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  1. Judaism

Letters

For a magazine devoted to religion and public life, the piece by R. R. Reno entitled “Engines of Destruction” was rather strange (January 2024). Religious analysis was almost completely absent: Except for an attack on the positioning of Christian leaders and Pope Francis, it was . . . . Continue Reading »

How to Revolt

Earlier this year, a Seattle-based journalist named Tariq Ra’ouf took to social media to explain the logic behind the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have been rocking American cities for months. “We are going to inconvenience every single person who doesn’t give a f**k until they give a . . . . Continue Reading »

The Mystery of Israel

The “mystery of Israel”—that’s what Jacques Maritain called Israel’s endurance as the people of the Old Covenant, its indomitable insistence on Jewish particularity over and against the universal claims of Christianity. Through the ages it has been a source of both legitimate . . . . Continue Reading »

Israel at War

In reading this intelligent, useful, and timely book, I was reminded of the challenges I and some of my fellow students encountered back in the Vietnam era. Our intention was to get invited to various synagogues where we could present Jewish law perspectives on the morality and practice of war. The . . . . Continue Reading »

A Rabbi for Christians

“Judaism is not even a religion.” This striking line appears in Immanuel Kant’s Religion Within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, a book devoted to winnowing down the articles of Christian faith to what is strictly demanded by rational morality. Kant considered himself a sincere friend of . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

I appreciated Mark Bauerlein’s recent essay “System’s Failure” (November 2023) on some of the many flaws in “systemic bias.” There is, however, a much easier way to dismiss the whole enterprise out of hand: when proponents are unwilling to start with the government’s K–12 education . . . . Continue Reading »

The Undying People

The collection of Yad Vashem, Israel’s museum of the Holocaust and memorial to its victims, presents us with a chronicle of human barbarity and evil. But in its celebration of those “Righteous Gentiles” who protected Jews, it preserves a luminous moral and spiritual legacy. Among those . . . . Continue Reading »

Israel’s Virtues

I believe we live more meaningful lives here than we could in North America. The ease of 24-hour drive-thru society and the comfort of higher wages and cheaper consumer goods are never going to be enough to stave off the West’s existential malaise.  Continue Reading »

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