Jerome A. Chanes
By Jerome A. Chanes
-
Culture Moses and Anarchy
What are we to make of our biblical narratives? Jacques Derrida famously said that no comment on a text is ever innocent — that the act of exegesis means intervening in the text, asserting power over it and the reader. Such is the case with the legendary Judith Malina’s highly charged play, “Korach: The Biblical…
-
Culture Lies and Provocation
A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction By Ruth Franklin Oxford University Press, 272 pages, $29.95 Theodor Adorno famously declared that “to write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric” — and indeed impossible. Ruth Franklin, in her thoughtful work of literary history and analysis, “A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction,”…
-
Culture Blackened by Filthy Lucre
Jews and Money: The Story of a Stereotype By Abraham H. Foxman Palgrave/Macmillan. 256 pages, $26 Capitalism and the Jews By Jerry Z. Muller Princeton University Press. 272 pages, $24.95 The nexus of Jews, capitalism and money became an unholy one early on. One side of this coin is the classic anti-Semitic myth of “Jewish…
-
Culture If English Was Good Enough for Jesus Christ…
Pen of Iron: American Prose and the King James Bible By Robert Alter Princeton University Press, 208 pages, $19.95 We are truly in a “biblical” era. The sheer volume of contemporary work translating, commenting on, interpreting and exegeting the Bible is astounding for what one would think would be a well-worked mine. But for Robert…
-
Culture Why We Need Akkadian
An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew: Etymological- Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents With Supplements on Biblical Aramaic By Hayim ben Yosef Tawil KTAV Publishing House, 456 pages, $125 Reading the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, is tough. For one thing, it’s very, very old, and not refracting the text through our 21st-century prism is difficult. For…
-
Culture Commentary Quite Contrary
The Commentators’ Bible: The JPS Miqra’ot Gedolot — Leviticus Edited, translated and annotated by Michael Carasik Jewish Publication Society, 270 pages, $75 The act of exegesis is not an innocent or a neutral enterprise. Jacques Derrida taught us that exegesis means intervening in the text and asserting power over it, and thereby over the reader….
-
Opinion What the Congress Gave American Jews
When the American Jewish Congress closes its doors — an outcome that increasingly appears imminent — there won’t be many mourners saying Kaddish. Instead, the prevailing communal sentiment will probably be: “We have too many agencies; one less will not matter!” The serious financial problems that had plagued the AJCongress over recent decades became a…
-
Culture Communication Breakdown
For The Soul Of France: Culture Wars In The Age Of Dreyfus By Frederick Brown Knopf, 336 pages, $28.95 The Dreyfus case has never been out of season. A century and more has passed since the conviction by court-martial for treason of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the subsequent legal campaign on his behalf, the ultimate reversal…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
- 2
Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
- 3
Fast Forward Trump AG nominee Matt Gaetz has left a trail of antisemitic comments
- 4
Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Netanyahu now faces arrest in several Western countries following ICC warrant
-
Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
-
News What Mike Huckabee’s ‘Kids Guide to Israel’ says about his views
-
Opinion I’m a rabbi in Columbus. Here’s my answer to the neo-Nazis
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
