Judaism

Oakland (Special to Informed Comment) – The leaked SCOTUS draft to overturn Roe v. Wade leaves a lot to unpack. For Jews, Muslims and other religious minorities, this is a threat to religious liberty in general. Jewish law, (Halacha), does not consider the fetus to be a being with a soul until it is born, […]

Antisemitism

Israeli Authorities still haven’t taken sides on Ukraine Invasion, but Denounce Russia for saying Hitler was Jewish

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli and Ukrainian governments have lambasted the Russian Federation for remarks of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a video interview with an Italian TV station. Lavrov defended Moscow’s creepy allegation that the Ukrainian government is dominated by Nazis, even though the president, Volodomyr Zelensky, is Jewish. Lavrov said that […]

Christianity

E. Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem accuse Israel of Violating Freedom of Worship over Easter Holy Fire Ceremony

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Palestine’s foreign ministry on Saturday called on the Biden administration to pressure Israel to cease its encroachments on the religious liberties of Palestinian Christians and Muslims in Jerusalem. The issue shifted this weekend to Israeli restrictions on Christian crowds flocking to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for Eastern Orthodox […]

Antisemitism

How misreadings of the Christian Gospels fuel anti-Judaism and Ignore Jesus’ Jewishness

The Conversation

By Matthew Thiessen, McMaster University | – This year, Easter and Passover, holidays central to Christianity and Judaism, respectively, begin on the same weekend. This timing provides an ideal opportunity to address faulty and often dangerous misconceptions that have been part of Christian communities for nearly 2,000 years. The harmful belief that Christianity ‘replaced’ Judaism […]

Islam

Why did a far-right Israeli Parliamentarian storm into the Sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque?

Middle East Monitor

By Nabil Al-Sahli | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – A far-right member of the Israeli parliament stormed into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque last Thursday. Extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir was guarded by a heavy police presence at the time. His incursion fell within the context of Israel’s long-term strategic political goal to Judaise occupied […]

Holocaust

Putin’s “Nazi” pretext for his Brutal Invasion of Ukraine Insults the Memory of Holocaust Victims

H. Scott Prosterman

“No monument stands over Babi Yar . . .,” so begins a tragic poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko; “only a step cliff like the rudest headstone . . . “* That is the site near Kiev where 33,000 Jews were murdered by Nazi death squads (Einsatzgruppen) on September 29-30, 1941. No genocide has occurred within Ukraine […]

Israel Lobbies

U of Washington should not have Cancelled Israel Studies over Professor’s Criticism of Israel (MESA)

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom, Middle East Studies Association Letter to the President of the University of Washington Ana Mari Cauce President, University of Washington Dear President Cauce: We write to you on behalf of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) and its Committee on Academic Freedom to express our grave concern about […]

Antisemitism

Why Putin’s claim to rid Ukraine of Nazis is especially Absurd given its History

The Conversation

By Jeffrey Veidlinger | – Russian President Vladimir Putin justifies his war on Ukraine as a peacekeeping mission, a “denazification” of the country. In his address to the Russian people on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin said the purpose was to “protect people” who had been “subjected to bullying and genocide … for the last eight […]

Antisemitism

My Life with Maus: Or How I Was Banned (Even If in a Second-Hand Way) by a Trumpian World

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Sometimes life has a way of making you realize things about yourself. Recently, I discovered that an urge of mine, almost four decades old, had been the very opposite of that of a rural Tennessee school board this January. In another life, I played a role in what could be thought […]