Yale University Press has published two books in its Jewish Lives series for film aficionados — Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films by Molly Haskell, and Warner Brothers: The Making of an American Movie Studio by David Thomson. Spielberg, of course, needs no introduction, being one of the most successful directors of his generation. In a […]
I‘m not much of a wine drinker, but I jumped at the opportunity of visiting the fabled Wine Route in the Alsace district of France. Winding past immaculate wineyards and quaint villages and towns beautified by bright potted flowers in windowsills, the route traverses the eastern side of the Vosges mountain range. Fine wines have […]
Ben Ferencz, a chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, played a critical role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court. Now 98 and living in retirement in Delray Beach, Florida, he was instrumental in crafting the legal process by which war criminals are prosecuted. To Rosalie Abella, a justice on the Supreme Court […]
With a metaphorical wave of the hand, U.S. President Donald Trump has absolved Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in the brutal murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul on October 2. By shielding the crown prince from accountability and treating him so […]
An avalanche of books has roared off the presses since the outbreak of the Six Day War on June 5, 1967, yet Guy Laron’s new paperback edition of The Six Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East (Yale University Press), a bracing account of its causes, offers fresh insights into a seminal conflict that tripled Israel’s […]
The Fourth Committee of the United Nations, otherwise known as the Special Political and Decolonization Committee, adopted nine resolutions earlier this month condemning Israel for its refusal to cede territory captured during the 1967 Six Day War. Eight resolutions dealt with the Palestinian problem, Israel’s five-decade old occupation of the West Bank and its construction […]
One more truce has ended yet another round of hostilities in and around the Gaza Strip. But as we all know, none of the previous ceasefires have lasted long and have always given way to more bloodshed. The latest flareup, the most serious since the 2014 war, erupted on November 12 and petered out a […]
Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Oman on October 26 caught the Middle East by surprise, but it should not have been a surprising event, even though it was the first such trip by an Israeli prime minister in 22 years. For the past several years, Netanyahu has been saying that Israel has unofficial relations and cooperation […]
Dramatic reunions are the stock-in-trade of We’ll Meet Again, the PBS series hosted by Ann Curry. In the latest installment, Surviving the Holocaust, which will be broadcast on Tuesday, November 20 at 8 p.m. (check local listings), two Jewish men discover the power of friendship. Benjamin Lesser, a Polish Jew from Krakow, is a survivor […]
Is there a child who has not read the books of the late British author Roald Dahl? Talented and prolific, he wrote such classics as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches, both of which were read by millions of children, including my two daughters. Dahl’s books, having been translated into numerous languages, have […]