Women in Switzerland did not win the right to vote in federal elections until a 1971 referendum finally settled the issue. Petra Volpe’s exceptionally fine feature film, The Divine Order, which opens in Canada on November 3, examines this socially-charged topic through the eyes of several courageous women in a remote Swiss village in the […]
Conditions are not yet ripe for Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate a peace agreement, but in the meantime, the Israeli government should adopt pragmatic measures to ensure that final-status talks will be possible in the future, says Amnon Reshef, the founder of Commanders for Israel’s Security, a non-partisan Israeli organization that promotes a two-state […]
As improbable as it may sound, the Caribbean island of Jamaica was a wartime haven for European Jewish refugees fleeing fascism and antisemitism. Jamaica, then a British colony, began admitting imperilled Jews in 1938 and continued welcoming them through the early 1940s. This little-known footnote in the annals of the Holocaust could easily have fallen […]
The shock of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination on November 4, 1995 has worn off, but his presence is still keenly felt in Israeli politics. Twice prime minister, Rabin paid dearly for his moderate beliefs. Murdered by Yigal Amir, an acolyte of the right-wing national religious camp, Rabin was a taciturn, shy, reflective person who made the […]
The ultra-Orthodox Hassidic community is extremely tight-knit and takes care of its own in a cradle-to-grave arrangement. Conformists who abide by the rules and obey the commandments of the rebbes can expect a reasonably stable, fairly predictable life. Rebels who opt out for the secular world are treated as outcasts and often pay a price […]
The recent fall of the northern Syrian city of Raqqa is one more indicator that the days of the Islamic State’s caliphate in Syria are numbered. Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital since 2014, was captured by U.S.-backed Arab and Kurdish forces on October 17 after four months of intense battles, which reduced much of it to rubble […]
Nazi Germany, in the greatest theft in modern history, plundered Europe of priceless paintings, drawings, etchings, tapestries, sculptures, rare books and priceless furniture. The collections of Jews, in particular, were targeted. To this day, hundreds of thousands of stolen pieces remain unaccounted for. Where they might be could be anyone’s guess. Hunting Nazi Treasures, an […]
President Donald Trump’s risky decision on October 13 not to certify Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear agreement raises several troubling questions. Is he recklessly playing with fire by jeopardizing an accord that placed strict and verifiable limits on Iran’s budding nuclear program? Is he giving Iran a pretext to resume its quest for a nuclear arsenal? […]
This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the seminal events of the 20th century: the release of the Balfour Declaration. There are few documents in Middle Eastern history which have had as much influence as the Balfour Declaration. It was sent as a 67-word statement contained within the short letter addressed by British […]
The Palestinians have signed yet another reconciliation agreement, but will it last? In the past decade, the two rival factions of the Palestinian national movement, Fatah and Hamas, have reached multiple unity agreements, only to see them dissolve in mutual acrimony within weeks or months. Can the latest one, brokered by Egypt’s General Intelligence Service […]