Mercy: A Movie Review
As collaboration between humans and machines accelerates, complexity grows—and so does the unpredictability of unintended consequences. That concern fuels Mercy, Timur Bekmambetov’s sleek sci-fi courtroom thriller starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson. On the surface, the film presents a tense, near-future drama about a police detective forced to stand trial before an artificial intelligence he helped create. Beneath the action, however, Mercy raises a far more troubling question: when we delegate judgment to machines, whose morality are we truly enforcing?
Cincinnati 2030 Refocused: Choosing Jewish Cincinnati
For many Jewish communities across the United States, the central challenge is no longer building institutions. It is providing clear pathways for engagement with them. That dilemma was the driving force behind the March 10th gathering at the Mayerson Jewish Community Center (JCC), where more than 100 leaders convened for a program titled “Cincinnati 2030 Refocused: From Aspiration to Action.” Leading the talk were Danielle Minson, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, and Brian Jaffee, CEO of the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati—two institutions that, as Jaffee put it plainly, “are the two main institutional funders of this Jewish community.”
Joshua Blatman: A Parent’s Reaction to the Shooting at Temple Israel
“Would you be interested in writing about how today’s shooting made you feel as a parent?” said the text message from my publisher.
“Oh man… I haven’t heard about it yet” I replied, startled.
Nazi Caricatures Are Returning to Ohio
On Tuesday, a sticker of a hook-nosed caricature, a relic of Der Stürmer, pointing at the rising price of unleaded at an Ohio gas station. Underneath, in dripping red letters, is a blunt, ancient accusation: “THE JEWS DID THIS!” This is not Nazi Germany. It is Ohio in 2026.
Iran Is Not a Debate For the Persian Jews of Cincinnati
For many Jewish Cincinnatians, Iran exists as a headline—another distant conflict, another geopolitical problem to be debated and then set aside. For Persian Jews of Cincinnati, it is something else entirely. It is memory. It is exile. And for some, it is a home they can never return to.