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THE CRISIS OF ZIONISM by Peter BeinartTimes Books, 304 pp., $26 Peter Beinart's new book belongs to an as-yet-unnamed but increasingly common genre: the volumes that publishers commission and rush into print after the hullabaloo generated by a controversial article. Sometimes, these productions consist of little more than the original article, writ long. But sometimes, a book comes along that shows that its author has learned something from the heady—if brief—experience of being discussed everywhere. The Crisis of Zionism falls into the latter category, but just barely. In his essay "The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment," published in The New York Review of Books in May 2010, Beinart argued that young, liberal American Jews are disengaging from Zionism because they detest much of what ... Continue reading →

NEW AMERICAN HAGGADAHedited by Jonathan Safran Foerwith a new translation by Nathan EnglanderLittle, Brown & Company, 160, pp., $29.99A history of Jewish literacy remains to be written. It will be a colorful and complicated work, as befits the variegated linguistic history of the Jews, and for American Jewish readers of our day, I mean the honest ones, it will be a disturbing work. Whereas the Jews have always used many languages, Jewish and non-Jewish ones, and whereas complaints about the faltering level of competence in Hebrew appear in many medieval and modern sources, the awful fact is that Jewry of the United States has decided—it was a decision, even if it was never formally made—that the Jewish tradition may be adequately received, developed, and transmitted ... Continue reading →

NEW AMERICAN HAGGADAHedited by Jonathan Safran Foerwith a new translation by Nathan EnglanderLittle, Brown & Company, 160, pp., $29.99A history of Jewish literacy remains to be written. It will be a colorful and complicated work, as befits the variegated linguistic history of the Jews, and for American Jewish readers of our day, I mean the honest ones, it will be a disturbing work. Whereas the Jews have always used many languages, Jewish and non-Jewish ones, and whereas complaints about the faltering level of competence in Hebrew appear in many medieval and modern sources, the awful fact is that Jewry of the United States has decided—it was a decision, even if it was never formally made—that the Jewish tradition may be adequately received, developed, and transmitted ... Continue reading →

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CAIRO (AP) -- Partial results from Egypt's first genuinely competitive presidential elections announced Friday showed the candidate of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood leading with a narrow edge in a five-way race. This is likely to bring Mohammed Morsi to run-off elections scheduled for June 16-17 but leaves the question wide open as to whether he will win. Egyptians voted Wednesday and Thursday to choose their first president after last year's popular uprising that ousted ruler Hosni Mubarak. Contending for second place are Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, whose surprise last-minute surge brought a new element to a contest that looked like it was going to pit Islamists against former regime officials. Across the country, election workers ... Continue reading →

CAIRO (AP) -- Partial results from Egypt's first genuinely competitive presidential elections announced Friday showed the candidate of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood leading with a narrow edge in a five-way race. This is likely to bring Mohammed Morsi to run-off elections scheduled for June 16-17 but leaves the question wide open as to whether he will win. Egyptians voted Wednesday and Thursday to choose their first president after last year's popular uprising that ousted ruler Hosni Mubarak. Contending for second place are Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh and leftist Hamdeen Sabahi, whose surprise last-minute surge brought a new element to a contest that looked like it was going to pit Islamists against former regime officials. Across the country, election workers ... Continue reading →

Poverty is increasing in east Jerusalem, especially among children, according to a report the Association for Civil Rights in Israel released this week.The National Insurance Institute found that 78 percent of residents and 84 percent of children lived under the poverty line in east Jerusalem in 2010. This is even higher than the poverty rate for 2006, when 64% of east Jerusalem and 73% of children there lived under the poverty line.The Welfare and Social Services ministry recently placed the poverty line at a monthly income of NIS 2,268 per person or NIS 5,807 for a family of four.The main reasons for poverty in east Jerusalem are the separation barrier, which inhibits a free flow of commercialism, cultural norms discouraging women to work, and poor ... Continue reading →