04 Aug
Anti-Semitism Monitor, Jewish World, Latest

Anti-Semitic Tropes, Abroad and at Home

In July, we documented incidents in 16 different countries to add to the Anti-Semitism Monitor database. However, for the July roundup column, we are focusing on two particular regions of the world and two very different types of anti-Semitism. In Eastern Europe, authoritarian, right-wing leaders spin anti-Semitic conspiracy plots to appeal to the most xenophobic portions of their voting populations. In the United States, misguided luminaries supporting racial justice use their social media megaphones to employ similar anti-Semitic concepts. Europe In Eastern Europe, the two governments most brazenly trying to undermine the rule of law are Poland and Hungary. In July, ultra-nationalist, ruling parties in both countries employed prejudice against minorities for political gain.  Poland held a two-round presidential election in June and July, and President Andrzej Duda's Law and Justice party (PiS) played the anti-LGBT and anti-Semitism...

Continue reading

06 Dec
History, topics

The Iranian Question: Nuclear Power or Nuclear Warheads?

By Leigh Nusbaum Watching what’s happening from the Middle East to the Midwest over the past few weeks, it seems that everyone has an opinion about Iran today, including the Iranian government. Iran has held a fascination over people from ancient history—including empires such as that of Cyrus the Great—to the modern era, with the rise of the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Today, that focus is on Iran’s nuclear program. Tehran insists that the program is for peaceful purposes, but the regime’s opponents, including the Israeli government, argue that the program has a more sinister objective—nuclear weapons. What’s so fascinating about this debate is that despite how long Iran’s nuclear program has been around, the debate on ending it makes it seem as though it is a recent phenomenon.  Iran’s nuclear program was actually started by the...

Continue reading

20 Sep
Arts & Culture

A Boy Named David

by Symi Rom-Rymer David, the recently released feature film directed by Joel Fendelman and written by Fendelman and Patrick Daly, sets out to tell one story, but ends up telling two. The first is about the accidental meeting of two boys, Daud and Yoav, one Muslim, and one Jewish, from the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn who manage to break out of their religious bubbles and form an unlikely friendship. The second is the story of the accidental meeting of the same two boys, one the son of immigrant parents and the other of American parents. In the first story, religion plays a complex role: at once uniting and dividing the protagonists. Initially, it is the reason Daud and Yoav meet. Eleven year-old Yoav forgets his prayer book on a park bench after studying with his friends. ...

Continue reading