Eric Frey
By Eric Frey
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Opinion A Storied Sports Club in Vienna Scores One for the History Books
The Hakoah athletic club was founded by Viennese Jews in 1909 in reaction to a wave of antisemitism that kept Jews off of most regular sports teams. Hakoah grew to become one of the world’s largest amateur athletic clubs, even winning the Austrian soccer championship during the 1920s. The occupation of Austria by Nazi Germany…
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Opinion Capitalism in Crisis
The fallout of America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis goes beyond the economic realm. More than even its military failures in Iraq, the decline in America’s economic fortunes has damaged its global standing, as well as the attractiveness of its political and economic model in the eyes of many Europeans. Even for sympathetic observers, the events that…
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Opinion The Continental Divide Isn’t So Wide
In most of Europe, the days when cigarette smoke was part of every dining experience are gone. Smoking bans are spreading all over the continent; on January 1, even France and Germany will join the crowd, banning tobacco in virtually all public entertainment facilities. Britain, Ireland, Italy and a score of other countries have already…
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Opinion Europe Is Not Impressed by Walt and Mearsheimer
Last week John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt came here to Vienna, as well as to Frankfurt and Berlin, to promote the German-language version of their controversial book “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.” The two American academics had reason to expect a warmer reception than they had received back home, and true to expectations…
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Opinion Western Europe’s Reluctant Lurch Toward Bush on Iran
When France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, suggested last month that war may be the only way to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, he sounded more like a Washington hawk than your typical French politician. Kouchner is not the only top European official who is changing his tune on Iran. The obstinacy of Iranian President…
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Opinion My Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah Lesson
A fortnight ago, my 13-year-old daughter Isabel staged the biggest rebellion in her life: She celebrated her bat mitzvah. In receiving an aliyah and reading from the Torah like any of her male Jewish peers, Isabel put on a demonstration of equality that, at least in this proud father’s eyes, may help make Vienna’s small…
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Opinion There’s a Price for Paying Ransom for Hostages
For all the headlines they grab, the kidnapping of European and Asian hostages in Iraq and Afghanistan is far from the worst of the many woes afflicting the two countries. But the damage caused by these incidents goes far beyond individual human tragedy, mostly thanks to the hapless reactions of the victims’ governments. Their willingness…
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Opinion A Racist Stench Rises Out of Cologne
Ralph Giordano’s recent criticism of a mosque being prominently constructed in Cologne earned him denunciations from fellow Jews and liberals for supposedly supporting the racist agenda of right-wing extremists. The respected German writer, however, is hardly the only Jewish liberal to finds himself with strange new bedfellows. The controversy Giordano triggered is typical of the…
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