15 May
Religion, Uncategorized

A Kosher Tea Party

“There’s a notion out there that the Tea Party is racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim,” says David Spielman, the Campaign Coordinator for the Tea Party organization FreedomWorks. “And nothing can be further from the truth.” FreedomWorks is one of the groups actively recruiting Jews to its ranks, hoping to diversify its membership. The initiative, called KosherTea (part of the larger DiverseTea program), uses media, advertisements in Jewish publications, and personal outreach through its membership base to entice Jews to “Drink the Tea.” They face an uphill battle. American Jews tend to be overwhelmingly liberal and identify as Democrats. According to an August Gallup report, 61% of Jews still approve of the job Obama’s doing, significantly higher than the national average of 48%, although notably lower than their 77% approval rating when he was first elected. According to a New...

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13 May
2011 January-February, Issues, World

The Film that Launched a Thousand Court Cases

Few films have packed as much punch for American political culture as Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 The Ten Commandments. With the Cold War shifting into high gear and a fervent anti-communist patriotism sweeping the nation, the film burst onto the scene at a time when religion—Christianity in particular—became a central rallying point, pitting America’s “divine purpose” against “godless Communists.” Enter DeMille, a director with a penchant for the spectacular, who released the nearly four-hour remake of his 1923 silent film of the same name, this one starring Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharoah Ramses II, not to mention Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, John Carradine, Vincent Price and many other top actors of the time. The Ten Commandments is “one of the most significant epic films ever made,” in part because it tapped...

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