Moment spoke with Leon Wieseltier about the events in Charlottesville, Jewish obligations in the face of prejudice and how to respond to the darker aspects of our collective past.
The total population of Malta is 430,000, including about 150 Jews, most of whom live on the main island and make up one of the smallest active Jewish communities in the Mediterranean.
Sitting in a tiled restaurant in Dupont Circle with a glass bowl of pickles and rhubarb, it’s daunting to imagine the future of the Jewish deli.
Although such comparisons remain rare, for Jews and non-Jews the golem serves as a concept uniquely suited to expressing the fears and insecurities of the modern era. As Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote in 1984, “The golem story appears less obsolete today than it seemed one hundred years ago. After all, what are the computers and robots of our times if not golems?”
Since Richard Spencer’s torch-lit rally, Charlottesville has been a flashpoint of white supremacist activism.
On June 1, The European Parliament adopted a working definition of anti-Semitism for the first time. The definition, borrowed from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, serves as a politically important descriptor of the phenomenon. “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the definition reads. “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/ or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
Starting with the German occupation of 1944, the case alleged, the collection was taken away from the family after years of persecution
Two nights after the June 18 death of Nabra Hassanen, 300 people gathered in Dupont Circle in Washington DC to light candles, honor her memory, and organize against Islamophobia. “I think it’s clear that our central Jewish values call for us to stand with our neighbors when they are facing attacks,” adds Rabbi Joseph Berman, another local rabbi who attended the vigil.
It’s standing room only for National Pride Young Professionals Shabbat Dinner, located in the non-denominational, non-traditional congregation’s social hall.
Judaism is the fourth fastest growing religion.
Brooke Davies spent ten summers at Camp Ramah, confronted anti-Semitism routinely as a child in the South, and fell in love with Israel as a teenager. She also had a close call with terrorism, less than two years ago, when a young boy attempted to stab her in Jaffa. But when became a national leader in J Street U, she faced opposition from the Jewish community and even from those in her family. Now she is reconsidering her relationship with the Jewish community altogether.
