It was one of the nicest New Year’s Eves I can remember; with an old and dear friend I went to the first performance of Donizetti’s opera about Mary Queen of Scots.The NYT opera critic Anthony Tommasini gave a rave review to the Met’s New Year’s Eve performance of Maria Stuarda, and it was eminently […]

With the growing Via Meadia team I’d like to wish our readers a healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.  We’re grateful to all the readers who made 2012 the best year in the history of our young site, and we hope to serve you at least as well in 2013.Today, January 1, is the last […]

The big news in Israel last week: a politically marginal Arab woman and left leaning Palestinian activist had her political rights upheld, while a major right wing Jewish political leader with ties to the political establishment faces a tough investigation.An Israeli Arab candidate who took part in Gaza flotilla has been allowed to stand for […]

Terrorists have dug themselves firmly in to northern Mali, according to an Associated Press reporter who made it into and out of remote Mopti with tales of Islamist fighters preparing to stay forever: Deep inside caves, in remote desert bases, in the escarpments and cliff faces of northern Mali, Islamic fighters are burrowing into the […]

As Egypt’s Islamists surge and its currency sinks, a Jon Stewart-like TV comedian is mixing it up with many of the country’s religious sheiks: As a new Constitution engraves Islam ever more firmly into Egyptian law, a young comic’s escalating battle with a group of ultraconservative television sheiks has become an early skirmish over the […]

Egyptians have lived through two years of instability and revolution. Recently, they’ve faced a new menace: a crash in the Egyptian pound. Not only is the local money losing value; when crowds of panicky Egyptians stormed to the banks and money changers looking to switch pounds for dollars and euros, supplies of foreign currency ran […]

To see where the discussion on higher ed reform is going, look this piece from editorial writer Charles Lane in the Washington Post. At the University of Minnesota, the number of employees with “human resources” or “personnel” in their job titles has grown from 180 to 272 since the 2004-05 academic year. Since 2006, the […]

The Obama administration issued long expected guidelines about the implementation of the health care law yesterday, and if this NY Times report has it right, a huge loophole in the new law could leave millions of Americans still uninsured.The issue?As the IRS apparently interprets the law, employers with more than 50 workers are required to […]

Back in the beginning of the Christmas season, I wrote about the way the gospel Christmas narratives “roll the credits” by giving genealogical tables that link Jesus to Jewish history. In contemplating Christmas, we should never forget that the first Christmas was first and foremost a Jewish event. Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds, the […]

At this time of year thought naturally turns to New Year’s resolutions, and there’s one that the team at Via Meadia is thinking hard about making.Resolve to do something this year that will help poor people in rural areas of Africa, promote healthy African development, and help preserve endangered wildlife. And have a thrilling good […]