JewishIdeas

From the page: "Australian-American actor and director Mel Gibsonâ€"he of the anti-Semitic outbursts, the abused girlfriend, The Passion of the Christâ€"has just closed a deal to make a film for Warner Bros. with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas about the life of Judah Maccabee. "

From the page: "Beyond Political Messianism: The Poetry of Second Generation Religious Zionist Settlers"

From the page: "In the decade since September 11, poll after poll has shown the combined hatred of America and Israel becoming still more widespread and intense. "

From the page: "With Turkish-Israel relations at a nadir, ties with Jordan practically on life support, the push for UN recognition of a Palestinian state, and the security threats stemming from Iran and its proxies, it's no wonder that Jerusalem has been considering taking exceptional steps to preserve its cold peace with Cairo."

From the page: "With few exceptions, the men and women who now leave their Haredi communities (the term "Haredi" encompasses both Hasidic and non-Hasidic "Yeshivish" Jews), leave the Jewish world entirely. As a result, that world is losing an invaluable resource that, with its own numbers falling, it can hardly afford to squander. "

What are the pros and cons of going on a Birthright-Taglit trip to Israel?

From the page: "Arguing that Israel needs to be in synch with the global economy, Likud Party powerbroker Silvan Shalom has also long been committed to the five-day workweek with Sundays off. Why should Tel Aviv's stock market be closed when everyone else's is trading (on Friday) and open (on Sunday) when world markets are closed? His plan would have Israelis work until noon on Fridays and make up the difference with slightly longer hours Monday through Thursday. There would be a five-day school week with longer hours. The result, Shalom predicts, would be a calmer, more harmonious country. "

From the page: "Does Birthright have a secret agenda? The question is almost too silly to entertain. Since its inception in the late 1990s, this initiative has meant different things to different people, but it has never been shy about its purposes. Feldman herself notes that although it enjoys significant funding from the Israeli government, Birthright was created in an effort "to plug the dam of assimilation" and respond to the "crisis of continuity" in the Diaspora, "a crisis characterized not only by intermarriage but by the weakening of Jewish communal ties such as synagogue membership and a waning attachment to Israel.""