Новости за 28.06.2018

Earlier this week, Major General (Res.) Yitzhak Brick, the Israel Defense Forces’ ombudsman, published his report, completed last year, assessing the army’s preparedness for the next war. His conclusions were grim.

What to make of identity politics? The question has vexed both our finest and our most inflamed minds. For some, the term is a vestigial remnant of the 1960s, a silly preoccupation that concerns few outside the airless confines of classrooms and newsrooms. For others, it’s a useful if flawed engine for social change. This week, however, two seemingly disparate events—the Supreme Court’s confirmation of the Trump administration’s travel ban and Harvard’s anti-Asian discrimination—made headlines... Читать дальше...

After conquering the worlds of medical research, robotics, and traffic navigation, Israeli companies have turned their attention toward the sports market.

Eight o’clock on a Friday morning, two-and-a-half days before my daughter’s wedding, and here I am, in the basement of an Israeli hotel kitchen. Along with my dear friend and co-conspirator, Katja, I am assembling yeast and water, flour and sugar, honey, eggs, salt and oil to surprise the bride-to-be with freshly baked challah for Shabbat dinner that evening. We are doing it together, with the help of so many others because, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it can take a village to celebrate her marriage, too. Читать дальше...

Peppers first arrived from the New World in the port of Naples, then a Spanish city, in the early 16th century. They were spread around the Mediterranean by so-called Turkish merchants, mostly Sephardic Jews, who sold the seeds as they sold spices. Eventually, Jews who had migrated south to North Africa to escape the Inquisition in Spain began adding them to the colorful potpourri of salads served as a first course at Friday night dinners, mostly followed by meat or fish couscous and fresh fruit for dessert. Читать дальше...

This week on Unorthodox, we have three special guests. Jonathan Ornstein is the executive director of the JCC Krakow, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. With more than 10,000 visitors a month, the JCC is at the center of a Jewish revival in Poland, that Ornstein, a New York native, is witnessing—and cultivating—firsthand. We also talk with Gabrielle Birkner and Rebecca Soffer of Modern Loss, a website that aims to make conversations about grief less fraught and awkward. Their book... Читать дальше...

My big regret regarding Joseph Crowley, the defeated Democrat of the 14th District, Queens and the Bronx, has to do with his accent. Why do people around the country like Donald Trump, after all? Could it be the touch of Queens in his speaking voice? Is that what America wants? In that case, I have always figured that Joe Crowley might be the answer—same accent, except stronger, and with civilized politics. But then, if I am touting Crowley for his personal charm, I am happy to acknowledge a still greater charm in his giant-slayer... Читать дальше...

On Lag Ba’Omer, the last Wednesday of the semester, I sneaked past a challah-baking event to say goodbye to Stony Brook University Chabad Rabbi Adam Stein. Rabbi Adam and I danced with his children to the music from a livestream of Meron in his backyard. At a pause, I tapped my kippah and tzitzit and said, “I wanted to rub it in. You were wrong; I did stay religious these four years.”