Jack Lew, Obama’s new chief of staff, is the third Jewish official in the last 10 years to run the White House, after Rahm Emanuel and Josh Bolten

Plus, microarchaeology in Ashkelon, ranking Spielberg’s hits, and more

Support for President Obama is sagging among a key Democratic voting bloc. Now his campaign has 11 months to win back Jewish voters.

Ben-Gurion repeatedly faced down crises by fearlessly rejecting retreat and useless compromise. Obama would do well to follow his model.

Plus Iranian bagels, the Irvine 11, Clinton vs. Bibi, and more

When Israelis and Palestinians choose politics over music, they’re guilty of the gravest offense in the Torah: acting like Amalek

Barack Obama’s poll numbers are down among Jews—and that’s normal. For more than 30 years, nearly every incumbent president has fared less well among Jews in his re-election effort than in his first campaign.

Jordan’s late King Hussein and his unsuccessful efforts to make peace get a courtier’s treatment in the new memoir from Jack O’Connell, a former CIA station chief in Amman

The scandal seems to be less about Anthony Weiner’s sexual social networking than the fact that he got caught. As technology thins the line between public and private, do politicians retain a right to be human?

How social media felled a rising star, and how his Jewishness was involved