• Rep. Ron Paul is very loudly excluded from next week’s Republican Jewish Coalition candidate forum, prompting the Paulistas to not be too happy. [Washington Jewish Week]
• President Obama’s standing with Jews has turned sharply for the better. Israeli Jews. [Politico]
• Syria is basically officially in a state of civil war. [NYT]
• Uriel Heilman has a counter-conventional wisdom take on the controversial Israeli ad campaign. [JTA The Telegraph]
• Go Spurs! The English Premiere League’s historically Jewish side has been on a tear. [WSJ]
• Following a lawsuit, a Chabad rabbi will be permitted to keep his beard while serving as a U.S. Army chaplain. [JTA]
Taking its cues from Phish, legendary D.C. post-punk band Fugazi has made recordings of most of its shows available for download. Literary editor David Samuels interviewed frontman Ian MacKaye a few months back.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.