Israel’s three-part ceasefire agreement with Hamas, brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt in January, is crumbling, raising the distinct possibility that Israel may well resume the war in the Gaza Strip. Negotiations on the second phase were supposed to begin a month ago, before the first phase ended on March 1. But the […]
Two American Jewish cousins embark on a road trip in Poland, their ancestral homeland, in the quest to connect with their family roots. This is the alluring theme of Jesse Eisenberg’s enticing feature film, A Real Pain, which is a contender for two Oscars at tonight’s Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood. Their odyssey is facilitated […]
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, […]