the definite article 39
Trump's bark, Hashem's quark, Jewish writers who erase Israel, free Jewish day school?
OK – today we are starting with two articles on education. The first concerns a case coming up before the Supreme Court: can a charter school that is included as free public education include a parochial curriculum – or does that violate 1st Amendment protections of separation of church and state. If the Supreme Court allows the charter school as public education, this might have implications for funding Jewish day schools as well.
Next, a rather depressing article out of City Journal about the failures of education even when more money is added to the equation. At the very end, the writer makes a comment about “unnecessary” caps on class size, which, as a former teacher, does not seem to be an unnecessary policy at all!
Hard to understand the depths of the human soul, but there were Israeli captives in Gaza who became more religious during their suffering.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/agam-berger-the-hostage-who-kept-the-sabbath-332e54d5
Yuval Levin parses the executive order that limits the amount an NIH grant recipient can earmark for overhead costs. Levin’s problem is not with the policy itself, but the way the new administration is communicating its agenda by barking out orders rather than by dialogue and leadership.
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/deeper-question-nih-grant-overhaul
Two articles here about God and science. The first is from the Claremont Review of Books and addressees the philosophical and religious implications of quantum theory. A good read.
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/do-you-have-to-be-stupid-to-believe-in-god/
This second article is an interesting approach to the idea of mythmaking in our understanding of science.
https://www.marginaliareviewofbooks.com/post/myths-of-supernatural-belief-in-a-secular-age
Akiva Schick of JRB wonders what is behind the spate of books by American Jewish authors that erase the Jewish state from their consciousness and sometimes from the world entirely.
https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-life/17852/boy-meets-girl-meets-apocalypse/