My most frequent commenter, a Mr. Anonymous, calls me a “Judenrat” for noting that Leonard Greene, the inventor who takes out ads against the killing of Muslims, is Jewish. Anon goes on: What difference does it make what religion Leonard…
I want to say more about my literary evening at Makor the other night, and about the four authors who read from their contributions to the book Half-Life: Jew-ish Tales From Interfaith Homes. Laurel Snyder ran the show. The book…
I was surprised to see reporter Eric Lichtblau of the New York Times, who co-broke the story of the Bush Administration’s surveillance of millions of private bank records, pitted on the PBS NewsHour last night with Curt Weldon, a Republican…
Two weeks back, Paul Krugman got off a brilliant stroke in the Times, when he cited that “peculiar rule, which still prevails in Washington, that you have to have been wrong about Iraq to be considered credible on national security.”…
Afraid of the leftwing insurgency against Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Party, the pro-Israel lobby is rallying to the Senator’s side, so reports the Forward. This is further evidence for my political hobbyhorse: That the Israel lobby is one…
The Forward strikes a blow for inclusiveness, and calls David Beckham “probably the greatest Jewish soccer player ever.” It does so (because he is a star, yes, but) because he has 1 Jewish grandparent, and probably too because he and…
The frontpage, 4th column feature (I think it’s called an A-head) in yesterday’s WSJ, unfortunately firewalled, was a sweet piece of reporting by Eric Bellman about daytraders playing the Indian stockmarket at internet cafes in Mumbai. They’ve left their jobs…
The biggest amazement so far in the World Cup has not been Ghana’s getting through to the next round, but Ghana player John Paintsil’s spontaneous waving of an Israeli flag after the victory five days ago, out of loyalty to…
Garrett Eisler, at Playgoer, led the New York theater community in its uprising a few months back over the cancellation of the play “My Name Is Rachel Corrie.” Today he offers a sharp interpretation of the news that the play…