Opinion | At Israeli Seders, Pick Your Pharaoh
This Passover, before or after reading the Haggadah, many Israeli Jews are likely to mention a casual but common Hebrew phrase: “We got past Pharaoh, we will get past this too.”
This Passover, before or after reading the Haggadah, many Israeli Jews are likely to mention a casual but common Hebrew phrase: “We got past Pharaoh, we will get past this too.”
Or, why in spite of everything I am a humanist Zionist.
In southern Israel as in Eastern Europe, jubilant killers went from house to house, making sure no Jew remained alive. The people justifying Hamas’s “war of liberation” are the scum of the earth.
Some of Israel’s Supreme Court justices are terrified of the situation.
Here is a tremendous clash of cultures, of contradicting Judaisms, finally out in the open.
Like the misguided heroes of some Greek tragedy, Haredi leaders and educators in both the United States and Israel are waging battle to defend, as they see it, their way of life.
Bulli was a cherished author and a sweetly avuncular, talkative presence in my life. He became a true friend and intimate interlocutor.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, an interesting overlap emerged in Israeli public discourse.
Modern Hebrew, especially military and political jargon, tends to reflect the state of the nation.
Even the MAGA Israelis, accustomed to trashing Nancy Pelosi and deriding Chuck Schumer, now faced a Mike Pence and a Mitch McConnell decisively dashing all hope for a coup d’etat.