Pre-Modern & Modern
A Convenient HatredTuesday, March 6, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
With some 1,000 books currently in print on the subject, does the world desperately need another tome on anti-Semitism? What difference will it make, when anti-Israelism provides only the latest justification for Europe's persistent prejudice against Jews and anti-Semitic views are shared by 15 percent of Americans and 90 percent of Muslims worldwide?
Evil GeniusThursday, February 23, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Very little anti-Semitic literature is new; most of its tropes seem ageless, continually recombined and updated by haters reacting only dimly to their actual circumstances. Few anti-Semitic works exhibit literary or lesser, sociological gifts. The one exception is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Hear, O Friends of IsraelThursday, February 2, 2012 by Daniel Johnson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1987, exactly a quarter-century ago, the appearance of a work of Jewish history caused a stir. For one thing, the author was not Jewish; for another, the book was unashamedly supportive of the State of Israel, which even then was enough to provoke hostility, especially on the Left.
Bloomsbury’s RabbiTuesday, January 31, 2012 by Matthew Ackerman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A translator stands between two languages and between the two worlds that the languages represent. If he does his job well, he may belong in neither place. Such was the fate of Samuel Koteliansky, an emigré Russian Jew who translated Chekhov, befriended D.H. Lawrence and Katherine Mansfield, and circulated on the fringes of the Bloomsbury group.
The Trouble with HitchensFriday, December 16, 2011 by Benjamin Kerstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
When Christopher Hitchens passed away yesterday at the age of 62, the encomia started pouring in almost immediately. Most of this praise is deserved, as the acumen of Hitchens's muscular criticism and the wit of his ripostes will be with us for a long time to come.
Creating the Master RaceFriday, October 28, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan's peaceful Battery Park is an unlikely place to explore some of the 20th century's most horrific evils. Deadly Medicine, an exhibit on Nazi racial science, is a sobering examination of the intertwined history of science and evil.
The Yiddish Silver ScreenThursday, October 27, 2011 by Nahma Sandrow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Nobody is sure exactly how many movies were ever made in Yiddish. James Hoberman's exhaustive study Bridge of Light (2010) lists some hundred such films, made in the 20th century primarily in America, Germany, Austria, Romania, Poland, and Russia.
All These VowsFriday, October 7, 2011 by Lawrence Grossman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
No one knows for sure how Kol Nidrei originated. It is by far the best-known Yom Kippur prayer, but in fact it is neither a prayer nor actually recited on Yom Kippur. Rabbis have never liked it.
Mel and the MaccabeeThursday, September 22, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Australian-American actor and director Mel Gibson—he of the anti-Semitic outbursts, the abused girlfriend, The Passion of the Christ—has just closed a deal to make a film for Warner Bros. with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas about the life of Judah Maccabee.
The Wages of DurbanWednesday, September 21, 2011 by Arch Puddington | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the days just prior to the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) was very much in the news, and for reasons that are altogether relevant to the mass murder that took place on September 11, 2001.
Editors' Picks
What Jews Should Know about the New Testament Amy-Jill Levine, Biblical Archaeology Review. By reading the New Testament in its historical contexts, Jews can better comprehend not only Christianity's polemics, but its point of departure from Judaism.
Arab Fairy Tales Lyn Julius, Times of Israel. In countries that ethnically cleansed their Jews, the media now hail the restoration of Jewish buildings as somehow indicative of pluralism and tolerance.
Theater of the Absurd Danny Ayalon, Foreign Policy. The world's worst human rights offenders have hijacked the UN Human Rights Council, and Israel isn't going to put up with it any more.
Will Churches Boycott Israel? Giulio Meotti, Ynet. The five biggest mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have all debated or adopted policies intended to divest from or boycott Israel. And much will be decided in the next few months.
How the Left Turned against the Jews Nick Cohen, Standpoint. As Communism gave way to anti-colonialism, Israel remained a target for special rage on the Left, even though Zionism was both a settler movement and an anti-colonial movement.
After Grant Expelled the Jews Lawrence Grossman, Forward. We'll probably never know how much of Grant's change-of-course was sincere and how much politically expedient. But he was not the last president "good for the Jews" to hold paradoxically prejudiced views about them.
From Enemies to Friends Ephraim Mirvis, Jerusalem Post. Medieval Britain originated the blood libel and was the first European country to expel Jews. Yet in 1942, it was Britain that created first national interfaith organization between Christians and Jews.
The Dreyfus of Classical Music Benjamin Ivry, Forward. Once vilified by Schumann and Wagner for not being German enough, now Giacomo Meyerbeer's music is criticized for not being Jewish enough.
Together We Stand Bernard-Henri Lévy, Haaretz. In the wake of the murders in Toulouse, all of France must stand united against anti-Semitism, which is an attack on the republican ideals which all of France holds dear.
Europe's Rising Tide Anti-Defamation League. Classical anti-Semitic attitudes are not only widespread across Europe but have risen significantly since 2009 in traditionally more tolerant countries, such as Britain and France.