It goes without saying that the president of a university student union should be a measured and circumspect person, not a polarizing figure who angers and alienates students, besmirches the university’s image, and generates heated controversy. Somar Abuaziza, the newly installed president of the York Federation of Students (YFS) at York University in Toronto, has […]
Before Shtisel there was Kugel. Shtisel, the award-winning Israeli television series that enjoyed a three-year run from 2013 onward, was about the trials, tribulations and joyous interludes of an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem. Although it was laser focused on haredi Jews, a cloistered sect, it exuded universal appeal, drawing in a secular Jewish audience as […]
A massive political earthquake jolted Germany as the final results of its federal election on February 23 poured in. The tremors are still being felt. For the first time since the Nazi era, that 12-year interregnum during which Germany persecuted its Jewish minority and launched a genocidal murder campaign on a European scale, the unthinkable […]
Donald Trump, in his second four-year term as president, is upending the United States’ alliance with Ukraine in favor of a rapprochement with Ukraine’s mortal enemy, Russia. Some might say he is ruthlessly and shamelessly abandoning Ukraine in its hour of duress. In recent days, Trump, an admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has blamed […]
Israeli troops remain on the ground in southern Lebanon, despite a ceasefire agreement that required Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory following its recent war with Hezbollah. Israel pulled out of Lebanese towns and villages on February 18, two weeks after it was supposed to do so under a two-month truce that began on […]
The pro-Palestinian protests and encampments that sprung up at American university campuses following the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip were bound to trigger a vigorous backlash. Many Jewish students complained that the shrill anti-Israel rhetoric bordered on or spilled into antisemitism and created a climate […]
Hollywood aficionados are familiar with legendary movie moguls such as Louis B. Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn or Jack Warner. But they often draw a blank when the brothers Joseph and Nicholas Schenck are mentioned. Their obscurity comes as no surprise, since they were reclusives averse to publicity. Despite their aversion to the spotlight, the Schencks were […]
Is Israel ready and willing to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities? This is not an idle question. It goes to the heart of current tensions in the Middle East. Israel has been contemplating this potentially risky military option for more than a decade. But of late, Israel appears to have moved closer to implementing this objective, […]
The swift collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s secular regime, followed by the rapid emergence of an Islamist government in Damascus, are driving speculation that Israel and Turkey could be on the cusp of a collision course in Syria. Early last month, an Israeli government committee headed by Jacob Nagel, a former high-ranking Israeli army […]
A deranged person like Kanye West, the African American rapper and designer who calls himself Ye, should be ignored. But ignoring him is not really an option. Due to his enormous following on social media and his ability to poison impressionable minds, his antisemitic rants on X and Instagram cannot be blithely disregarded. A few […]