Issues
Letter from Chautauqua
21:57 12 February
in 2009 March-April
The Protestant, intellectual playground founded in the 19th century is now home to a thriving Jewish community Inspired by the late 19th century belief that it was possible—through education—to build a better society, Methodists Lewis Miller, an Ohio inventor, and John Heyl Vincent, a minister, dreamed...
Brian Epstein: The Man Behind the Beatles
Brian Epstein, the man who discovered the Beatles and shaped them into the biggest music sensation of the 20th century, died 40 years ago at age 32. The pivotal role the enigmatic and charming Epstein played made him the world’s most admired band manager. But...
Bell Man
One of the last in a lineage of great Jewish violinists, this “farm boy” of the American heartland drives a Porsche and plays the world’s most famous “Jewish” violin. Joshua Bell’s tall frame tilts sideways on the sleek gray banquette of the Tamarind Tea Room, a...
Ask the Rabbis // How Should Jews Treat Their Arab Neighbors?
Independent Although we need to take every precaution against fanatical Muslim Arab terrorism in and outside our homeland, we need to cease forcibly displacing peaceful Arabs like Bedouins, destroying their homes (even their mosques!) for the crime of not filling out forms. We were told that...
The Price of Being Jewish: An Interview with Judea Pearl
The downward slant of Judea Pearl’s eyes lends a perpetually sorrowful expression to his bearded face. Yet, he is rarely somber during our talk; in fact, even his serious reflections have a way of meandering to wry observations that prompt his ready smile and easy...
Can Eric Cantor Save the GOP?
The new minority whip is the highest ranking Jewish Republican in the history of the U.S. House of Representatives. Not long ago, Eric Cantor wouldn’t have been recognized if he strolled outside the U.S. Capitol grounds. But now the 45-year-old minority whip and only Jewish Republican...
The Man Who Stopped the Freeze
Dani Dayan, head of Israel’s settler lobby, Yesha, has successfully kept another settlement freeze—and peace talks—off the table. But can this mild-mannered former software tycoon stop the settler movement from imploding? On a clear day, Dani Dayan can look out the bedroom window of his two-story...
Can Israel’s Electoral System Be Fixed?
Try as he might, David Ben-Gurion could not reform Israel’s electoral system, which gives extraordinary power to small parties. Today, a new generation of reformers takes on the challenge. There was a reason that Israel’s wild-haired, hardheaded founding father and first prime minister named himself Ben-Gurion,...
Noble Books
Nine Nobel laureates reflect on their favorite classic and contemporary Jewish books “I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the Earth might be killed, but enough men capable of...