The Pandemic and Our Broken Social Contracts

Autocracy's bad boys are here to stay

Liberal world order is in desperate need of new champions

Israel turned its NSO spy firm against its own citizens

Report. NSO spyware, sold to regimes around the world to crush dissent, is also used against Israeli citizens. Mayors, anti-Netanyahu activists and...

Christian adoption agency accused of discrimination after refusing Jewish couple

JTA — A Jewish couple is suing Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services after a Christian adoption agency that receives state funding...

What is a Soul? III (4). The Many Souls of Man—Other Souls

In the previous installments of The Many Souls of Man, we discussed the animal soul,  Nefesh HaBahamit , the godly soul, Nefesh HaElokit , and the...

Has Biden Surrendered Ukraine?

Looking into the future to see the present

The State of Israel, and Israelis in general, are not known for our long-term strategic planning skills. This has always surprised me, since the...

Great books are still great

Read with love, rather than critical distance, the classics can provide tools to subvert oppressive hierarchies - by Roosevelt Montás Read at Aeon

How Energy is Aiding ASEAN’s Post-Pandemic Recovery

Member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were in for a turbulent ride when COVID-19 first reared its head in 2019. The...

Meat Loaf, ‘Bat Out of Hell’ rock legend, dies at 74

NEW YORK (AP) — Meat Loaf, the rock superstar loved by millions for his “Bat Out of Hell” album and for such theatrical, dark-hearted anthems as...

No ‘breakthroughs’ at US-Russia talks in bid to reduce tensions in Ukraine crisis

GENEVA (AP) — The United States and Russia sought to lower the temperature in a heated standoff over Ukraine, even as they reported no...

Argentina's Imaginary Miracle

Making Decisions — Sometimes the Right One

Another Siberian blast of cold weather is on the way for next week, and Wednesday and/or Thursday have a relatively high probability of...

Finding Kindness

Have you been in an airport lately? I have had a couple of flights in recent months and was struck by the signs posted by a number of the airlines....

The diplomatic row that shows China’s true global strength

China’s dispute with Lithuania over its recognition of Taiwan attracted a lot of headlines in 2021, and it will surprise few that the...

Big Tech’s latest power grab is like Amazon owning the roads it delivers packages on

It might seem an exaggeration to say that Big Tech, like a fictional James Bond villain, aims for total world domination through controlling the...

Carrying on the Chronicles of the Taiwan Issue

The last article on the Taiwan issue in NEO focused on the referendum held on December 18 2021, on four questions. Of those four questions, only...

Of all the promises Biden has broken, this one is the most painful

No sane voter thought Joe Biden would be a policy genius or work economic miracles, but after eight years of Barack Obama and four years of Donald...

How Mike Pence can help seal Donald Trump’s political demise

Given the crisis-ridden, dysfunctional state of contemporary American politics, it is probably foolhardy to make any kind of prediction about...

Report: Israeli fighter jets, refueling planes hold massive drill aimed at Tehran

Israeli fighter jets took part in a large drill over the Mediterranean that included practicing mid-air refueling, according to a report in a...

Responsible leadership urgently required

Dedicated for a Refuah Shelemah for Elisabeth Bat Maisha People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. — John Maxwell The question of...

The Structure of the Good Society (Yitro, Covenant & Conversation)

In the House of Lords there is a special chamber used as, among other things, the place where new Peers are robed before their introduction into...

A Love Note To Israel

2000 years of exile we were away. Now today we came back to forever stay. I missed you so much and I’m happy to be back. Our collective mission...

Flight from NY to Tel Aviv turns back after unruly Israelis grab business seats

Two Israeli passengers caused a plane flying out of New York to turn back and land, as they clashed with cabin crew after allegedly refusing to...

Two months since Omicron emerged, where does Israel stand? Q&A with an expert

It’s been two months since the Omicron strain of coronavirus was first identified. On November 24, South Africa reported the new variant to the...

Leaning into own past, Jewish ‘Wonder Years’ writer comes of age with TV bar mitzvah

The Jewish world kvelled over last week’s episode of ABC’s popular primetime sitcom “The Wonder Years,” in which character Brad Hitman...

Ukraine and the Fundamentals of European Security

Police chief defiant amid NSO scandal: ‘Some want to harm our crimefighting ability’

With police facing public outrage over accusations they have regularly used spyware to break into Israelis’ phones without oversight, Police...

Podcast: Can fakin’ bacon and moon-shaped croissants be called kosher?

Welcome to Times Will Tell, the weekly podcast from The Times of Israel. We’re taking a deep dive today into Israel’s kosher certification system,...

Repeat of old tactics

North Korea should abandon brinkmanship tactics North Korea has said it would consider resuming "all temporarily-suspended activities," in an...

Ta si pa upa!?

Ni lepo, če in ko se veliki spravljajo na majhne. Na primer, Kitajska (LRK), ki ima 1400 milijonov prebivalcev, se spravlja na Litvo, ki jih ne...

Kolumna Svetlane Slapšak: Ugasnite televizor!

Vzklik je staromoden, vendar avtentičen: seveda zadostuje že, da preklopimo na drugi program, toda bodite pozorni na tvite, internet, pralni stroj...

Rachel Antonoff employs Jewish comedians to model her latest

JTA — Jewish fashion designer Rachel Antonoff is known for the quirky and innovative ways she displays her creations — think a staged science fair...

Iran Exacts Vengeance On The United States

To no one’s surprise, Iran is wreaking vengeance on the United States for its central role in the assassination of one of its most revered...

Tell Me It Will Be Okay

I was recently out with a friend and during our conversation she said, “I imagine as a rabbi, you’ve been hearing from so many people dealing...

The NSO scandal should be an earthquake for the Israel Police

It’s not that we didn’t know that our smartphones are mobile spying devices and that the digital breadcrumbs we leave behind us can be used...

The power and poison of Modern Monetary Theory

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut – When Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin announced that he would not support U.S. President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act...

Why does God ask questions He knows the answers to (Midrash on Bereishis)

The Midrash has some choice words for Adam because of the way he answered God’s question: “Did you eat from the tree which I told you not to eat...

What Rosie Taught Me About the Importance of a Shul

I’ve been thinking a lot about “Rosie” lately. Rosie was the nickname for Roosevelt Preston, who served for four decades as the janitor at...

Good for America, Bad for Turkey: Intellectual Paradoxes of Russia Policies

Turkish-Russian relations have experienced quite problematic times throughout history. The leading role of the Russian Empire, especially in the...

Whatever Happened to “Yordim”?

You can tell a lot about trends in society by the rise and fall of specific words and terms. “Yordim” is a good example. The word literally means...

What does memory have to do with belief in God? 

For some people, belief comes easily. From a young age they have believed in God, and that has remained a constant throughout their lives. For...

Our Vulnerability Is Our Strength

In Colleyville, Texas, this past weekend, Malik Faisal Akram exploited Congregation Beth Israel’s desire to welcome and help those less...

Yenem’s Velt: Milk

Are you a child of the 1960s? If so, you will probably remember advertising slogans such as: “Drinka Pinta Milka Day” and “Cow and Gate,...

The Texas Synagogue Attack: A Mountain of Jewish Intergenerational Trauma

Jewish intergenerational trauma has become a phrase widely used by Jewish activists worldwide. It’s no secret that mental illness including...

End the filibuster. Take on antisemitism.

The terror of the hostage standoff that took place at Beth Israel in Colleyville last weekend reminds us that antisemitism is alive and well in the...

China’s got problems, but inflation ain’t one

Forecasts for a second year of strong global growth face two main dangers: the health of China’s economy and the prospect of much higher U.S....

Orthdox, Sane–and Alone

Over the past few months, I have heard privately and publicly from too many orthodox Jews about their feelings of loneliness and isolation. They...

Want to be famous? Look inside

Would you like to be famous? If you’d ask me if I want to be famous, my first answer would be absolutely not. I feel really bad for all those...

Peaceful coexistence in Europe must never be taken for granted

Remnants of the Spanish Inquisition abound in the region of Andalusia in Spain. Once a region of Convivencia and a melding and fusion of humanity,...