As against the conventional lamentations regarding the state of American Jewish life, I am pleased to inform you that on December 21, a rather large miracle is scheduled to begin. It falls under the heading “Who would have thunk?”The background: The Association for Jewish Studies, founded in 1969, is the learned society for professors ofRead More
The worldwide campaign to rob Israel of its good name has strained Zionism’s historic linkage with liberalism. Too many progressives have attacked Israel and Zionism, especially in academia. Palestinians have cleverly hijacked the rhetoric of human rights to rationalize that great human wrong, terrorism. The new, politically correct positionRead More
This past Tuesday the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee hosted Italy’s deputy prime minister, Gianfranco Fini. I didn’t attending the session. In plain terms, I boycotted it. I had no wish to play any part in sanitization ceremonies for fascists, neo-fascists and antisemites of all kinds.Fini is the leader of an important ItalianRead More
When the Overseas Needs and Distribution Committee of United Jewish Communities meets on December 8 to decide how to allocate federation money, an unavoidable conclusion must be reached: The federation system has to raise more funds for overseas needs and continue to place Israel as its prime responsibility. To decide otherwise given today’sRead More
Although Iraq’s future remains uncertain, it can be said at least that the long Ba’athist nightmare is now over. Moderate and secular Islamic voices now have an opportunity to foster a new pluralistic political system which simultaneously acknowledges the fact that Iraq’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim and guarantees Christians the sameRead More
This past week saw three exercises in revisiting history: the annual ritual, replete with conspiracy theories, of reexamining the Kennedy assassination; the Pulitzer Prize board reconsidering New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty’s prize for his discredited 1930s coverage of Soviet collectivization, and the FordRead More
A black-clad young man interrogated my wife and me in the foyer of Istanbul’s Neve Shalom synagogue, exactly three years ago.I thought about our visit to Turkey when Neve Shalom and another synagogue a few miles away, Beth Israel, were bombed this past Shabbat during the crowded morning services. At least 25 died.I remember that the security guyRead More
Australian Labor parliamentarian Michael Danby claims that it was only the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council that campaigned against the appropriateness of this month’s awarding of the Sydney Peace Prize to Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi, and that this campaign ended up being counter-productive (“Over the Top Protest DownRead More
Dispersed though we may be, there are moments when all Jews come together in one spot, or so it’s said. Tradition teaches that we all stood together at Mount Sinai to receive the Law. Sociologists tell us that we all, or nearly all, sit together around the Seder table and gather together for Atonement prayers. And last Saturday we were allRead More
Our annual Forward Fifty list, published last week, always seems to raise a host of eyebrows, mostly over who is left off. We try to list the 50 persons we see as most influential in shaping the public life of the American Jewish community, whether by their roles within the community or by public activity that advances Jewish values. TheRead More
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