News | Articles By Me

The "Little" Menorah - Joshua Namm

A Quick Post For My Subscribers

A very personal, very short Chanukah message.

News | Israel & The Jewish Community

Elder Of Ziyon - Dear Paul Simon: You Lent Your Name to a Killer's Cause (Judean Rose)

Paul Simon signed a letter supporting Marwan Barghouti’s release. This column explains Barghouti’s murders and why Simon’s stance is so troubling.

This is so disappointing. I’ve been a Simon and Garfunkel guy ever since I was a (very) small child. I have always defended secular Jews with no Jewish education (which is the case with nearly 100% of them), because they do not have the intellectual tools to make objective judgments about Jewish issues. But, this is beyond the realm of “poorly educated,” and is an example of the complete moral bankruptcy of leftists. I will never listen to Simon and Garfunkel the same way again.

Miscellaneous | Jewish Life

Israeli singer opens Madison Square Garden show with patriotic video

The sold out venue burst into loud cheers when seeing Israeli troops in Gaza and the hostages returning from Hamas’s captivity.

News | News

Aron Bell, last of the Bielski brothers whose famed brigade saved 1,200 Jews, dies at 98

The youngest of the Jewish partisan brothers, Bell would sneak into the nearby ghetto to help convince imprisoned Jews to escape.

BDE - He was a Jewish hero.

News | Antisemitism Watch

Jewish children kicked off Spanish plane told to remove Jewish symbols before boarding new flight

Ahead of the return flight from Paris, the Jewish children who were taken off a plane in Valencia after singing in Hebrew were asked by group leaders to remove their kippahs and tzitzit; 'We will not give those anti-Semites the opportunity to throw u

The 30s are getting closer to the present situation every day.

News | News

52 Jewish kids kicked off plane in Spain for singing in Hebrew

Israel's minister for combating antisemitism called the incident in Valencia “one of the most serious … severe antisemitic incidents" to have occurred recently.

This is despicable.

Politics | Politics

Deep Thanks for Your Leadership Against Antisemitism

Dear Representative Titone, Thank you for your leadership in speaking out against antisemitism, particularly within the LGBTQ community, as powerfully articulated in your recent Denver Gazette op-ed. Your willingness to confront this difficult and often

Politics | Politics

GUEST OPINION: Pride means nothing if it leaves some behind | Opinion | gazette.com

Pride has always been about more than parades and parties. It’s about showing up — boldly, visibly, and without apology — in a world that too often asks us to

News | Antisemitism Watch

Antisemitism: The Assimilation Killer - Joshua Namm

We're Jews, and no one can ever defeat us.

News | Antisemitism Watch

Jewish Pride: Purim vs Hollywood - Joshua Namm

Being Jewish is a gift that deserves unwavering pride, gratitude and courage.

Miscellaneous | Jewish Life

Centenarian Jewish D-Day veteran ‘doubts’ sacrifice was worth it  

Jew-hatred and the “cowardice” of officials have eroded the confidence of Londoner Mervyn Kersh, the 100-year-old told JNS.

Everyone should read this.

Miscellaneous | Israeli Opinion

Unhiding Jewish Pride on Columbia University’s Lawn

Jewish Culture Festival draws thousands of students and faculty members

Politics | Judea & Samaria

Elder Of Ziyon - To the pioneers of Judea and Samaria, "people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, and do"

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

Politics | Opinion

Elder Of Ziyon - Where are the children's books about Jewish life in Israel for Jewish American Heritage Month?

Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.

News | Articles By Me

We Deserve Better. Much better. - Joshua Namm

The post 10/7 Jewish world cannot be business as usual.

My latest. We need better leadership. A recent email I received shows just how weak, cowardly, and pointless so many mainstream Jewish organizations are. I wrote about it in my latest Substack article. Please subscribe. It’s totally free!

History | History

The Year We Hung Hitler

A 1946 Purim celebration in the Landsberg DP camp

Politics | Campus Watch

Berkeley’s Jews Show Some Spine

In the late 1950s, the University of California, Berkeley started cracking down on campus politicking. By the ’60s, this effort almost became a total ban. The backlash congealed into the

Music | Music

Bob Dylan & Israel, The Neighborhood Bully

It may not be his best song, but Dylan’s 1983 song about Israel is surprisingly resonant today.

This album came out when I was in high school and I immediately totally fell in love with this song. It is truly amazing that it has become even more relevant through the years. When I used to DJ, I’d play it sometimes (even though almost no one but me knew what it was about) to show both my pride in being Jewish, and in Israel.

If you want to listen to it, you can copy and paste this:

https://youtu.be/-ETdLfXI6r8?si=MbtWmMnH-szNsK_z

Politics | Opinion

Time for Honesty: Tough Questions for my Jewish Brothers and Sisters Abroad

Tough Questions for my Jewish Brothers and Sisters Abroad. In Memory of Elisha Loewenstern, HY"D

This is a great piece and I understand the sentiment. Part of me wishes that I had moved to Israel after my first experience there, at 17, which mirrors her first trip there.

Politics | Opinion

Eliminate the ‘Diaspora mentality’

Israel and the Jews must accept that we will never be “normal.”

This article makes several good points. Resting on non-Jews, as if we’re dependent on them, which we aren’t, is completely counterproductive.

News | Israel At War

Victory is more important than US support

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers must remember that Israel is not an American vassal state.

Politics | Opinion

A New Existential War - Part III: Forming a Clear Post-War National Vision Means Returning to the Roots of Zionism

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,251, January 8, 2023 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On the morning of October 7, 2023, the strategic Israeli security concept

Miscellaneous | Jewish Life

Chanukah: Independence & Defiance, Not Tolerance

Far from a “minor” holiday, Chanukah is more crucial than ever.

News | Israel At War

'Welcome to Hell': Israeli Soldiers Troll Hamas From the Ruins of Gaza

TEL AVIV—There's the Israel Defense Forces's official messaging about its war against Hamas, and then there are the photographs and videos coming from the front line. As Israeli soldiers have laid waste to Hamas's Islamist terror state in the Gaza Strip,

I love this.

Politics | Opinion

Replace American Jewish Communal Leadership

Look around at the disarray and the betrayal of Jews by alleged friends and allies, and you’ll see a bitter truth: Our leadership has gone bad

I’ve been saying this for more than a decade.

Miscellaneous | Jewish Life

Their Video of Jewish Pride went Viral

An interview with the Campus rabbi who didn't flinch in the face of an anti-Israel rally.

Politics | Opinion

Elder Of Ziyon - Rallies: Do They Make a Difference (Judean Rose)

Rallies are proliferating outside of Israel in the wake of October 7th. What do they accomplish?

I agree with all of this, except that we shouldn’t go to rallies or shut because there it may be risky. We can’t be afraid and have to prove to our enemies that they CANNOT intimidate us. That is ESPECIALLY true for going to shul. We should be doing that now more than ever!

News | Israel At War

IDF soldiers pray in ancient 6th century Gaza synagogue for first time in decades

A number of tweets suggest that soldiers prayed at the ancient synagogue, though IDF rules have reportedly kept soldiers from sharing them for safety.

Don’t give up an inch! This is our land, we are its indigenous inhabitants, and what the world thinks is MEANINGLESS!!! !עם ישאשץ חי

Miscellaneous | Jewish Life

Dear world: I don’t care

I don’t care if you’re out on the street, waving your flag and chanting your slogans. We won’t die silently the way you want us to

Miscellaneous | Jewish Wisdom

It Took Years, and I’m Finally Proud to Be Jewish

I found out I was Jewish when a girl on my street told me I was a “dirty Jew.”

Politics | Opinion

The Jewish People are Winning - Looking back at how far we have come

As the most proud and nationalist Jewish government ever was just sworn in Jerusalem yesterday, I wanted to take us all back to how things were just 16 years ago to understand.

“As the most proud and nationalist Jewish government ever was just sworn in Jerusalem yesterday, I wanted to take us all back to how things were just 16 years ago to understand and appreciate, how far we have progressed since a low point in modern Israel’s short history, the Gaza “disengagement” in 2005. We still have much to work on, but we must internalize how blessed to be where we are today.”

Politics | Opinion

The Temple Mount: ‘These Stones Are Not Silent’ - Meir Y. Soloveichik

On May 6, 2022, Israel’s Independence Day, the Temple Mount was opened to Jews for the first time in 11 days. Jewish visitors, calmly and proudly walking

“In 1942, Menachem Begin arrived in British Mandate Palestine. At that time, only a narrow alley in front of the Western Wall was available for Jewish prayer, but even then certain rituals were banned. And at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the British would arrest—and club—Jews who sought to sound the shofar or sing “Ha Tikvah.” To Begin this was intolerable.”

News | Jewish Community

There’s a New Sheriff In Town—and He’s Wearing a Kippah

San Antonio sheriff’s deputy visibly displays his Judaism at graduation