it seems like everywhere I go israel is being hammered into the ground. idk what’s going on over there so I’m not taking either side. I have limited knowledge but I’m just going to ask you guys this since it seems like others don’t usually bring it up.

i bring up Hamas and how they hurt their own people and how they’ve killed and raped innocent people and even kids and it’s treated as like “yeah it’s bad but ISRAEL..” it always goes back to hate on Israel immediately. I’d just say why not look at the harm of both parties and criticize both? again idk the decade long conflict I’m just saying this as someone looking at both sides.

Historically, Jewish players have been spectacularly successful at chess, dominating the game far beyond what demographic proportions would predict. Despite making up a tiny fraction of the global population, about half of all undisputed World Chess Champions and roughly 40% to 50% of the highest-ranked historical players have been Jewish or of Jewish descent.

Culturally, chess integrated beautifully into Ashkenazi communities due to an emphasis on deep analytical study, strategy, and intellectual merit as a path toward professional advancement.

🧵 The Giants of the Board: A Mini-Thread on Great Jewish Chess Players:

Wilhelm Steinitz (1836–1900): The Austrian-Jewish legend who became the first official World Chess Champion in 1886 and fundamentally invented modern, positional chess theory.

Emanuel Lasker (1868–1941): A brilliant mathematician who succeeded Steinitz and held the World Championship title for a record-breaking 27 consecutive years, relying heavily on psychological warfare.

Mikhail Botvinnik (1911–1995): The "Patriarch" of the Soviet Chess School who dominated mid-20th-century chess, bringing a rigorous, scientific regime to opening preparation.

Mikhail Tal (1936–1992): Known as the "Magician from Riga," Tal remains beloved as the most dazzling, aggressive, and imaginative attacking player in chess history.

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008): Born to a Jewish mother (and biological Jewish father, Paul Nemenyi), Fischer single-handedly shattered the Soviet chess monopoly in 1972 and is widely considered one of the greatest natural geniuses to ever play.

Garry Kasparov (Rubinstein) (1963–Present): Born to a Jewish father, Kasparov held the world No. 1 ranking for a record 255 months and is regarded by many as the definitive Greatest of All Time (GOAT).

Judit Polgár (1976–Present): Pioneered by her father's intense educational experiment, she shattered gender barriers to become the greatest female chess player of all time, peaking in the top 10 players globally.

Honorable Mentions:

Levon Aronian (Aronov) (1982–Present): A former blitz world champion. His highest classical ranking was No. 2 position in the March 2014 FIDE world chess rankings with a rating of 2830, becoming the fourth highest-rated player in history.

Ian Nepomniachtchi (1990-Present): 2024 World Blitz Chess co-champion, alongside Magnus Carlsen. He is also a two-time Russian chess champion. He is one of very few players in history to have won two consecutive Candidates Tournaments. He is currently Russia's highest ranked active chess player.

Boris Gelfand (1968-Present): A six-time World Championship candidate (1991, 1994–95, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2013), he won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament, making him challenger for the World Chess Championship 2012.

I am fascinated by how Israel built an scientific and industrial base so quickly. How much of this was "home grown" versus skilled Jewish people emigrating there.

I know this is a broad question. Maybe you know some good books on the subject.

.

Specifically the Western Media and the Left Wing political ecosystem.

I’m not saying the Left would support Israel if they weren’t white but I do think various parts of the conversation on the Left would be much softer than they are now.

Apparently, people in France deny that the protesters are immigrants, or non-French born in France. That's despite the worldwide reports that confirm that, as well as all the videos and documentations from there.

And people don't seem to care about destroying entire streets, vandalizing French landmarks, burning city buildings, burning and looting stores, burning cars, attacking police force, etc.

No matter what this population will do - rape, steal, burn, cause chaos - people deny these issues and justify their causes. The Spain's issues in Ceuta as well - justified by the rest of spain.

It seems like the day of sobriety will never come. I thought one day everything will turn over the population that hates Israel, and the Europeans will see who they truly are. Doesn't it happen or am I just in a leftist echo chamber? Europeans users can also happily comment. I also live in the EU, but here people are already racist to this population and they're in a weak spot, so none of that is a thing.

Do you think it's:

— Bad and should be under under Jewish synagogue. Arabic signs removed.

— Good. You feel thanksful for Arabs taking care of the tombs and preserving it.

— Or you simply don't care about it?

How do you feel about it? Were any of you there?

That new AI generated 'music video' from the Israeli Government. That was actually awful to look at. What on earth were they thinking?

This is the definition of Zionism I have always understood and used:

Zionism is simply the idea that Jews have the right to self-determination, or the idea that Israel should (continue to) exist.

I recognize that Zionism is a remarkably broad political ideology encompassing a wide range of political perspectives and beliefs. However, critics of Zionism often narrow its definition to a hyper-specific, and inaccurate or unrecognizable, set of political positions.

I want to refute these mischaracterizations with the most accurate definition of Zionism, supported by reputable historical and academic sources. What do you consider the most accurate definition of Zionism, and what reputable sources would you recommend to support it?

A weekly megathread for controversial topics, politics, current events, anything off-topic, and other discussions that are better suited for a single community thread.

I am not hating or downplaying other Jewish groups, or creating a divide.

But it's widely considered that Ashkenazi Jews have the highest average IQ among all the ethnicities. Close to 115. Higher than East Asians (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) who have the highest average IQ among the (independent) nations/countries.

26% of all Nobel Prize winners in science are Ashkenazi Jews.

While other Jewish groups score average (IQ) results. I wonder why it's like that? Did Ashkenazi Jews traditionally heavily rely on importance of education? Like Asian Americans doing nowadays?

Thanks.

I have been told by several people that to bring prescribed controlled substances, for Ambien, Klonopin and Carisoprodol, to israel for a 10 day tour, all I need is to bring them in their original pharmacy bottles. A few people have said to get a doctor’s note and ChatGBT even recommends getting a certificate from a Department of Health. What’s your best advice? I have been taking these drugs for many, many years and could not go 10 days without them.
Thanks for your help.

This is a comment I saw under a video explaining how Netanyahu is actually fairly
Liberal by Israeli standards
Is this off?

I just seen Israeli man saying Israeli government provides Gaza with a free water but Gazans aren't grateful at all.

Is it true?

I don’t think this problem is going away and every day seemingly brings another altercation with foreign authorities or US journalists. The consensus I’ve seen from Israelis seems to be that the settlers are fanatical at best, terrorists at worst. What’s the solution here?

This is inspired in part by this NYT opinion piece:

https://archive.ph/2026.10.09-050725/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/09/opinion/israel-elections-palestinians.html

Specifically this portion:

Nor would change be easy. Reversing a trajectory five decades in the making with a public that has moved to the right and a security establishment increasingly enmeshed with the settlement project is a heavy lift. Just curbing settler violence, which is not a politically difficult issue, would take more than periodic arrests of bad apples. It would require pulling settler-heavy reserve battalions from West Bank duty and cutting off the funding and land that sustain illegal outposts. It requires an Israeli government willing to treat settler violence as a governance failure rather than a public relations problem.