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Middle East

Reuven Rivlin’s Troubling Remarks

Speaking at yesterday’s funeral of Eitam and Naama Henkin, the young Israeli couple fatally shot by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank on October 1, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin delivered a speech that seriously calls into question yet again Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution. In eulogizing the Henkins, Rivlin made a troubling reference to […]

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Jewish Affairs

American Jews Embrace A Liberal Political Ethos

Jews in the United States have embraced a liberal political ethos since the 18th century, claims an American scholar. This ethos, developed and nurtured by German Jews, was challenged by new immigrants from Eastern Europe after the great migrations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but their challenge was handily rebuffed, University of […]

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Middle East

Syria Tops The Agenda At The United Nations

Judging by the major speeches delivered at this week’s new session of the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York City, the raging civil war in Syria has displaced the Arab-Israeli conflict as the focal point of interest and concern among delegates. Syria concentrated the minds of world leaders primarily because the bloodshed there has […]

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Jewish Affairs

Polish Rescuers Should Be Honored With A Memorial

Opposition has arisen to a sensible proposal by American businessman/philanthropist Sigmund Rolat to build a memorial in Warsaw to honor Polish Christians who risked their lives to rescue Jews during the Holocaust. Rolat, a Holocaust survivor from Poland, hopes it can be built in Warsaw’s former Nazi ghetto, next to the new Museum of the […]

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Middle East

The Right Decision By Canada

Zakaria Amara, the jihadist mastermind of a plot to terrorize Canada, has been stripped of his Canadian citizenship by the federal government. In announcing this decision on September 26, Defence Minister Jason Kenney said, “This man hated Canada so much, he planned on murdering hundreds of Canadians.” Canada should be commended for acting so decisively […]

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Travel

Miami Beach’s Art Deco District Is Impressive

As I strolled along Ocean Drive, in the heart of Miami Beach’s gentrified Art Deco Historic District, I was struck by the sheer beauty of its pastel-colored buildings. They’re in South Beach, the first neighborhood in Miami Beach to be developed. Stretching for 18 blocks, the district is listed in the U.S. National Register of […]

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Arts

Wild Horses In America

There are 50,000 wild horses, or mustangs, in the western United States. Originally brought to America by the Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago, they roamed freely for centuries. But due to the scarcity of publicly-owned grazing lands in states like Nevada and Utah, where most of them are found, these noble creatures are now kept […]

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Arts

In The Shadow Of Zion

Land , land! — This is the secret to the solution of the Jewish question, the Zionist ideologue Nathan Birnbaum wrote in 1893. While Zionists like Birnbaum regarded Palestine as a panacea for Jewish homelessness and the threat of antisemitism, territorialists looked elsewhere around the globe to resolve the problems that plagued Jews in the Diaspora. […]

Categories
Arts

Grandma

Written and directed by Paul Weitz, Grandma is a modest, low-budget film about a hectic day in the life of a frazzled American grandmother. It opens in Canadian theaters on September 25. Elle Reid(Lily Tomlin), the grandma in question, is a poet and unemployed academic living on the margins in California. In the first scene of […]

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Middle East

Fixing A Fraught Relationship

With their relationship having sunk to a nadir in the past year, U.S. President Barack Obama hopes to mend ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the very near future. Obama has invited Netanyahu for discussions in Washington, D.C. on November 9. It will be their first meeting since the autumn of 2014. The […]