Jonathan Kesselman
By Jonathan Kesselman
-
Culture Part V: Writing in My Father’s Footsteps
After the battle at Tamra, my father’s commander, Norm Schutzman, moved the men of B-Company up to the coast North of Haifa for more training. In late fall, Schutzman received orders that the entire 7th Brigade, including his company, was to clear the Galilee of Arab troops to the Lebanese border. Schutzman’s company’s assignment was…
-
Culture Part IV: Writing in My Father’s Footsteps
Prior to the arrival of my father and the first wave of Machalniks in May 1948, the fledgling Israeli army had taken huge losses. These losses weren’t simply because the soldiers were heavily outnumbered, but because the Israeli army had not yet become a unit: It was still a disorganized patchwork quilt of antagonistic freedom…
-
Culture Part III: Writing in My Father’s Footsteps
My father arrived in Marseilles in late July 1948, as a lace salesman from Belgium. Gloria Kessler, a nurse working at a hospital in Chicago, had decided to give up her career to smuggle herself into Palestine to help. She, too, received falsified documents from Teddy Kollek at the Hotel Fourteen and remembers sailing with…
-
Culture Part II: Writing in My Father’s Footsteps
When my father was 9, his mother, Bessie, developed cancer. At the age of 12, my father returned home from school to find all the mirrors in his home covered; Bessie had passed away, and my father was told by his father, Bennie, a fruit salesman, that Bessie had died because my father had been…
-
Culture Part I: Writing in My Father’s Footsteps
This is a story of loyalty and betrayal. It’s a story of bravery and subtlety, of mortal stakes on a global stage. It is also a thrilling story filled with “cloak-and-dagger elements,” featuring storied American men both famous and infamous: Harry Truman, Mickey Marcus, Hank Greenspun, Jimmy Hoffa and Charles Winters (the man who was…
-
Culture Being a Profound Critical Analysis of Contemporary Jewish Comedic Literature
Jew-Jitsu: The Hebrew Hands of Fury By Rabbi Daniel Eliezer and Paul Kupperberg Citadel, 112 pages, $12.95. Shtick Shift: Jewish Humor in the 21st Century By Simcha Weinstein Barricade Books, 192 pages, $15.95. How To Profit From the Coming Rapture: Getting Ahead When You’re Left Behind By Steve and Evie Levy, as told to Ellis…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Music In 1964, when he was just 23, Bob Dylan wrote the prophetic anthem that encapsulates Trump’s America
- 2
News Jewish groups targeted Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil — then ICE arrested him
- 3
Fast Forward Trump allies target Jewish judge — and his wife — after ruling on Palestinian activist
- 4
Fast Forward What does the election of Mark Carney mean for Canadian Jews and Israel?
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Trump’s crusade against Columbia is ripped straight from Hungary’s anti-Soros playbook
-
Fast Forward How a Jewish man with Parkinson’s won ‘Jeopardy!’ after 24 years and a missed voicemail
-
Fast Forward After welcoming far-right politicians, Israel’s antisemitism conference is hemorrhaging speakers
-
Fast Forward Trump’s antisemitism chief shares ‘Jew card’ post from white supremacist
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
