We American Jews were particularly giddy when the Olympics began on August 26, 1972. The world was returning to Munich. But this time, instead of Hitler’s racism, we encountered West German democracy. These were the good Germans, who ran a particularly clean country while waiting to greet the few lucky Continue Reading…
Dear Aviv, Since Thursday, my Whatsapp pings every few hours, delivering moving new photos of you and your friends taking back the night, Jewish style, in Poland. The picture of you waving an Israeli flag at Treblinka; the video of all of you singing and dancing in the Lublin yeshiva; the Continue Reading…
Donald Trump’s challenge on August 15 — “what about the alt-left” — has stirred silly arguments. Claiming there is no “alt-left” because no one calls themselves “alt-left,” ignores the long, colorful history of political nicknaming. And claiming there is no “alt-left” because all leftists hate Neo-Nazis mistakenly defines the “alt-” modifier Continue Reading…
Initially, after a white supremacist rammed a car into a group of counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Va., in mid-August, killing one woman and injuring 19, U.S. President Donald Trump only condemned hatred “on many sides.” The conventional wisdom denounced Trump widely. News website Voxcharged: “Donald Trump refuses to name the problem of Continue Reading…
It sounds like an old antisemitic joke. Alas, it’s becoming American Jews’ new reality. Blacks and whites clash over a Confederate statue in Virginia. The neo-Nazis and KKK marchers occasionally replace their antiblack, anti-immigrant, White Power slogan “you will not replace us” with the cry “Jews will not replace us.” Meanwhile, in Continue Reading…
I recently completed a week-long, 15-lecture speaking tour in London. I was impressed by how much more connected the British Jews I met feel with one another and with Israel than do many American Jews – yet distressed by how much more beleaguered they feel, scarred by European anti-Zionism. The Continue Reading…
Imagine achieving fame as an actor playing Nazis in America – thirty years after fleeing the Nazis to America. In our dour politically correct culture, which takes comedy too seriously, it sounds like a particularly excruciating form of hell. Werner Klemperer, born in Cologne in 1920, built his career playing Continue Reading…
Joe Gold lived by metal—and almost died by metal. The iron-pumping, machine-welding body-builder, exercise-machine maven, and gym genius who helped turn America buff barely survived a paralyzing torpedo injury in the Philippines during World War II. Young men today feel incredibly pressured to look “cut,” with sharply defined delts and Continue Reading…
In January 1778, what would be immortalized as the rag-tag Continental Army was at its raggiest and taggiest. The brutal winter at Valley Forge scared off many of the soldiers it hadn’t killed or broken. Mocked as “the Ragged Lousey Naked Regiment,” the 1st Rhode Island Regiment wasn’t recruiting many Continue Reading…
I propose a spelling change for the current prime minister’s English nickname. Just as Benjamin Netanyahu’s abandonment of the Western Wall compromise and rejection of fairer, more open conversion policies put a mark of Cain on the majority of Jews who are not haredim (ultra-Orthodox), he should be singled out Continue Reading…