Leonard Fein
By Leonard Fein
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Opinion The Two-Minute Zionism Elevator Pitch
In their May 2 debate in New York, Daniel Gordis and Peter Beinhart enthusiastically agreed on one matter that has been omitted from all the coverage of the event I’ve seen. And yet I am exceedingly uncomfortable with their argument. Here, reluctantly but necessarily foreshortened, is the heart of their exchange: The question put to…
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Opinion Debated Book Illuminates Essential Truth
I have many quibbles with Peter Beinart’s new bombshell book, “The Crisis of Zionism,” and, here and there, some substantive disagreements. But quibbles and disagreements alike pale in the bright true light Beinart casts on Zionism’s current condition — and ours. Nowhere does that light illuminate more than in a paragraph very near the end…
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Opinion Still a Proud, Disappointed Zionist
My father was skeptical of Zionism. He saw no reason to assume that the Jews would do better with nationalism than all the others had. Yet he winced only weakly when I joined Habonim Dror, the Labor Zionist youth movement, which became for the next 10 years as much my home/family as my family home…
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Opinion Is Our Tradition Liberal or Conservative?
Is the Jewish tradition inherently liberal or inherently conservative? The answer to this much-debated question is in fact quite simple: yes. If by “the Jewish tradition” we mean the sacred texts of our people, they can be read to defend a very wide variety of approaches to the world of politics. You certainly won’t find…
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Opinion Eyewitness to Slavery and Freedom
At our Seder, before we tackle the Haggadah itself, there are words — they change each year — that are intended to frame the proceedings. Here were some of this year’s introductory words: Any serious consideration of the freedom we celebrate at the Seder table is inherently political (as, obviously, was our rebellion against Pharaoh)….
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Opinion Americans Jews Are Different, Not ‘Partial’
In a speech a couple of weeks ago, the dazzling A.B. Yehoshua, one of Israel’s most praised (and praiseworthy) authors, asserted that: “They [American Jews] and us are not the same thing. They should come here more often. All the love they have for Israel, [yet] they were here for barely a five-day visit; barely…
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Opinion Remember Those Who Gave Us Hope
This year, at Pesach time, we mark the 69th anniversary of the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto. For more than half a century, we have spoken of the uprising at our Seder table, recalling that it was on Pesach night in 1943 that the hateful enemy stormed the remnant of our people who had not…
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Opinion Greg Smith Shined Light on Wall Street
On the day after his op-ed piece appeared in the New York Times on March 14, Greg Smith, a mid-level executive in the London office of Goldman Sachs had generated 19 million entries on Google. By three days later, that number had risen to 134 million. Smith’s announcement of his departure from the storied firm…
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