Must We Attend all the Shuls?
Even in normal times, too many people suffer from FOMO, the fear of missing out, the result of attempting to live, as the kids say, “all the lives.”
Even in normal times, too many people suffer from FOMO, the fear of missing out, the result of attempting to live, as the kids say, “all the lives.”
Suppose you’ve made a golem, a man-shaped figure of clay, and you want to bring it to life.
When a Middle East crisis erupts, it can be hard to think long term. But Robert Malley sees larger, longer-running dangers in the region.
Most recently, Waldman says he’s alarmed by the level of bigotry faced by Muslims—often unnoticed by those who consider themselves “persecuted” by, say, gay couples wanting wedding cakes, but who see all Muslims as terrorists and oppose the construction of mosques.
The best-selling writer infuses her new novel on the Holocaust with Jewish legend—in the form of a rare female golem. “For me,” she says, “literature and magic are kind of melded together.”
Why not pick your next read by applying sports-style analytics?
Marge Piercy doesn’t live that far off the beaten track—it’s only Cape Cod, after all—but it feels remote, especially in the off-season. The poet, novelist and longtime feminist activist, who’s now 83, has lived in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, since the 1970s.
It took the Holocaust to make casual anti-Jewish talk so toxic that polite society wouldn’t stand for it. Eroding that sense of toxicity is much easier; internet memes can do it. But it’s also possible to invite backlash against strong, important taboos by clinging to weaker ones that are broader than necessary. We ignore the distinction at our peril.
Where you stand on most issues depends on where you sit. It’s a truism that dates back far before our polarized age. Women’s issues tend to pose this problem with particular clarity; you might say that it’s not so much where you sit as what set of organs you sit on.
Yossi Klein Halevi has taken on several roles in the Israeli-Palestinian drama since he made aliyah in 1982. He’s been a protagonist in the conflict—“I chose a side when I became an immigrant”—and served in the army during the first intifada. Later, he became a journalist, trying to understand both sides’ complexity
I first knew Charles Krauthammer when I was a wet-behind-the-ears New Republic intern and he was a rising eminence, a scary and impressive senior editor.