It’s no secret that Christianity has promoted and perpetuated hostility toward Jews over the centuries, thereby entrenching the pathological virus of antisemitism in Western culture. Church edicts and teachings have inflamed opinion against Jews, resulting in the demonization and persecution of Jewish communities throughout Europe. Pogroms have been an integral element in this process of […]
Jewish Canadians are integrated into the mosaic of Canadian society, but as Allan Levine reminds a reader in Seeking The Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience, published by McClelland & Stewart, this was not always the case, a theme that frames his reflective and thoughtful work. As he points out in the introduction, “the multicultural […]
Canada’s endorsement of a United Nations General Assembly resolution on November 19 calling for Palestinian statehood and the end of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has been deplored as “ill-advised” by a major Canadian organization, the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, that claims to represent Jews in Canada. Israel’s Foreign Ministry declined to […]
Call him, if you will, Mr. Asterisk. Within a period of only four months, Benjamin Netanyahu has earned two asterisks next to his name, one of which he would dearly like to delete from the record. Last summer, he surpassed David Ben-Gurion as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. Netanyahu won his first election in 1996 and […]
Nothing good can come out of the announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on November 18 that the United States no longer considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be in breach of international law. Washington’s shift, the latest in a series of announcements by President Donald Trump’s administration reconfiguring U.S. policy on […]
The University of Toronto’s Graduate Student Union has issued a belated apology to the Hillel Jewish student organization over a distasteful incident that never should have seen the light of day. Earlier this month, Hillel asked the union to endorse its “Kosher Forward” campaign to ensure that kosher food is available on campus. Hillel correctly […]
Robert Riskin and his wife, Fay Wray, were a Hollywood celebrity couple in the 1940s, when the popularity of movies in American culture reached record heights. Riskin was a master screenwriter, cranking out scripts for classic films that helped define the United States to itself and the world: It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes To […]
Germany has taken the high road to democracy since the 12-year Nazi interregnum, yet some Germans have not learned the lessons of the past. Stephan Brandner, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, is one such person, a bigot who rejects tolerance, mutual understanding, pluralism and diversity. Until very recently, this fellow was […]
Prior to his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on November 13, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan explained that the purpose of his visit was to “start a new era over common security issues” with the United States. “We are in agreement with Trump to solve problems and develop our ties despite the […]
The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg issued a fair and judicious ruling on November 12, which, predictably enough, was immediately denounced by annexationists in Israel who equate sovereign Israeli territory with Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights. In a decision upholding a 2015 ruling by the European Commission, the court’s […]