By Alan A. Stone DucClaude Lanzmann is known on this side of the Atlantic as the Frenchman who created the monumental film, Shoah. He tells us that American Jews did not contribute a single penny to his efforts. Lanzmann traveled all over the United States, hat in...
Here a Roth, there a Stein, everywhere a Kafka—Jews are the people of the book, a group that has long prized its own erudition and literary prowess. And with good reason: It’s nearly impossible to list the most important writers of our time, or any...
INDEPENDENT Historically, the religious affiliation of a governmental leader has never been an issue for the Jewish people, as long as the government involved was not itself oppressive. Although Jews were thoroughly and severely oppressed over more than 1,600 years by leaders with Catholic or Protestant...
By Sala Levin You may know the story: Abraham, in an effort to convince his father, Terach, that idol worship is wrong, takes a hammer and smashes the idols that his father sells. He leaves the hammer in the hand of the largest idol and tells...
By Marshall Breger In 2011, Sen. Joseph Lieberman suggested that U.S. nationals, “homegrown” or otherwise, be stripped of their citizenship if they are “engaging in or purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States.” More recently, in Israel, right-wing Knesset members pushed for legislation taking...
First off, let me be clear that I do not condone Israel’s official use of sarcasm, wit or anything else that could be construed as more entertaining than the turgid pronouncements of native English-speaking governments. Since my childhood I have been told that government and...
The incident repeats itself with small variations. A rabbi somewhere in America writes to ask if I’ll come speak to his congregation about Israeli politics and my recent book, The Unmaking of Israel. Afterward I receive another email: At a meeting of the Israel Committee or...
By Letty Cottin Pogrebin In 1959, when I was 19, there was no birth control pill, doctors did not prescribe diaphragms or IUDs for unmarried women, and abortion was a crime. So when I got pregnant, I decided to kill myself by jumping off the Triborough...
By Nadine Epstein Hannah Brown of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, loves Moment but has a complaint: Too few women are included in Moment symposiums such as the one in January/February that asked, “What Does It Mean to Be Pro-Israel Today?” Brown is absolutely right. After doing the math, we...
The Book Thief By Markus Zusak The Book Thief is a beautiful but haunting story about a young girl living in Nazi Germany. I first read it several years ago and have re-read it several times, but it never fails to affect me and cause me to sit...