Words tend to fail us most in two circumstances — in the face of profound evil and of transcendent decency. When Elie Wiesel first tried to describe his experience in the camps, he later wrote, “I watched helplessly as language became an obstacle.” We who have the honor to speak about Elie have the opposite…
Tour guides leading thousands of visitors to Masada each year follow a similar routine: Where Roman troops breached the walls, they retell Josephus Flavius’s account of how a group of obsessive, fanatical Jewish rebels refused to concede to servitude or slaughter, and committed suicide instead. For decades, archaeology at the site has been calling the…
Just past the display of coffins from 13th-century BCE that once belonged to military legend and antiquities obsessive Moshe Dayan, a remarkable new exhibit of Roman coins at The Israel Museum, in Jerusalem, feels strangely contemporary. Before magazine covers, television shows, “fireside chats,” Twitter, and, of course, Donald Trump, coins were a method of asserting…
We learn surprisingly little about the Broadway legend Hal Prince in his new musical, “Prince of Broadway.” But one thing we do learn is this: When Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick offered him the chance to direct “Fiddler on the Roof,” he demurred. “I explained that I was not familiar enough with the history of…
Editor’s Note: In the summer of 2016,the Brooklyn Historical Society’s exhibit “Truman Capote’s Brooklyn” brought new attention to the late photographer David Attie. Attie, who died in 1982, was perhaps best known for his portraits of such luminaries as Capote, Lorraine Hansberry, Leonard Bernstein, Bobby Fischer and Ralph Ellison. Attie had been a commercial illustrator…
Ronald Reagan had it. But both his predecessor and his successor, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, respectively, didn’t. Bill Clinton had it in spades, so did George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And the current president decidedly lacks it. “It” is the political talent to deploy humor to make a point, connect with a…
Joshua Ruben Braff loaded his AR-15 rifle, took aim at a target on the other side of the hill and fired a magazine. Shots rang over the wooded hills and shells fell to the muddy ground around his boots. Braff turned around, signaled with his hand and another man took his place. Around 30 members…
Obama’s recent personal essay on his feminism was smart and relatable. But as well-written as it was, I don’t want to talk about it. The piece speaks for itself. I want to talk about the medium. While any publication in the world would’ve been delighted to feature an exclusive piece written by the sitting President…
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