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Why teens like me feel politically homeless in the debates over Israel

Why teens like me feel politically homeless in the debates over Israel

This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues...

previous day 4

The Jewish Week

Aaron Schwartz

The Mamdani effect: Democratic incumbents now have to worry about being too pro-Israel

The Mamdani effect: Democratic incumbents now have to worry about being too pro-Israel

A little more than a year ago, thousands showed up for the annual Paul Feig z”l Tikkun Leil Shavuot at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, an...

24.06.2026 1

The Jewish Week

Ami Eden

I helped sell Obama’s Iran deal. Its critics owe us all an explanation.

I helped sell Obama’s Iran deal. Its critics owe us all an explanation.

Neoconservatives have some ‘splainin’ to do, as Lucy’s television husband, Ricky Ricardo used to say. The war on Iran has turned out to be a...

23.06.2026 3

The Jewish Week

Steve Rabinowitz

As a straight ally for LGBTQ Jews, I’ve learned that support has to be seen

As a straight ally for LGBTQ Jews, I’ve learned that support has to be seen

Every June, rainbow flags appear, organizations post messages celebrating Pride Month and communities reaffirm their commitment to inclusion and...

23.06.2026 3

The Jewish Week

Gila Romanoff

Rabbi Rolando Matalon’s retirement marks the end of an era for B’nai Jeshurun — and for liberal Judaism

Rabbi Rolando Matalon’s retirement marks the end of an era for B’nai Jeshurun — and for liberal Judaism

Over 40 years, Rabbi Rolando Matalon helped turn B’nai Jeshurun into one of the most influential synagogues in American Jewish life. This month,...

21.06.2026 6

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

Museums should return art created under coercion — whether in slavery or Auschwitz

Museums should return art created under coercion — whether in slavery or Auschwitz

Descendants of an enslaved Black artist are fighting to regain works of his that are being held by a number of museums. Among those rooting for their...

19.06.2026 6

The Jewish Week

Rafael Medoff

Juneteenth reminds Jewish communities that belonging requires more than a declaration

Juneteenth reminds Jewish communities that belonging requires more than a declaration

As we mark Juneteenth, I am thinking about the difference between being declared free and being fully recognized. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865...

19.06.2026 9

The Jewish Week

Yolanda Savage-Narva

I’ve spent a decade building acceptance for LGBTQ Orthodox Jews. Now I’m watching it unravel.

I’ve spent a decade building acceptance for LGBTQ Orthodox Jews. Now I’m watching it unravel.

For the past decade, I have been working, along with my colleagues at Eshel, to increase the acceptance of LGBTQ individuals in the Orthodox Jewish...

17.06.2026 7

The Jewish Week

Saundra Sterling Epstein

Want to ask Einstein about Zionism? A new AI tool lets users chat with Jewish history

I asked AI Sigmund Freud to interpret my dream this morning. All I got was some dancing dots, as if a) the great man had fallen asleep or b) my dream...

16.06.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

What a 30-year-old fight over God can teach Reform Judaism about ordaining anti-Zionists

Twenty years ago this summer, I began writing my rabbinical thesis about a controversy that tested the boundaries of the Reform movement from 1991 to...

15.06.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Rabbi Asher Knight

This rabbi made history in the civil rights era. I had to tell his story.

St. Augustine, Florida is a city of firsts. The oldest continuously occupied European-founded city in the United States is also the birthplace of our...

12.06.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Roger Rapoport

A Jewish way to mark the 250th: A close reading of America’s ‘sacred’ texts

Fireworks, parades, maybe a mixed martial arts smackdown on the White House lawn? Those are a few of the ways Americans will be marking the...

07.06.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

The Jewish Brigade fought fascism in Italy. Now its flags spark protests.

When the Jewish Brigade appears today in Italian public debate, it is rarely about the British Army unit, formed largely by Jewish volunteers from...

04.06.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Gianluca fantoni

13 years after my arrest at the Kotel, the threat to egalitarian prayer there is growing

Thirteen years ago, on the morning of Rosh Chodesh Adar, I was detained at the Kotel. I had joined a group choosing to pray with the Women of the Wall...

03.06.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Rabbi robyn fryer bodzin

Zohran Mamdani is normalizing antisemitism. New York’s Jews must boycott him.

Click here for another perspective on how the Jewish community should relate to the mayor of New York. The time has come for the Jewish community in...

29.05.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Rabbi Avi Weiss

Why Jews should show up and show Mamdani what we stand for

Click here for another perspective on how the Jewish community should relate to the mayor of New York.. I recently attended Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s...

29.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Rabbi Yaacov Behrman

Jewish New York deserves a parade as diverse as its communities

The annual Israel Day on Fifth Parade is almost upon us, as are the annual arguments about it. This year, many Jews are furious that Mayor Mamdani...

27.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Cleveland-area Jews are about to lose an iconic mid-century synagogue building

Every time I drive down Fairmount Boulevard near my home in Beachwood, Ohio, I scan the horizon for the distinct lines of the “Fairmount Temple”...

27.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Alanna E. Cooper

What Tuesday’s primaries tell us about Democrats, Republicans and the Israel issue

Reading the polls and listening to conservative podcasts, you would understandably think that Republicans are souring on Israel and poised to start...

20.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Ami Eden

Israel can survive criticism. But can we survive silencing our moral responsibility in the face of moral inconsistency?

A dangerous instinct is on the rise in the Jewish world right now: the belief that we must choose between defending Israel and defending moral...

15.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Rabbi josh weinberg

I won’t hide my Judaism to belong to the punk scene I love

This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues...

12.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Sara lim

I’m a Jewish teen. I asked my neighbors what they meant by ‘Free Palestine.’

This article was produced as part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around New York...

07.05.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Asher gershenoff

Do Jews have a future in Europe? A historian of antisemitism has her doubts.

Over the last two months, there have been more than a dozen attacks on Jewish institutions across Europe. Two of the highest-profile attacks were in...

07.05.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

Yes, I’m worried that giving to Gaza could benefit Hamas. But Zionism today demands hope.

“Rabbi Greyber, you can’t hide — we charge you with genocide.” Those were the words shouted at me in front of Hebrew school students outside...

06.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Rabbi daniel greyber

The new face of Holocaust denial is harder to spot — and more dangerous

When I learned that Holocaust deniers had infiltrated a New Hampshire legislative meeting and tried to insert their view into the state’s Holocaust...

06.05.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Menachem Z. Rosensaft

I’m a Jewish teen. I asked my neighbors what they meant by ‘Free Palestine.’

This article was produced as part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around New York...

05.05.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Asher gershenoff

New books by Jewish authors revisit the rules of protest in a polarized era

In the crowded canon of books about how to change the world, few loom as large as Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals.” Published in 1971, the...

03.05.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

We want a widely celebrated Jewish American Heritage Month. But should we?

My inbox recently broadcast a remarkable juxtaposition: “Jewish American Heritage Month is coming!” some messages told me. Others focused on...

30.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Samantha vinokor-meinrath

Trump administration officials are quoting (and misquoting) the Bible. Is it good for the Jews?

The Bible is back in the news. In a Pentagon prayer service on April 15, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth quoted what was seemingly meant to be a verse...

28.04.2026 10

The Jewish Week

Stu Halpern

Apple TV’s ‘Your Friends & Neighbors’ just gave us a stunningly authentic Passover episode

Matzah is not something I typically give much thought to in the days following Passover. Yet I cannot stop thinking about a piece of shmura matzah I...

27.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Yael buechler

‘I’m tired of debating the encampments’: 2 years on, Jewish students need agency, not alarm

“I’m tired of debating the encampments,” said one student as others nodded. Here I was, a fly on the wall, during an open-space dialogue about...

23.04.2026 30

The Jewish Week

Sophia adler varon

Colleges cracked down on encampments. But antisemitism on campus hasn’t gone anywhere.

We were used to a pretty steady stream of calls, texts, and emails reporting things like a swastika on a bathroom floor, a Jewish student being...

23.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Jonathan falk

This Yom Haatzmaut, we have to ask: Can Israel endure on human effort alone?

Psalm 127 begins this way: “A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless God builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” It’s an idea that has...

22.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Rabbi elazar symon

An ode to the Bible Quiz, Israel’s quirky and surprisingly consequential Independence Day tradition

We are two Australians in our 30s, and if you asked us what most shaped the way we love and understand Israel, we would both give the same slightly...

21.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Nomi Kaltmann

These Israeli-Palestinian ‘brothers’ are preaching peace. Can their message make a difference?

At a time when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict feels perhaps farther than ever from a solution, Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon are offering something...

17.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

In an Israeli bomb shelter, my students restored my faith in their generation’s resilience and commitment

LOS ANGELES — When I boarded a plane to Israel with students from de Toledo High School in February, I knew the trip would carry unusual weight....

15.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Mark shpall

Holocaust education gets a bad rap. But it’s not falling short — we are.

This Holocaust Remembrance Day marks nearly 81 years since the end of World War II. Few living witnesses remain, whether Holocaust survivors or...

14.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Daniel greene

This Yom HaShoah is different from all others — and we’ve never needed it more

The formulaic question we should be adapting from the Passover seder and asking ourselves as we commemorate the victims of the Holocaust this year is,...

13.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Menachem Z. Rosensaft

A month after our synagogue was attacked, the hardest part has been everything that came after

It has been a month since March 12 and there is a story unfolding at Temple Israel that most people would not be aware of. It’s not the headlines or...

10.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Jason Plotkin 

On conversion therapy, American law and Jewish law are moving in different directions

I do not typically sign public rabbinic statements. I rarely agree with every word of a collective letter, and signing one can shift the focus from...

10.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Daphne Lazar Price

Mordecai Kaplan wanted Jews to choose Judaism. Why they didn’t was the bane of his life.

Reconstructionist Judaism, wrote the Jewish sociologist Charles Liebman almost 60 years ago, “comes closer than any other movement or school of...

10.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Andrew Silow-Carroll

My family and friends questioned why I wanted to visit Israel. That’s why I wanted to go.

WARSAW — As a non-Jewish college student, I felt both excitement and trepidation when I got the call that I had been accepted into a newsmaking tour...

09.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Lucía alonso

I lost my dad at 12 — and found my Jewish identity in the spaces he left behind

This article was produced as part of JTA’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around the world to report on issues...

08.04.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Alex brendle

Jewish tradition is a polemic against loneliness — on Passover and the rest of the year

It is a lonely time to be a North American Jew. The last two years have seen frayed relationships with allies, intergenerational discord around...

31.03.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Sara labaton

Silence is not solidarity: Diaspora Jews must speak when Israel strays

In 2010, I said something I thought was unremarkable — that the government of Israel’s actions directly affect me as a Jew living in London....

31.03.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Mick davis

Donald Trump is breaking all the scripts. What does the Talmud say about improvisational decision-making like his?

Over the past year, decisions by the Trump administration have introduced a new level of instability into American life. New international tariffs...

27.03.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Deborah Barer

As Columbia’s Hillel director, I know: ‘Is there antisemitism on campus?’ is the wrong question

As the parent of a high-school junior and someone who has worked with Jewish college students almost my entire career, nearly all the conversations I...

26.03.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Brian s. cohen

Women have won the right to sit for Israel’s rabbinical exams. It’s a victory — but to what end?

For more than a decade, I have watched and lived the unfolding story of women’s religious leadership in Orthodoxy. As the first woman ordained to...

25.03.2026 20

The Jewish Week

Rabba Sara Hurwitz

I’m tutoring my mom for her bat mitzvah. It’s a joy to learn and grow together.

This article was produced as part of the New York Jewish Week’s Teen Journalism Fellowship, a program that works with Jewish teens around New York...

18.03.2026 30

The Jewish Week

Zack leitner

As a genocide law professor, I’d give the US brief supporting Israel at the ICJ a failing grade

More than five months after a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, a highly contentious legal proceeding arising out of that military conflict remains a...

16.03.2026 30

The Jewish Week

Menachem Z. Rosensaft