Opinion

• Opinion

  Singer at 100

  ‘Writers can stir the mind, but they can’t direct it,” Isaac Bashevis Singer said in an interview in 1978. “Time changes things, God changes things, the dictators change things, but writers can’t change anything.” As it turned out, Singer was wrong about writers. For evidence all he had to look at was his own life….

  2 min read
• Opinion

  Honoring Australia for Misguided Policies

  Earlier this month, the American Jewish Committee bestowed on visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard its highest honor, the American Liberties Medallion. Previous recipients of the award include Martin Luther King, Lyndon Johnson, Ronald Reagan, Vaclav Havel, Natan Sharansky and Elie Wiesel. The citation for Howard’s award reads: “in recognition of [his] longstanding commitment, as…

  By Geoffrey Brahm Levey Jun 25, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Proposed Law Pays for Belief With Bias

  The problem with the Workplace Religious Freedom Act is one of poor draftsmanship, not malice aforethought. Civil rights advocates and most religious groups are of one mind in supporting broader accommodation standards for religious dress, appearance or holy days. However, WRFA legislation, as it currently stands, is dangerously broad and would force the courts to…

  By Laura Murphy and Marsha Atkind Jun 25, 2004 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz Class assignment: Get to know your murdered Jewish neighbors

  

• Rob Eshman Liberal Zionists are under attack. A new book proves their work has never been more important

  

• Dan Perry How Israel became a country where teenagers murder each other in cold blood

  

• Emily Tamkin American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Shelter the Displaced Among Us

  On Monday, residents of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing development appeared in federal court, charging the Chicago Housing Authority with violating international human rights standards prohibiting forced evictions. For the first time, human rights laws on displacement are being used to contest the eviction of public housing residents in the United States. Now on trial is…

  By Jill Jacobs and Noah Leavitt Jun 25, 2004 | 4 min read
• Letters

  June 18, 2004

  U.S. Support for Israel Not Contingent on Gaza A June 4 news article quotes supporters of Prime Minister Sharon’s withdrawal plan as claiming that Israel’s failure to leave Gaza would set off a major clash between Israel and the United States (“U.S. Groups Warn Israel on Failure to Pull Out”). I and other representatives of…

  Jun 18, 2004 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom

  Contrary to the prevailing sentiment — and, for that matter, very substantial evidence — the sky is not falling down, nor is the world fatally ill. There is, in fact, cause for rejoicing. Please don’t misunderstand: I am not about to deny the dour assessment of where the world is these days. I will spare…

  By Leonard Fein Jun 18, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Across the Atlantic

  International summitry is a vexing mixture of overblown pomp and hard-nosed horse-trading, not always in equal measures, and observers must take care to separate substance from symbolism. And yet there are moments when the magnitude of the event speaks for itself, and the symbolism becomes the substance. The current round of summitry is such a…

  Jun 18, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Judicious Punt

  The United States Supreme Court seems to have left just about everybody feeling grumpy following its narrowly cast ruling this week upholding the current wording of the Pledge of Allegiance. And that’s probably just as well. This was a case that nobody could win, and that’s how the court left it — for now, at…

  Jun 18, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Century After Herzl, Vienna Reimagines Zion

  At the turn of the last century, a wave of culture washed over Vienna, carrying Central European society into modernity. The contribution of Austrian Jewry to this heritage was significant, from enlightenment to liberalism to art nouveau. It was in this milieu that the modern Jewish state was envisioned by Theodor Herzl, the 100th anniversary…

  By Thomas Klestil Jun 18, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Out of Egypt… and Into Gaza

  In army staff colleges all over the world, the Egyptian-Israeli military agreement in the Sinai Peninsula is taught as the way two veteran belligerents that are tired of war but still don’t trust each other can best manage their cold peace. The solution is simple, if not ideal: They demilitarize the large, empty desert that…

  By Yossi Alpher Jun 18, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Push Progress via Peace Process

  If ever there was the illusion in Europe that Islamist terrorism would never cross into European territory, the March bombings in Madrid forever put an end to this way of thinking. The very existence of Western democracies — never mind participation in the American alliance in Iraq — is reason enough for Islamist extremism to…

  By Georg Dick, and Joscha Schmierer, and Martin Eberts Jun 11, 2004 | 4 min read