An ethnic identity bearing religious consequence. In the classical tradition, followed today by Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, a Jew is a person who is born of a Jewish mother or who has converted to Orthodox Judaism; in Reform and...

Jews represent a group of people rather than a distinct race or ethnicity. Although Jews originally came from the Middle East, many races and peoples have mixed together in Jewish communities over the centuries, especially after the Jews were forced...

Located in the Middle East and slightly larger than the state of Massachusetts, Israel measures 7,992 miles (20,700 square kilometers). It is bordered to the north by Lebanon, Syria and Jordan to the east, Egypt to the southwest, and the Mediterranean...

Main article: History of the Jews in the United States Jews have been present in what is today the United States of America as early as the seventeenth century, if not earlier, though they were small in numbers and almost exclusively Sephardic Jewish...

At the same time, many American Jews are wary of such a close alliance. Rabbi David Saperstein, executive director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, expressed concern for the Christian Right's literal interpretation of biblical passages leading to the belief in Israel's...

THE VIOLENCE between Israelis and Palestinians is once again in the forefront of the news. Those who support Israel see themselves defending it against the prophesied destruction of the nation and the Jewish people. Palestinian supporters witness for a people who have been...

JERUSALEM–As if cribbed from a page in a Passover Haggadah, the real estate pitch sketches a "Next Year in Jerusalem'' vision for the well-heeled: a gated community nestled in a bucolic hillside terrace overlooking a panorama of the Old City walls, the Dome of the...

a post I did on the taboo liberal journalists experience when tempted to talk about Israel. Anonymous grapples smartly (if casuistically) on to the point that the lobby has actually worked against Israel's best interests by hamstringing the independence of U.S. policymakers: If the Lobby...

American Judaism today is both diverse and traditional in its views. There is a strong traditional viewpoint to be found in the Orthodox movement, but at the same time one can find strong liberal viewpoints in the Reform movement that account for the modern world that we live in today. Between these viewpoints we find the Conservative and Reconstructionist movements that attempt to take a middle of the road approach to Judaism.