Historiography “Reassigning the pyramids from pagan Egyptian tombs to holy granaries of a Biblical patriarch Christianized them…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 25 January 2016 Julius Honorius, a Roman writer of Late Antiquity (c. 500 +/- 50 years), was...
Canada “Settlements far from the Mounties’ reach had more widows than widowers, suggesting unusually high adult male death rates” Author Drew Kaplan Date 24 January 2016 To demonstrate the role of the Mounties, I compared settlements that in the late...
Israel, Middle East, Syria “It’s clearly not in Israel’s interest that an additional million radicalized Sunnis show up in Jordan” Author Drew Kaplan Date 24 January 2016 Israel and, more importantly, Israelis, demonstrated consistent unease over the destabilizing consequences of the...
America, Great Britain, Literature “If British children gathered in the glow of the kitchen hearth to hear stories about magic swords and talking bears, American children sat at their mother’s knee listening to tales larded with moral messages…” Author Drew Kaplan Date 22 January 2016 If Harry Potter and Huckleberry Finn were each to represent British versus American children’s...
Kashrut “In Customer Service 101, it seems that the customer is always right. In kosher dining, it too often seems that the customer is always wrong” Author Drew Kaplan Date 21 January 2016 In Customer Service 101, it seems that the customer is always right. In kosher...
Orthodoxy “n short, kiruv work has moved from what could have been a legitimate path to engage and educate Jews, and to bring them closer to the Jewish community, to become part of a sales force designed to sell a particular approach to Judaism and to distance followers from the vast majority of the Jewish community” Author Drew Kaplan Date 21 January 2016 Unfortunately, what began as a well-intentioned set of attempts to bring individuals to a...
Anti-Semitism, Jewish Federations, Jewish Organizations, University “…but the real stimulus to Federation funding was the occasional threat of anti-Semitism” Author Drew Kaplan Date 20 January 2016 I argued for funding to do more serious Jewish education on campus, but the...
Modern Orthodoxy “…there is no specific Modern Orthodox credo, no statement of Jewish values, no formalized rubric through which adherents are encouraged to think about issues other than those related to ritual practice” Author Drew Kaplan Date 20 January 2016 …although Modern Orthodoxy has produced many brilliant and dedicated leaders and laymen, it has...
Anti-Semitism, Israel, University “When one turns to the situation on campus, one similarly wants to be alert to anti-Semitism without confusing it with legitimate differences of perspective” Author Drew Kaplan Date 19 January 2016 …it’s easy to confuse genuine criticism of Israeli policy for anti-Semitism. We are blessed...
Jewish Denominations, Jews in America, Orthodoxy “The denominational war for the heart and soul of American Judaism is over” Author Drew Kaplan Date 19 January 2016 The denominational war for the heart and soul of American Judaism is over. The...