporters of the Vermont Senator, in the flesh. Читать дальше...

On Sunday, hundreds of members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York City will march from their home of nearly 40 years in the ramshackle, dingy Westbeth Artists Community to a gleaming new space on West 30th Street (where they’ll be just two blocks from Tablet; hi, neighbors!) A klezmer band will accompany the group as they walk with their five Torahs under a rainbow chuppah made by congregants several years ago in celebration of marriage equality. Elderly members and people with... Читать дальше...

If you’ve spent a lot of time on a college campus recently, particularly one with a storied tradition of intellectual excellence, you may have felt, at some point, some subtle metaphysical blues: your friends are cool, your professors are interesting, but the fire you’d hoped would consume you—that flaming obsession with big ideas that have big consequences—just isn’t there.

My daughter brought me back to synagogue after 20 years away.

It started right after she was born, with her baby-naming ceremony. The ceremony was my mother’s idea—she was a regular at her Reform temple in Florida. So, on our new family’s first flight to visit her, we went to her synagogue. Apprehensively I handed the baby over to my mother’s rabbi. He serenaded her with a few prayers. When he asked my Hebrew name, I confessed, embarrassed, that I didn’t remember. He held my baby up high in the air... Читать дальше...

Attending a recent conference dedicated to blocking boycotts of Israel worldwide, seated on a dais festooned with small blue-and-white flags and red flowers, and flanked by the singer Idan Raichel and the actress Yael Abecassis, Israel’s most prominent producer, Shuki Weiss, was unamused. The Ministry of the Interior, he said with the expression of someone who had stuck his nose into a carton of long-expired milk, had recently asked Sir Elton John—the latest in a long series of international pop... Читать дальше...