Category: Politics

The Left and the Jews: A Tale of Three Countries
By Categories: Politics

Click Here to Read: The Left and the Jews: A Tale of Three Countries: First in a series on the American left: Will left-wing anti-Zionists and anti-Semites in America succeed in hollowing out the traditional liberal left in the United States, as they have in Britain and France? By Paul Berman on the Tablet website on November 11, 2018.

A miniature from en:Grandes Chroniques de France depicting the expulsion of Jews from France in 1182. This is a photograph of an exhibit at the Diaspora Museum, Tel Aviv – en:Beit Hatefutsot. (Photo taken by en:User:Sodabottle)/ Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Letter to the Editor of the New York Review of Books by Nathan Szajnberg re Jean Daniel’s The Jewish Prison
By Categories: Books, Politics

To the Editors:

Adam Shatz’s articulate review of Jean Daniel’s “The Jewish Prison: A Rebellious Meditation on the State of Judaism,” sounds remarkably similar to the fundamental principles of Sandor Gilman’s 2003 critique of contemporary Jews. This is ironic and more powerful since Daniel writes as a French intellectual (influenced by his North African ethnicity) and Gilman is an American. But listen to the similarities.
Gilman insists that through history Jews have lived on the periphery of societies, and where they are found, are involved contentiously. He insists that this is a foundation of being Jewish. He suggests that Jews should not have a country of their own, lest this undermine (his concept) of being fundamentally Jewish. “Jews have always functioned as a permanent symbolic frontier” (Jewish Frontiers, p. 18). From this periphery, Jews should observe, critique others. Further, “all Diaspora societies in which Jews live … are places of contention and
complexity for Jews.” Like the “blessing” Jacob made on his deathbed to one of his sons, the Jews should eternally, or at least perpetually nip at the hind parts of others.

Continue reading Letter to the Editor of the New York Review of Books by Nathan Szajnberg re Jean Daniel’s The Jewish Prison

How the GOP Gave Up on Porn
By Categories: Politics

Click Here to Read: How the GOP Gave Up on Porn: Once, the fight against pornography was the beating heart of the American culture war. Now porn is a ballooning industry — and maybe a harmful one —with no real opponents. What happened? By Tim Alberta on the Politico Magazine website in November/December 2018.

Logo of the Republican Party of the United States of America. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

The Day of Fate: Kristallnacht, on its 80th anniversary, still offers a potent lesson
By Categories: Politics

Click Here to Read: The Day of Fate: Kristallnacht, on its 80th anniversary, still offers a potent lesson: We all face the choice between right and wrong, responsibility and recklessness, conscience and complicity by David Frum
on the The Atlantic Monthly website on November 9, 2018.

Photo: the German Federal Archive (Deutsches Bundesarchiv). Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.