Opinion | Should 1967 be Celebrated or Mourned?
Fifty years. More than half of them, many more, have been years of acrimony. Was the Six-Day War just a great triumph—or a triumph whose consequence is grave devastation? Was it worth it? Pick the facts that support your viewpoint: The 1967 war resulted in overconfidence that brought about the 1973 war; the 1967 war convinced some Arab leaders that Israel was no longer weak and that removing it by force was not a realistic option; the war enabled Jews to settle the more important regions of its ancient homeland; the war put Israel in charge of territory occupied by Palestinians.
Opinion | The Hidden Costs of School Vouchers
How should Jewish schools weigh the need for autonomy against the lure of state subsidies? Some day schools, mostly non-Orthodox and in smaller Jewish communities, are already happily educating many children who do not identify as Jewish. Hebrew-language charter schools in cities like New York and Los Angeles straddle the boundary between public school and day school, with majority non-Jewish student bodies and a focus on language and culture rather than religion.
Opinion | The Trouble With Holiness
The “miraculous” victory of 1967 returned major holy places in Jerusalem and the West Bank to Jewish control, including the Temple Mount in the Old City (known as Haram al-Sharif to Muslims), the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. This unexpected bounty, like other seemingly wondrous developments, actually fueled intense friction between Jews and Muslims. Sadly, the miracle of Israeli control of the holy places over 50 years has reduced the possibility of a peaceful solution to the wider conflict.
Opinion | Can You Be a Zionist-Feminist?
For feminism and Zionism to coexist without contradiction, we must truly embrace a feminist movement that includes the lived experiences of all women, and we must expand our understanding of Zionism to include supporting the rights of both Israelis and Palestinians. Most important, we must engage in meaningful work with those with whom we may strongly disagree about Israel.
From The Editor | May/June 2017
Read as a whole, Moment will make you think. We do our work in the hope that some sentence, some new wave of understanding, will break upon your shore.
Education in Israel: Divided Schools, Divided Society
Students in each system have almost no contact each other. Thirty-five percent of Jewish students and 27 percent of Arabs said they have never interacted with peers from the other group.
Remembering a Show That Flopped
The backward tale, coupled with having young, inexperienced performers play the roles of older adults, just wasn’t believable to audiences, and the show flopped after 16 performances.
Martin Luther’s Anti-Semitic Legacy—500 Years Later
While Martin Luther initially had a relatively positive relationship with German Jews, he eventually adopted vociferously anti-Jewish rhetoric and promoted violence against Jews.
Why No Jew in Albania Was Turned Over to the Nazis
Few Americans have heard of Besa, but Besa is the reason that during the dark days of the Nazi takeover of Albania not a single Jewish citizen of Albania, nor any other Jew seeking refuge in Albania, was turned over to the Nazis or sent to the death camps.
On Yom HaShoah, Why Don’t We Read All the Names?
What I had naively imagined was this: Some central authority parceled out lists of names systematically to all of the Jewish communities around the world that read names aloud on Yom HaShoah
The Rabbi Who Tracked Down Nazis
While a handful of authentic former Nazis were gathered at the New York meeting along with like-minded individuals, so was a Jew.
Photo Essay: Inside the Story of ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’
In 2014, inspired by reading Ackerman's book, Moment editor Nadine Epstein, visited the zoo as a guest of the foreign ministry of Poland.