Whose Holocaust?

For much of Europe, today is the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dedicated his address this year to children murdered by the Nazis, with the message that "the best tribute to the memory of these children is an ongoing effort to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust, so that no such horror is visited upon future generations."

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Trotsky Eats and Runs

I first heard the name Trotsky when I was seven years old. My grandfather, a Jewish tailor from Belarus who arrived in the goldene medine and pulled himself up by his bootstraps to own a men's suit factory in New York, had just gotten a swept-back haircut. He called it a Trotsky.

Abraham Cahan, American Author  D.G. Myers,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Abe Cahan, Trotsky's benefactor, was not just an editor but the author of an important American novel.  SAVE

Trotsky the Jew  Richard Pipes,  Tablet.  Attempts to treat Trotsky as an "eminent Jewish figure" must glide over the more savage features of his thought and behavior.  SAVE

Trotsky's Jewish Question  Robert S. Wistrich,  Forward.  Although Trotsky abandoned Judaism and was actively hostile to Zionism, he was one of the first to warn of the threat to the Jews posed by Nazi Germany.  SAVE

Lenin's Bad Blood  Ruth R. Wisse,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Lenin's great-grandfather was a shtetl Jew who married a Christian, then denounced Jews to the tsar. Perhaps violent paranoia ran in the family.  SAVE

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Our Defenders at the CIA

News flash: Top-secret intelligence memos written during the last years of the Bush administration describe covert activities—in intelligence parlance, a "false flag" operation—by Israeli Mossad officers, posing as American CIA agents.

Did Israel Run a False Flag Operation?  Michael Rubin,  Contentions.  Rather than allow the intelligence community to sway policy with innuendo, Petraeus should either back the accusation or declare it baseless.  SAVE

The Mossad  Elliot Jager,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  Historically, Israel's Secret Intelligence Service has been a lightning rod for international condemnation.  SAVE

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America the Biblical

The Greeks did not invent equality. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, and the gang famously believed that the rich are different from you and me—not merely because they are shaped by their privileges but because they are actually, literally made of superior stuff.

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece  Kurt A. Raaflaub, Josiah Ober, Robert W. Wallace,  University of California Press.  Athens may have recognized political equality among citizens, but not just anybody could be a citizen.  SAVE

Americanism: the Fourth Great Western Religion  David Gelernter,  Random House.  "America is no secular republic," Gelernter says; "it's a biblical republic."  SAVE

The Scepter Shall Not Depart from Judah  Alan L. Mittleman,  Lexington Books.  There is a "theological-political predicament" in modern Jews' spiritual dependence on their surrounding political systems.  SAVE

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