Perhaps Biden should appoint Senator Joe Manchin as his ambassador to the Republican Party… Manchin has already promised he will not support Biden’s prized infrastructure proposal without Republican involvement…

…consider the COVID relief bill that just passed the Senate: Whatever the compromises that were made in getting it passed, there is no chance equivalent legislation would have passed under a GOP majority. A $1.9 trillion half a loaf is still a hell of loaf. Manchin is the 50th vote that made that possible.

The strategy Manchin seems to be executing will certainly restrain liberal ambitions in ways that are good for him but not so good for the country. But it may also make the realization of much of the Democratic agenda possible, through the long-overdue reform of the filibuster.

Israelis have good reason to take pride in Golda Meir. She remains an international icon of female political leadership, more than 50 years since she was first sworn in as prime minister in 1969. It was truly a remarkable achievement, but it did not portend what lay ahead.

While other parties, such as Yamina, New Hope, Yisrael Beitenu and the Joint List, have slotted three or four female candidates in their lists’ top 10 seats, the nation’s only party chaired by a woman, Merav Michaeli’s Labor, has put in place explicit rules ensuring equal representation.

The Knesset remains very much a man’s world, but several party slates show women in senior positions and herald what could be a record-breaking level of female representation.

This was the real dynamite. Harry has criticized the media’s aggression before, but his aim has now expanded to encompass the cowardice of his own relatives. He spoke of the Royal Family’s “invisible contract” with the British tabloids…

The fact that Meghan said she sought help and then that was thwarted, that also addresses the issue of how we need to improve services and access to mental health resources for people who are suicidal.

With her relentless follow-up questions, compassionate demeanor and focused skill in eliciting bombshell after bombshell, Oprah proved herself the best celebrity interviewer ever.

We are facing a crisis point where our liberal traditions are being subverted by a politics of irreversible grievance. The result is a lost appreciation for human complexity, and the refusal to judge people according to the standards of their time.

There is nothing new about revising or even shelving published works in deference to concerns about racism and other bigotries. Nor is there anything wrong with it… There is little question that many depictions of racial, ethnic, or religious minorities in books or films from past eras are now unpalatable, with good reason.

Contemporary crusaders against cancel culture take an ostensibly maximalist view of free speech: If it can be said, it must be said. They tend to conflate criticism with censorship, the right to speak with the right to have an audience.

After a year in which synagogues and restaurants have been largely closed, and access to schools and communal activities has been limited, the Jewish conversation on Clubhouse suggests something about the future shape of Jewish American culture: geographically unbounded, non-hierarchical, very much online, and, above all, open and messy.

For those seeking something specifically Jewish, at any given time there may be a discussion on collective action to combat antisemitism, Kabbalistic weekly wisdom, the Iranian-Jewish community and weekly Torah studies led by rabbis including David Wolpe of Los Angeles’s Sinai Temple and Adam Mintz of New York’s Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim.

I love Clubhouse, and I intend to keep doing my best to speak about what I know, listen and learn from others. I am going to be back every Thursday at 12:00-2:00 PST to host a room and find people who are also willing to have intense, thoughtful and fact-based conversation about Israel, the Middle East and life at large.

Jewish food isn’t all chopped liver, and this is where The Synagogue Vegan Challenge steps in. It offers animal-free alternatives to traditional meat-based Jewish foods… The Synagogue Vegan Challenge, launched in 2017, gives grants to synagogues nationwide to develop vegan education programs and promote plant-based meals.

In recent years, various forms of antisemitism have emerged within veganism, both from those striving to become intersectional in their social advocacy and those who are decidedly not. As I see it, there are at least three vectors that antisemitism flows through: Holocaust comparisons, white supremacy, and anti-Israel sentiments that veer into antisemitism.

While Israel is believed to have the highest percentage of vegans per capita in the world – approximately 5% of the population – the switch to a plant-based diet mainly is confined to the secular sector and is motivated by animal-welfare, environmental or health concerns.