Recent Articles

  • Speaking Difficult Words in Dark Times

    Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent 1948-1977 Yale University Press 2023, pp.320 In the early 1960s, Ben-Gurion implied that ideological Zionism, after the founding of the state, had lost its meaning. The imperative to emigrate and build up the Hebrew republic had been replaced by support for successive Israeli governments, bolstered by an…

  • “Slavery in the Midst of Revolution”: Understanding the British Far Left after 7 October 2023

    Kaddish2 Yitgadal V’yitkadash Shmei RabaAnd no one cameMany thousands called Him on Shabbat morning Crying His name out loudBegging Him with tears just to comeBut He ceased from all His workNo God cameAnd no God calmedOnly Satan celebrated uninterrupted ISRAEL AS PART OF THE DIASPORA 7 October 2023 was the day when Israel became part…

  • Iran’s Attack on Israel

    Sunday’s attack on Israel by Iran involved 185 drones, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles, according to leaked Israel reports to the New York Times. Most came from the Iranian mainland with a few fired by proxies in Iraq and Yemen. Israel, in conjunction with the armed forces of the US, UK, France and Jordan, defended…

  • Herod the Great

    Herod the Great: Jewish King in a Roman World by Martin Goodman, published by Yale University Press 2024, pp.232 There is Jewish history and there is Judaic history — the latter seen through the eyes of the rabbis and sages. Martin Goodman, an Oxford professor of Jewish Studies, has written some remarkable books which have…

  • Serving the State: Haredim and Conscription

    Since the start of the war with Hamas, a mere 540 have enlisted to help the war effort. On the other hand, 66,000 young haredi men have received an exemption from military service during the past year, a member of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate told a Knesset Committee last month. The ruling exempting haredim from…

  • On Pinchas Rutenberg

    When Pinchas Rutenberg, one of the giants of the Zionist movement, died in 1942, his friend, the writer Moshe Smilansky described him as “a great engineer with the soul of a poet.” Nevertheless, Rutenberg is missing from the public consciousness, even among those who treasure Jewish history. He stipulated in his will that no funds should…