JJ Editor's Picks
"During the debate on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new Brexit deal in the United Kingdom’s Parliament on Saturday—which ended, as these things often have, with a vote calling for another delay—Johnson exposed the most basic blindness of Brexit..."
"Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, wants to change his story about Ukraine. On Thursday, at a press briefing, Mulvaney confirmed that when President Donald Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine in July, one reason was that..."
"I travelled with Bedouin in the Western Desert of Egypt. When we got a puncture, they used tape and an old inner tube to suck air from three tyres to inflate a fourth. It was the cook who suggested the idea; maybe he was used to making food..."
"The ultrasound technician places the wand on my daughter’s lower abdomen and moves it slowly across taut skin glistening with gel. I’ve been holding my breath since being ushered into the dimly lit cubicle to witness a sonogram that will..."
"Even many Democrats are criticizing Senator Elizabeth Warren for refusing to admit, in plain words, that her Medicare for All plan will require taxes to increase. They’re right to complain. The point could hardly be simpler: All presidential..."
"How do you update Watchmen for 2019? That might sound like a question with an obvious answer: You just do Watchmen. After all, the graphic novel, which has been consistently in print since its 12-volume run ended in 1987, is pretty terrific..."
"The climactic face-off of the 2019 Israeli Apartheid Week at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg took place on a wide, sunny plaza, between a statue dedicated to the millions of anonymous miners who had toiled under inhuman..."
"Mark Zuckerberg has rarely been so compelling. Facing increased scrutiny — especially after leaked audio of an internal meeting in which Zuckerberg called Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) an existential threat — the Facebook CEO outlined his..."
JJ Inside The Print
I knew the Kol Nidre crowd at the Beverly Hills Hotel was probably expecting me to talk about big issues. Since I deal with such...
This Yom Kippur, I relied on three pastimes to help me through synagogue services: connecting with God as a loving redeemer, imagining what glorious food...
The 19th-century Danish Christian theologian Søren Kierkegaard lamented about many of his co-religionists that their form of religion was merely “Sunday Christianity” and, even more...
Next week, we begin again to read the Torah from Page One. In the opening chapters, we will be confronted, as we are every year,...
You are reading at Simchat Torah time, the joyful high point of the High Holy Days journey. I am writing on the day after Yom...
Last Yom Kippur, soon after my then 9-year-old son Alexander and I got home from services, we heard a gentle knock on the door. “Hi,...
On Simchat Torah, we enliven our senses.After spending a week joyously immersed in Creation while sitting in a sukkah, we now take the Torah, the...
Late on the night of Oct. 6, the White House issued a statement announcing that after a call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President...
Ruth Kabbesa Abramzon invites me for a ‘Shabbat Yerushalmi’ at her Jerusalem home with her husband and four small children. “We have a small room...
The civil war in Syria started almost a decade ago. Millions were forced to flee. Hundreds of thousands were killed. Condemnations aside, the international community...
Most Los Angeles Jewish voters support liberal positions on domestic policy issues, identify more as Democrats than as Republicans, and strongly disapprove of President Donald...
Funny how the things that bothered are the things I miss jumbled pj’s in the closet toothpaste landscape in the sink feather tickle that raised...
One verse, five voices. Edited by Salvador Litvak, Accidental Talmudist Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face...
For me, Tuscany is a place where time slows down and afternoons stretch out like golden pathways leading toward long, soul-nourishing meals. In the United...
Unpleasant odors wafting into Rabbi Yonah Bookstein’s office sometimes prompt closing the windows. The stench is not from exhaust typically clogging the heavily trafficked West...
In Orthodox synagogues on Shabbat and holiday mornings, men are called up to the Torah, while the women sit in a separate area divided by...
Internationally famous recording artists such as Lady Gaga, Madonna and Bruno Mars are prime targets for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), in part...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Oct. 11 signed into law an Assembly bill establishing the California Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which provides grants for security...
New Zealand Jewish director Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit” takes the tropes of World War II movies and flips them on their head. Tipping his hat...
On a brilliant Sunday afternoon in September, actress-comedian Wendy Hammers bounded onto the stage at the American Jewish University’s Shapiro Hall, barefoot and dancing. Hammers...
Israeli director Lilach Dekel-Avneri likes to break all the rules of traditional theater. With a background in interdisciplinary arts and post-dramatic theater as well as...
Amid the dire headlines out of the Middle East, we sometimes lose sight of the good news about Israel. That’s exactly what we find in...
Shirley Bean died Sept. 16 at 98. Survived by daughter Barbara; son Stuart; 3 grandchildren; 1 great-grandchild. Mount Sinai Seymour Bessen died Sept.16 at 96. Survived...
Simchat Torah is a time for rejoicing, and one way to spread the joy is with these miniature Torahs made with Tootsie Rolls. They make...
In 2013, Ron Wolfson published “Relational Judaism: Using the Power of Relationships to Transform the Jewish Community,” designed to boost Jewish affiliation in Jewish organizational...
At the Larger Than Life gala event in the Beverly Hilton, 37 children stood onstage singing “Yad Beyad” (“Hand in Hand”), a song by the...
FRI OCT 18 “Sukkot in Mexico” Young professionals in their 20s and 30s should feel as if they are in Mexico when entering this exotic-looking...
Praise for Sukkot Edition Stories by Kylie Ora Lobell (“The Work of Sukkot is Worth It,” Oct. 11), Paul Starr (“The Sukkah Challenge”) and Louis...
