The Jewish world was collectively up in arms this week when the Jewish Chronicle (based on a trailer) reported that Sabra, the long-awaited Israeli MCU superhero, was being turned into a Russian character. Accusations of whitewashing and erasure were screamed from virtual rooftops. I noted to a friend that turning an Israeli into a European […]

One does not have to look far to see misinformed claims that Jews are “white Europeans” and “genetically European” widely circulating. Of course, these incorrect assertions are driven by an ideological agenda. To use the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, antisemitism is “a virus that mutates”. That is, antisemitism is constantly adapting to shifting zeitgeists. […]

Editor’s note: Last month, the Motion Picture Academy Museum added an exhibit on the Jewish founders of Hollywood after they had been conspicuously left out at the museum’s founding in 2021. While several reports indicate that the addition of the Jewish exhibit is steeped in antisemitism, Jews being excluded from recent museum exhibits seems to […]

Approaching Shavuot and counting the Omer–the Kabbalistic process between Passover and Shavuot—I remember my teshuva story. I was an Israelite unknowingly enslaved to a foreign culture, only to break through the goo of exile and receive the treasure of Torah. I returned to myself in isolation. Perhaps it had to be that way. I was living […]

I was sitting in my Middle Eastern studies class at my public state school, listening to my professor talk about how sneaky Jewish lawyers stole land from the poor Palestinians after World War II. “The Jewish people were smart and used misleading contracts to take Palestinian properties and land,” he said. “The land was not […]

For many years during the Passover seder I have struggled with how to handle “the wicked son.” We are told that there are four sons: wise, wicked, simple and one who doesn’t know how to ask. Says the hagaddah: “What does the wicked son say? ‘What does this ritual mean to you?’ To you and […]