Issue: Liberal ZionismRSS feed

Most Jews engaged with their heritage are aware that Theodor Herzl was the founder of Zionism as an organized international movement.  Sadly, most are unaware that the World Zionist Congress that Herzl convened in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, still functions and holds elections approximately every five years.  The Congress determines the policy directions and funding […]

A number of Third Narrative colleagues were eager to discuss Sen. Bernie Sanders’ article in Jewish Currents magazine, “How to Fight Antisemitism.”  Steven Lubet has blogged twice on Sanders’ essay, beginning with praise for Sanders lauding (in the Senator’s words) “the enormous achievement of establishing a democratic homeland for the Jewish people after centuries of […]

On Sunday, November 3rd, the Manhattan JCC commemorated the 24th anniversary of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination (Nov. 4, 1995) with a public event featuring  Yossi Klein Halevi, an American-Israeli writer.  Yossi Klein (as he was known when growing up in the US) began his activism in New York as a teenaged disciple of rightwing […]

With a virtual tie between Likud and Blue-White, an interesting question is whether Netanyahu must go.  Given his olympic abilities as a survivor, one hesitates to completely rule him out, but it seems unlikely that he can still emerge as prime minister.  Among other open questions: Would he remain Likud leader without being prime minister?  And […]

This is the second of two posts.  Click here for the first.   Late in the afternoon, I received a second shock which pulled me in the other direction, to feel protective of Israel.  I often participate in a “meetup” to discuss history, current events and political philosophies.  A session that I attended that day discussed […]

On Saturday, July 27th, my lifelong Zionist convictions were emotionally whipsawed in opposite ways.  First, a lengthy article in the Haaretz weekend magazine (“When Arabs Were Invited to Live the Zionist Dream“)  opened a hole in my heart by illuminating Israel’s historic failure to integrate its pre-1967 Arab minority as equal citizens.  Later that day, […]

On July 27, three veteran NY Times reporters wrote “an explainer” on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel, entitled “Is B.D.S. Anti-Semitic? A Closer Look at the Boycott Israel Campaign.”  Some of us at TTN felt that this article was soft-pedaling how the movement’s leadership was opposed not just to Israeli settlements and […]