One evening in November, I found myself standing at the back of a crowd of protesters. It was a protest organized by IfNotNow, the Jewish anti-occupation group, to protest the Zionist Organization of America’s hosting of Steve Bannon at their annual gala. IfNotNow does “not take a unified stance on BDS, Zionism or the question…
Gaza, again. It’s just 60 kilometers from my home here in Hebron, but harder for me to visit than almost anywhere else on earth. Every time that small strip of land is in the news, I feel the same sense of guilt, anger, helplessness, and most of all: our collective failure. Ten years into the…
Better put down that pint of Guinness, and don’t even think about cracking a Corona. This month, some Orthodox rabbis are telling New York Jews they should stick to Budweiser — or not drink beer at all. The unusual edict was made after the rabbis who keep watch on New York’s kosher food supply realized…
BIBI: THE TURBULENT LIFE AND TIMES OF BENJAMIN NETANYAHU By Anshel Pfeffer Basic Books, 432 pages, $32 Early in “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu,” Anshel Pfeffer’s excellent biography of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the author quotes an anecdote that Netanyahu likes to share. It’s about the time a mob…
In October 1999, the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) won over 27% of the national vote in parliamentary elections and shortly thereafter entered a governing coalition for the first time. I lived at the time as a visibly Hasidic Jew in Vienna and recall the xenophobic campaign that featured billboards with texts such as, “We…
On Monday a two-minute video of an Israeli soldier shooting a Palestinian man in Gaza went viral. In the video, you can hear the soldier receive an order to aim and shoot; then there is a loud “crack,” when he takes the shot, and as soon as he sees his target fall, he lets out…
I am an anxious Jew. By which I mean (a) I am Jewish, and (b) if I had to pick the overarching emotional theme of my life, it would be fear. Or worry. Or panic. One of my first memories is a pediatrician’s visit where I was so scared of an impending vaccination that I…
After a fire in Trump Tower killed one resident on Saturday, President Trump praised the local fire department for quelling the blaze – but had nothing to say about the death of the tenant, Todd Brassner, whom he reportedly once called a “crazy Jew.” Brassner, 67, had been a prominent dealer of art and musical…
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