An old Southern black song cries out: "God gave Noah the rainbow sign; No more water, the fire next time." Long before that, the ancient rabbis spoke of a mabul eysh -- a "flood of fire." In their days, they were fantasies. But in our generation, the flood of fire has come upon us in the form of global scorching...

From now on, Jewish groups will likely think twice before using any variation on the word "assimilation." That's one lesson learned from the recent brouhaha over a 34-second commercial on Israeli television promoting the Jewish Agency for Israel's Masa program, which brings young Jews to Israel for sustained periods of work, study and volunteering. The advertisement, which paired photos of...