Tango originated in Buenos Aires in the late 19th century, but klezmer, a Russian Jewish genre, exerted an enormous influence on it. Jewish immigrants from the Russian empire began arriving in Argentina, a land of prosperity, hope and opportunity, toward the end of the 19th century. They brought their musical traditions with them, forever changing tango. […]
I had the privilege of knowing Joseph Baruch (J.B.) Salsberg, who was already a legendary figure when I met him in the autumn of 1974. I was a reporter on The Canadian Jewish News and he was one of its freelance columnists. Salsberg, tall, irrepressible, witty and always nattily dressed, would usually arrive at the […]
Shortly after the eruption of the popular uprising in Syria, in March 2011, the prime minister of neighboring Lebanon, Najib Mikati, announced he would hew to a policy of neutrality, or “disassociation”, so that his nation would not be dragged into the bloody mayhem of that conflagration. Lebanon, he declared, would support neither the Baathist […]
Gore Vidal, a son of privilege, left the American ruling class to become a constant thorn in its side. Through his novels, essays, plays and television appearances, he was a sharp critic of U.S. foreign policy and the “decadence” of political life in the United States. Articulate and outspoken, he was a celebrity intellectual, a student […]
The six-month interim accord signed by the world’s major powers and Iran in Geneva on Nov. 24 paves the way for a comprehensive agreement that may well permanently freeze, if not dismantle, Iran’s militarized nuclear program. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, having pressed for a much tougher outcome that would have neutralized Iran as a nuclear […]
The Holocaust in the Baltic nation of Lithuania exacted a greater toll on Jews than in nearly any other Nazi-occupied country, with more than 90 percent of its Jewish citizens having been murdered by Lithuanian antisemites and German forces. Out of a pre-war Jewish population of about 208,000, upwards of 195,000 Litvaks, or Lithuania Jews, […]
The “Charter of Values,” or Bill 60, is being presented to the public by the present Quebec government as a “social project, “ essentially like that of the Charter of the French Language, or Bill 101 . Therefore, we must consider it in this light. In the case of the predominance of the French language […]
Poland’s Jewish community, the biggest in Europe before World War II, was virtually obliterated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. As if to rub salt into the wound, the Communist government, in 1967, launched an antisemitic campaign under the thinly-veiled guise of anti-Zionism, prompting many of the remaining Jews to emigrate. Since the advent of […]
The so-called negotiations that the United States and the major world powers conducted with Iran in Geneva in the past few days were farcical. The entire initiative was clearly designed to remove any deterrence of Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon. I say “so called” because a negotiation in which only one side gives meaningful […]
On Nov. 7, the Quebec government tabled Bill 60, the so-called Charter of Quebec Values, in the province’s National Assembly. The law would forbid all public employees from wearing “overt and conspicuous” religious symbols and headgear, including Muslim face veils, Jewish yarmulkes, Sikh turbans, or large crucifixes. The regulations would apply only to publicly-paid […]