The bitterly contentious exchange involving New Atheists Sam Harris and Bill Maher teaming up against actor Ben Affleck on the matter of Islam shows us quite explicitly the dangerous pitfalls of Interfaith Dialogue and its fatally flawed process. Harris and the other New Atheists, following the lead of the Interfaith Dialogue movement, militantly isolate religion from its contexts. Instead, our understanding of religion needs to take into account the history, culture, and politics that has impacted its development.

Hundreds of young Jews from around the country converged on Harvard over the weekend for the Open Hillel conference. The event succeeded in creating a space where open dissent on Israel is welcomed and where conversation and debate is the norm. At the heart of the Open Hillel network is a conviction that Hillel should be a place that welcomes all Jews–not just those who follow the establishment line on Israel.

John Kerry’s address to the Gaza Donors Conference in Cairo on Sunday was remarkably vacant, if not disingenuous. Reading through Kerry’s address paragraph by paragraph is an exercise in futility. Yet the political ramifications are extreme. Everyone knows that after the Gaza war a profound reckoning is needed. Yet John Kerry – and the Gaza Donors Conference – isn’t even close

The NYT wonders, smartly, why the world should pay to rebuild Gaza when it will just be destroyed again. As to which side is responsible for the “collapse” of peace talks, the editorial is silent. As to which side is responsible for the destruction of Gaza, and for the likelihood of it being repeated, the editorial is also silent.

Religion writer Mark Oppenheimer stereotypes Rev. Bruce Shipman, the pro-Palestinian priest, as a member of an elite WASP group that dislikes Jews

Is it time to pay up for what has become all too easy verbiage as the people of Gaza were slaughtered? Marc Ellis reflects on the prophetic message of minister Loren McGrail, who quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer on opposing fascism

“Increasingly, Israel was challenged and spurned by some of us,” Rabbi Angela Buchdahl says to a leading reform synagogue in Manhattan before imploring her congregation to love Israel because American Jews are the country’s “strategic allies.”

Read a letter the Atlanta chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace sent to Atlanta area Rabbis, the Atlanta Jewish Federation, and the board of trustees of Congregation Etz Chaim calling on them to repudiate Rabbi Lewis’s shocking Rosh Hashanah sermon and to take a stand against anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racism in their synagogues and organizations.

Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of the NYT, says that the NYT should disclose the fact that neoconservative columnist David Brooks’s son joined the Israeli army because he’s involved “in a serious international conflict.” Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor, says the Times doesn’t need to disclose the fact.

Martin Indyk says Democratic politicians are having less to do with Israel because the party base doesn’t support the country, and Obama’s recent indifference to Israel suggests he wants nothing to do with the country. He told Israel what it had to do years ago and Israelis ignored him.