On Monday, September 23, 2013, Juliana Deguis Pierre was mopping the floors of the house of a wealthy family in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo when a journalist from the daily newspaper El Caribe appeared at the door. “They can’t give you your document...
Yelena Goltsman, of RUSA LGBT, a support group for Russian-speaking gay people in the United States, on Russia's anti-gay policies and the Sochi Olympics....
In the Canadian province of Quebec, religious groups have been up in arms over the past several months regarding a controversial piece of secularism legislation known as the Quebec Charter of Values, or Bill 60. The bill, which was announced by the governing, separatist Parti Quebecois...
By Lucille Marshall As Israelis and Palestinians embark on yet another round of negotiations this year, Shahar Sadeh, a visiting professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, is proposing a different strategy for peace in the Middle East: environmentalism. Sadeh, who previously studied at Tel Aviv University, focuses...
By Emily Ziedman The relationship between the state of Israel and the Bedouin population in the Negev is extremely complex, and is the subject of intense debate in Israeli society and the Knesset. This debate and the different opinions are healthy and reflect Israel’s robust democracy. However,...
The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain reached a UN Security Council resolution this week to compel Syria to relinquish its chemical weapons stock after government forces reportedly used sarin gas on civilians in an August 21 strike. Still, international tensions remain high as...
Almost 200 years after Rebbe Nachman’s death, his followers flock to a once-closed Soviet town to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. by Nadine Epstein I’m on a bus to Uman, the provincial Ukrainian town where the Breslover Rebbe Nachman chose to be buried. I am the only passenger not...
Following the end of apartheid, students living in the dorms of the University of the Free State in South Africa heartily embraced integration. At first it went well, then the students chose to resegregate. What caused social progress to surge forward and then reverse course? ...
by Sala Levin Located at the geographic crossroads of Asia, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Israel is a kettle of culinary confluence. Perhaps the best embodiment of the global influence on contemporary Israeli cuisine is the humble sabich. What is sabich? A sandwich, yes, by...