Nathaniel Popper
By Nathaniel Popper
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Culture Study’s Claim On Intelligence Of Ashkenazim Spurs a Debate
The biological distinctiveness of ethnic groups is fraught scientific territory, but a new study plunges into the debate by theorizing that the high intelligence of Ashkenazic Jews is in the genes. The study, which will be published in the upcoming issue of Journal of Biosocial Science, argues that natural selection favored more intelligent Jews during…
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News Protest Against Gaza Plan Falls Short of Expectations
The first American effort to mount a mass protest against the Gaza disengagement plan fell short of expectations on Sunday. Organizers had hoped that 35,000 people would show up for a concert in New York’s Central Park, mounted to protest Prime Minister Sharon’s disengagement plan. The plan will evacuate Israeli troops and civilian settlements from…
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News British Museum in Moral Quandary Over Stolen Art
The British Museum wants to return a set of drawings stolen from a Jewish family by the Nazis — but in this case, doing the “moral” thing is against the law. At stake are four old master drawings that were taken in 1939 from the Feldmanns, a Czech family, and sold to the British Museum…
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News Sharon and a Critic Jostle for Limelight As Gaza Pullout Feud Comes to America
When Israeli Prime Minister Sharon comes to the United States this week to stump for his Gaza disengagement plan, he will be competing for the spotlight with the most prominent opponent of the initiative, Natan Sharansky. Sharansky, the former Soviet refusenik, resigned from Sharon’s government two weeks ago to protest the disengagement plan, but he…
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News Suit Highlights Failures on Art Restitution
As part of a renewed push to reclaim art seized by the Nazis, an elderly Holocaust survivor has filed suit against the Spanish government to regain a Camille Pissarro painting taken from his grandmother. Claude Cassirer, 84, filed suit Tuesday in a Los Angeles court, demanding the return of the painting — “Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi,…
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News Hang Up Those Togas, Stop Up That Keg!
Leon Berg remembers a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi knocking on the door of his fraternity bedroom in College Park, Md., one Saturday morning in the 1970s. Berg was otherwise engaged, to use a euphemism, and chased away the rabbi. Undeterred, the rabbi would periodically visit the brothers at Alpha Epsilon Pi — a Jewish fraternity house…
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News Wealthy Israelis Buying Up Swank New York Real Estate
Eloise is moving out of the Plaza, at least for now, and the Israelis are moving in. On the last day of April, the Plaza Hotel — mythical home to the mischievous children’s-book character — closed until 2007 for renovations. An Israeli owned-firm, Elad Properties, is planning to convert the New York landmark into a…
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News Sharansky Quits Cabinet Over Gaza Plan, Naming Conditions for a Return
Israeli political resignations usually receive more notice in Israel than in America. Not this week. Natan Sharansky’s resignation Monday from his post as Israel’s minister for Diaspora and Jerusalem affairs was front-page news in America, where he is still remembered as a former Soviet refusenik and has become known as a favorite of President Bush….
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