When U.S. President Donald Trump visited the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh on October 30 to pay his respects to the 11 victims of the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, he was greeted by only two well-wishers — the rabbi of the synagogue, Jeffery Myers, and Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron […]
Christian Petzold’s newest film, Transit, which opens at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox on November 9, is a meditation about exile, rootlessness and trauma. Petzold bends time itself to rework Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about a German refugee in Paris who assumes another man’s identity to save himself from fascist barbarians marching toward the city. This […]
For the long-suffering Polish nation, which had lost its sovereignty by the end of the 18th century, the end of World War I entailed more than an end to the fighting. November 11, 1918, the date of the armistice that ended what was then called The Great War, also provided a promise to recreate a […]
Israel, a small country with precious few natural resources, has developed a remarkable culture of innovation that is the envy of nations. Thanks to its technological breakthroughs, Israel is helping to feed the hungry, making the desert bloom and curing the sick, among other stellar achievements. As a result, Israel has produced more start-up ventures than […]
Jonathan Weisman’s cri de coeur, Semitism: Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump (St. Martin’s Press), is unsettling. Published several months before 11 Jews were slaughtered by a crazed neo-Nazi in the Tree of Life Congregation massacre in Pittsburgh on October 27, it’s a polemic on the alt-right and antisemitism set against the […]
In 20 terrifying, blood-soaked minutes on the morning of October 27, a neo-Nazi lunatic filled with hatred of Jews went on a murderous rampage, leaving the Jewish community in Pittsburgh shaken to its core and traumatized. Brandishing an assault rifle and several handguns, and shouting antisemitic slurs like “all Jews must die,” Robert Bowers, a […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel made a surprise visit to the Arabian Peninsula Sultanate of Oman October 25-26. It was part of his campaign to gain support from Persian Gulf states in Israel’s conflict with Iran. He said that Israel has moved closer to the Gulf Arab countries, while Iran criticized the visit, saying […]
The latest Human Rights Watch report on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip paints a dismal picture on the “perilous state of human rights in Palestinian self-rule areas.” Observers of the Palestinian scene will not be surprised by revelations of arbitrary arrests and torture. Ever since the Palestinian Authority began administering Area A in […]
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 […]
If you believe Saudi Arabia’s constantly shifting story about the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, you’ll believe the Brooklyn bridge can be bought. Until very recently, the Saudi narrative was that no harm had come to Khashoggi and that he had left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in peace. Judging by the evidence, he […]