Shayna Zamkanei
By Shayna Zamkanei
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Opinion Iraqi Victims Of The Nazis Deserve Compensation. Why Is Israel Denying Them?
This past week, the government of Israel announced that the history of North African Jews during World War II would be incorporated into the Holocaust curriculum. “For years, the story of Jews living in Muslim countries under the Nazi occupation has been absent from our discourse,” Minister of Education Rafi Peretz said. “The painful stories…
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Life The True Story of Hanukkah Is Not The Miracle of Oil. It’s Something Far More Insidious.
Why do we light Hanukkah candles? We tell our children how to light and when to light but we don’t tell them the real reason we light. Most people believe that we light Hanukkah candles because a single pot of oil – which was meant to last one day to light the Temple’s Candelabra –…
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Opinion Why Move to Free Chained Women Will Only Further Shackle Them
On Monday, the government of Israel announced that it found a solution to a problem that has long plagued Orthodox women. A new bill purports to help agunoth, or women who haven’t received a religious bill of divorce (known as a get) from their husbands. This means that they are chained to these husbands (agunah…
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Opinion American Orthodox Rabbis Don’t Trust Women By Themselves In Mikvehs. Why?
In the past few years, the American Jewish establishment has spoken out against the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s refusal — sometimes retroactive — to recognize conversions and marriages performed by American rabbis, one of whom, most notably, oversaw the conversion of Ivanka Trump. For many American Jews, the chief rabbinate was, once again, being unnecessarily strict…
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Life Why Prenups Don’t Work, And What To Do About It
Last year, the issue of agunoth or “chained women” — women who are unable to remarry — hit popular culture in the form of a movie, “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem.” The Israeli film, nominated for a Golden Globe and selected as the country’s contender for the Oscar’s Best Foreign Language film category, follows…
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Opinion Jews From Arab Lands Got Their Refugee Day — But Is It Zionist?
On November 30, the State of Israel will mark for the second time an annual day commemorating the exodus of Jews from Arab countries, otherwise dubbed “Jewish Refugee Day” or “Jewish Nakba Day.” For many Israeli Jews of Middle Eastern descent, this day is a long-sought form of recognition: The Israeli government is finally recognizing…
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Opinion Memories of an Iraqi Pogrom and What It Means Today
Besides indulging in dairy and abstaining from sleep, Shavuot signifies the offering of the first fruits in the Land of Israel, the receiving of the Torah and the story of Ruth the Moabite. For Iraqi Jews, however, Shavuot also represents a time of personal commemoration of the Farhud, the “violent dispossession” that rocked the ancient…
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Opinion Do We Have Lag B’Omer All Wrong?
On April 28, Jews will light bonfires and celebrate Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer. For many, Lag B’Omer is a joyous respite from the customary mourning between Passover and Shavuot. But neither the festivities of the day, nor the sobriety of the seven weeks, have their origins in any…
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