Opinion

• Opinion

  Michelle Obama Is More Than Bangs and Broccoli

  I suppose there’s no end to commenting on the public behavior of the First Lady of the United States, whoever she may be. I’m old enough to remember griping about Nancy Reagan and Hillary Rodham Clinton. In a previous job, I once had to arrange a visit for Laura Bush when her husband was President…

  By Jane Eisner

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  Meet the Four Jews Shaping the U.S. Economy

  This could sound like yet another bad-taste Oscar night joke, but turns out that the U.S. economy is run by Jews. Well, at least the federal government’s top advisers. On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew, as Treasury Secretary. He will joined by Gene Sperling, director of the National…

  By Nathan Guttman Feb 28, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Walt and Mearsheimer Are Ready for their Close-Up

  So far this year, the Anti-Defamation League has felt compelled to issue press releases in response to a belligerent talking teddy bear, a mildly funny Saturday Night Live sketch, and a fictional character portrayed by Kevin Spacey. You might think the trigger-happy ADL was responding in these cases to anti-Semitic slights (its bread and butter,…

  By Gal Beckerman Feb 28, 2013 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry An Israeli media mainstay is crumbling. Will liberal democracy go with it?

  

• Emily Tamkin The Holocaust survivor writer who can help us through this ominous era

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Jon Stewart on the Blackface Purim Debacle

  “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart and Co. rightly roasted Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind for his Purim faux pas. In case you missed it, Hikind dressed up in blackface and an Afro wig to play the part of an African-American “basketball player” to celebrate the Jewish holiday. “It’s the year 5773 and this is still happening?”…

  By Seth Berkman Feb 27, 2013 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Labor’s Turn To Play Ball With Bibi?

  The official deadline on Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition building falls this weekend, but with just one faction on board apart from his own — the six-seat Tzipi Livni Party — he is still short of the Knesset majority he needs. Only 37 of the Knesset’s 120 seats are in the bag, meaning that another 24 are…

  By Nathan Jeffay Feb 27, 2013 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Benjamin Netanyahu Overplayed Hand in Talks With Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett

  It could have been easy. January 22 was not a good day for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it could have been far worse. The 2013 parliamentary elections meant that for the first time in his long political career, he would be leading the largest party in the Knesset. Though his joint Likud-Beitenu list…

  By Geoffrey Levin Feb 27, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Prisoner X Case Signals Moment of Crisis for Israel and Jewish Diaspora

  Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky probably thought he was stating the obvious when he welcomed his board of governors to Jerusalem on February 17 with a bromide about Israel-Diaspora solidarity. “It is increasingly clear,” said the chairman, still best known for his years in a Soviet prison, “that world Jewry depends on Israel and Israel…

  By J.J. Goldberg Feb 26, 2013 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  3 Questions for the Oscars

  Watching gagmeister Seth MacFarlane’s off-color, take-no-prisoners performance as host of the Oscars on Sunday night and then observing public and press reactions afterward, two things become clear. The first is that a half-century after the Civil Rights revolution and 42 years after the debut of “All in the Family,” Americans are still hopelessly divided on…

  By J.J. Goldberg Feb 26, 2013 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Instagramming Purim in Hasidic Boro Park

  People in Boro Park tend to stick with traditional Hasidic clothing like headscarves, shtreimels, and rekels. But on Purim you’re bound to see people dressed as clowns, princesses and even SpongeBob SquarePants. Here are a few Instagram photos from around the neighborhood that give a sense of what it’s like on Purim in Boro Park.

  By Nate Lavey Feb 25, 2013 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Oscars Host Seth MacFarlane Crossed Line To Bigotry and Anti-Semitism

  It seems as though the Oscars writers think that Hollywood is so liberal that they can get away with making offensive comments because everyone knows they’re “just joking.” I don’t agree. Sunday night’s Academy Awards ceremony featured a not very subtle onslaught of sexist, racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic “jokes.” At a time when America is…

  By Peter Dreier Feb 25, 2013 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Beauty and The Pig

  Where is Roland Barthes now that we truly need him? Barthes was the French intellectual who founded the discipline of cultural criticism, insisting everything, from the epic to pedestrian, signifies something. Flags and photos, cars and commercials, pop stars and plastic: Barthes trawled the sea of signification for the flotsam of mass culture. He would…

  By Robert Zaretsky Feb 25, 2013 | 4 min read