Anti-Semitism
The Twenty-Seventh ManWednesday, November 28, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On the night of August 12, 1952, a group of Yiddish writers was executed on Joseph Stalin’s orders for the crime of writing while Jewish. The executions were the tragic culmination of the grand romance between Jewish intellectuals and Marxism.
An Open Letter to Philip RothTuesday, November 20, 2012 by D.G. Myers | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Say it ain’t so. The news that you have decided to retire from the “awful field” of writing fiction is terribly upsetting. Not because your readers and critics might have paid more respectful attention to Nemesis if they’d only known that it was going to be your last book.
Self-Hatred or Self-Help?Thursday, November 15, 2012 by Ben Cohen | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
One of the most insightful scenes from Larry David's comedy series, Curb Your Enthusiasm, begins with David and his on-air wife, Cheryl, standing at the entrance to a movie theater. As they chatter aimlessly, David starts whistling a tune composed by Richard Wagner.
Jacob’s Sons in the Bishop’s PalaceWednesday, November 14, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The current Baron Rothschild is one of the British philanthropists backing a new museum of Christianity in Britain, built around a dazzling series of thirteen Baroque paintings, each over eight feet tall.
Renaissance MenMonday, November 5, 2012 by Adina M. Yoffie | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Hugo Grotius. Isaac Abravanel. Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. These are not names normally mentioned in the same breath, but taken together, their experiences with and thoughts regarding interfaith encounters are instructive.
Does Jacob Hate Esau?Monday, October 29, 2012 by Jerome A. Chanes | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Jews have traditionally kept non-Jews at arm’s length. The rabbinic approach to anti-Semitism may be summarized as Halakhah hi b’yadu’a she-Eisav sonei et Yaakov, “It is an established normative principle that Esau hates Jacob.”
Adorno, Butler, and the Death of IronyFriday, September 28, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Irony cannot exist in isolation; something is ironic only in relation to a larger pattern of events or behavior. Every three years, the city of Frankfurt awards its Adorno Prize to honor scholarly achievement in philosophy, music, film, and theater.
At Last, ZionFriday, September 21, 2012 by Charles Krauthammer | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Milan Kundera once defined a small nation as "one whose very existence may be put in question at any moment; a small nation can disappear, and it knows it." Israel is a small country. This is not to say that extinction is its fate. Only that it can be.
Munich MisrememberedWednesday, September 5, 2012 by Daniel Gelernter | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Forty years ago, on September 5, 1972, eight Arab terrorists broke into the Israeli apartments at the Munich Olympic village, murdered two athletes, and took nine hostage. After a day of failed negotiations, aborted rescue attempts, and a shootout, not a single hostage survived.
Neologism and NationalismThursday, August 30, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
There has never been agreement about Zionism. Not only is the idea of Jewish nationalism controversial, the very word “Zionism” arouses unique passions, as a recent controversy highlights.
Editors' Picks
Facing Hungary’s Demons Thomas Ország-Land, Jewish Chronicle. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has "foolishly released the long suppressed, xenophobic hatreds festering in Hungary’s collective consciousness. Those demons are likely to destroy him and capture his people."
Wandering Jew Philologos, Forward. How did Tradescantia zebrina, a purple flower native to Mexico, acquire the nickname "Wandering Jew" in Europe? And, "should we be complaining to the Anti-Defamation League?"
After Chavez Uriel Heilman, JTA. The death of Hugo Chavez brings to an end a regime that cultivated hostility toward Jews where little existed before. But Venezuela's Jews aren't breathing a sigh of relief yet.
The Outsider Joseph Epstein, Weekly Standard. A Jew who dismissed his native Romania as "a sewer," Saul Steinberg became "the only major artist in the United States who is not associated with any art movement or style, past or present."
The Land of No Anti-Semitism Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz. Azerbaijan’s Jews, citizens of a pro-Israel nation with a venerable Jewish heritage, are sure that "there is no anti-Semitism here and there never has been." But they depend on the president's favor.
Alliance of Caliphates Claudia Rosett, National Review. Kofi Annan launched the United Nations’ “Alliance of Civilizations” with the aim of “bridging divides.” Now it provides an independently bankrolled forum for Islamist anti-Zionism.
FDR and the Jews Marc Fisher, Moment. “Roosevelt sounded at times like a Zionist, at times like a skeptic about Palestine’s capacity to absorb new settlers, and at times, when speaking to anti-Semites, like an anti-Semite himself.”
Excuses, Excuses Norman Geras, Fathom. Critics of Israel often distinguish between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. But Israel is increasingly being used as an alibi for anti-Semitism, in four specific ways.
Educating Adolf Felix Bohr, Spiegel. Biographers of Hitler have long pondered what transformed him from a struggling artist into a demagogue. A new book claims that the key lies in his military service after World War I.
Surviving Stalin Ben Cohen, Tablet. Stalin's "Doctors' Plot" is now seen by many historians as the opening move of a grand plan to deport and eliminate Soviet Jews. They were saved only by Stalin's own death.