With a single stroke of his presidential sharpie, Donald Trump sent the entire Jewish world into a frenzy, debating whether America’s 45th president had just changed the definition of Judaism in America from a religion to a nationality or race. He did not. The executive order Trump had signed on Wednesday includes nothing to indicate such a shift. The only change that could result from Trump’s executive order, which adopted a broader definition of anti-Semitism, is an easier time for those wishing to go after colleges for creating a hostile environment for pro-Israel students.
While the decade was long, 2019 felt much longer. Climate strikes, impeachment hearings and multiple elections in the U.S., UK, and Israel have dominated the ever-accelerating fast-paced news cycle so that other stories seemed drowned out by all the noise. Take a minute to look back at the articles that shaped 2019 for us and our readers. With topics ranging from Disney princesses to George Soros, Bob Dylan to Yeshiva University, here are Moment’s top 19 most-read stories of 2019.
The sheer, jubilant force of Haddish’s personality allows her to plant her feet in two distinct cultures at once, without ever feeling out of place in either.
My daughter’s embrace of my jokes once they entered our home, sweet home, made the cycle of birth feel complete. This dreamy crossbreed of Punky Brewster and Lady Gaga makes this crazy good dada feel more blessed than the rest.
Princess Rebecca, of the Ladino kingdom of Galonia, appeared in an episode of Elena of Avalor that aired on December 6. Elena is a Latinx princess who is the centerpiece of the Emmy-winning, Disney Junior Channel series which debuted in 2016. Until now there has been no Jewish princess—not that there wasn’t an abundance of attractive candidates.
Yossi Shain is a Professor of Political Science at Tel Aviv University and a Professor of Comparative Government and Diaspora Politics at Georgetown University. His most recent book, The Israeli Century and the Israelization of Judaism, is currently a bestseller in Israel and will come out in English in 2020. Moment senior editor Laurence Wolff interviewed Shain in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli ex-pat community makes up anywhere from 300,000 to 800,000 members. Most are concentrated in New York and Los Angeles, rendering them useless in terms of electoral strategy. So why bother with this tiny sliver of a constituency?
Leonard Cohen blended the sacred and the profane in his own search for a deeper meaning—finding truth in the Torah, yes, but also in sex, travel and the simple thrill of artistic creation.
