The Jews of the Italian Renaissance

June 24 2024

During the 15th and 16th centuries, Europeans produced a great amount of new and beautiful art. The same era also saw a revival of classical scholarship and an interest in humanistic textual scholarship. Did the Jews of Europe participate in this rebirth of the arts? Joanna Weinberg answers with a resounding yes and, in conversation with J.J. Kimchi, tells the stories of a number of rabbis and other Jewish scholars who taught and exchanged ideas with Christian men of letters. They also produced what, Weinberg argues, can best be described as impressive works of Jewish humanism. (Audio, 68 minutes.)

Read more at Podcast of Jewish Ideas

More about: Italian Jewry, Jewish-Christian relations, Renaissance

Expand Gaza into Sinai

Feb. 11 2025

Calling the proposal to depopulate Gaza completely (if temporarily) “unworkable,” Peter Berkowitz makes the case for a similar, but more feasible, plan:

The United States along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE should persuade Egypt by means of generous financial inducements to open the sparsely populated ten-to-fifteen miles of Sinai adjacent to Gaza to Palestinians seeking a fresh start and better life. Egypt would not absorb Gazans and make them citizens but rather move Gaza’s border . . . westward into Sinai. Fences would be erected along the new border. The Israel Defense Force would maintain border security on the Gaza-extension side, Egyptian forces on the other. Egypt might lease the land to the Palestinians for 75 years.

The Sinai option does not involve forced transfer of civilian populations, which the international laws of war bar. As the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other partners build temporary dwellings and then apartment buildings and towns, they would provide bus service to the Gaza-extension. Palestinian families that choose to make the short trip would receive a key to a new residence and, say, $10,000.

The Sinai option is flawed. . . . Then again, all conventional options for rehabilitating and governing Gaza are terrible.

Read more at RealClear Politics

More about: Donald Trump, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula