Beijing, China’s capital, is monumental in scale and scope. A city of broad avenues, bustling traffic and quaint shops, with a population of 12 million and counting, its historic sights run the gamut from the Forbidden City and the Ming Tombs to the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. And the Great Wall of […]
Agata Tuszynska, an eminent Polish poet and cultural historian, found out she was Jewish at the age of 19. Until that moment, she had never met a Jew, nor had she ever concerned herself with the history of Polish Jews. To her, Jews were as exotic as native American Indians or ancient Egyptians. Having been […]
For the past three and a half decades, Iran, formerly a staunch U.S. ally, has been a thorn in the side of the United States. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, which swept away the pro-American Pahlavi monarchy and ushered in a theocratic regime hostile to U.S. interests in the Middle East, Iran and the United […]
The prime minister of Israel doth protest too much. Benjamin Netanyahu reacted ferociously to the passage late last year of a United Nations Security Council resolution which condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He was particularly angered by the decision of the United States –Israel’s chief ally — to abstain, thereby allowing the resolution […]
He was one of Hollywood’s most prolific directors. In a 50-year career, from 1957 to 2007, he made 44 films, earning four Oscar nominations and winning an honorary Academy Award in 2005. “All I was ever interested in was the next job,” he says in Nancy Buirski’s documentary, American Masters: By Sidney Lumet, which will […]
With eastern Aleppo back in his hands after four years of fierce fighting, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has won a significant victory in Syria’s five-year-old civil war. As the last civilians and rebel fighters were evacuated from there on December 22, Assad could truthfully boast that every major city in Syria — Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, […]
It’s no secret that numerous members of Germany’s Nazi Party burnished their careers in postwar West German governments as high-ranking officials, Allied de-Nazification programs notwithstanding. This contentious issue is on the table again thanks to a recent decision by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Heiko Maas, her justice minister, has established a commission to re-examine the […]
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, was demonstrably disappointed and upset by yesterday’s decision by the United States to abstain and thereby allow the UN Security Council to pass a unanimous resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. “It was to be expected that Israel’s greatest ally would act in accordance […]
Cuba usually comes to mind at this time of the year as the weather in Toronto goes from bad to worse. Holed up in my winter-bound house, I think of Cuba’s sunny weather, its sandy beaches, its turquoise waters and its tropical vegetation. Call it, if you wish, Cuba on the brain. But the lure […]
It’s the holiday season, a time to read and reflect. These books, published recently, are eclectic and stimulating. Makers of Jewish Modernity (Princeton University Press) contains 43 thoughtful essays by leading scholars about thinkers, writers, artists and leaders who had a significant impact on the 20th century. There are well-crafted portraits of philosophers (Martin Buber), […]