• The barrier near the West Bank village of Bil’in, a source of concentrated protest ever since the Israeli Supreme Court ordered it gone nearly four years ago, has begun to be removed. [Ynet]
• Prompted by Goldblog, Friend-of-The-Scroll Rabbi Andy Bachman pens the best response yet to the Awl essay. [Water Over Rocks]
• Speaking at Israel’s Presidential Conference, Dennis Ross—the adviser seen as the strongest pro-Israel voice within the White House—called on Israel to return to negotiations in order to forestall delegitimization. [Haaretz]
• Gal Beckerman talks to Natan Sharansky about the recently deceased Yelena Bonner. [Forward]
• Name Jewish celebrity baby children! [Kveller]
• Ron Kaplan profiles slugger Shawn Green. [NJ Jewish News]
Rebecca Goldstein, author of Nextbook Press’s Betraying Spinoza, advises that if philosophers were stocks in a market, you’d want to dump Descartes and go long on Spinoza. Somehow, that reminds me of this:
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.