The death of the notorious Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson on October 21 at the age of 89 reminds us that this form of antisemitism has been a problem for quite a while. I presented a paper on the subject, “Control of the Past as Control of the Future: Denials of the Holocaust,” at a conference […]
A landmark lawsuit alleging that Ivy League Harvard University discriminates against Asian American applicants goes to trial in October, thwarting months-long campaigns waged by the university to avoid a courtroom fight. Filed by the group Students for Fair Admissions, it asserts that Harvard uses “racial balancing” to artificially determine the demographic breakdown of each incoming […]
When I was in Washington earlier this year, I visited the Newseum, a seven-level, 250,000-square-foot museum featuring 15 theaters and 15 galleries about the history of the media. For anyone interested in newspapers and journalism, this is a wonderful place to visit. One of the most dramatic exhibits is its Journalists Memorial, which pays tribute […]
When I was a university student, many moons ago, few courses in modern history were without a book, or at least a number of scholarly articles, by Walter Laqueur, assigned as part of our readings. Laqueur, who died September 30, at the age of 97, was a giant in his field. A German Jew who […]
When I was much younger, stamp collecting was a popular hobby among teenagers. Most of my friends collected them, and we eventually specialized by limiting ourselves to certain countries. I saved and still have my stamps of Switzerland. So it was a given that I’d visit the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum when I was […]
In the Muslim-majority states of the Middle East, four types of regimes are on offer: Theocracies such as Iran, which is governed by Shi’a clerics; rule by a strongman — the Assads in Syria are an example; kings with a modicum of legitimacy, such as Abdullah II in Jordan; and finally, fragile and — if […]
The first genocide of the 20th century occurred not in Europe but in South West Africa (now Namibia), a colony that Germany had annexed in the early 1880s. Now, a debate has emerged regarding the genocide and its meaning within German 20th-century history, particularly the extent to which it can be seen as a precursor to […]
On September 9, the populist Sweden Democrats received 17.9 percent of the popular vote in the Swedish general election, and ended the day as the country’s third largest political party. In 2010, they entered the Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, with 5.7 percent of the vote. In 2014, they got 12.9 percent. One of its founders had […]
This year marks the 100th anniversary of World War I battles in Palestine waged by the Jewish Legion. The story of the Legion, officially the 38th, 39th and 40th Battalions of the British Royal Fusiliers, began with two Russian-born Zionists, Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Josef Trumpledor. Jabotinsky, one of the leading Zionists in Russia at […]
Turkish- American relations have been on a downward curve for some time now. Disputes over Ankara’s role in Syria, its policy toward its Kurdish population, and its growing hostility towards Israel have been among the major irritants. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing authoritarianism and Islamization of the country’s political system have worried Washington for some […]