A rabbi’s failed attempt to clean up Holocaust distortion

On November 20, Thomas Rose, the U.S. ambassador to Poland, delivered a speech in Warsaw in which he categorised as a “historic injustice” and “grotesque falsehood” any suggestion that “Poland shares guilt for the barbaric crimes committed against it” during World War II, presumably including the murder of millions of Polish Jews in German-occupied Poland. Read more

The blockade of Gaza was legal; withholding humanitarian aid, not so much

Last month, the International Court of Justice rebuked Israel in an advisory opinion for blocking humanitarian aid into Gaza during the course of the Israel-Hamas war there, emphasising that starvation of civilian populations as a method of warfare is prohibited under prevailing international humanitarian law. Read more

When you stand with an antisemite . . .

Menachem Rosensaft’s third essay focusing on Zohran Mamdani, tipped to be elected mayor of New York next week. Read more

In praise of ringing out danger

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The threat posed by Zohan Mamdani

By publicly and forcefully denouncing Zohran Mamdani as “a danger to the security of New York’s Jewish community,” Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of New York City’s Park Avenue Synagogue has demonstrated yet again why he is one of the most important and most influential Jewish leaders on the American scene. Read more

Why the IAGS resolution is fundamentally flawed

The inherent problem with the International Association of Genocide Scholars’ recent “Resolution on the Situation in Gaza” is not its criticism of the policies and actions of the government of the State of Israel. Read more

Upholding the values that define us as a people

Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, is demonstrating both courage and integrity in urging the leaders of the State of Israel to adhere to “the vision that Theodor Herzl or the founders of Israel had for the state — a vision rooted in safety, democracy and moral purpose for all its citizens.” Read more

Mourning Pope Francis

Pope Francis was, without question, the most important and most influential religious and theological figure of the 21^st century, not just for Roman Catholics, not just for Christians, but for Jews as well. Read more

Psalms to Adonai from the Depths of the Holocaust

Ever since the Holocaust came to an end eighty years ago, we have known that it was perpetrated by human beings infused with hatred or a callous, insidious indifference. Read more

A Trump victory will destroy American democracy

I cannot for the life of me comprehend how any Jew, let alone a Holocaust survivor or a descendant of a Holocaust victim or survivor, could vote for Donald Trump who espouses the fascist ideology that enabled the Holocaust to occur. Read more

Columbia magazine’s troubling silence on antisemitism

I have read the autumn 2024 issue of Columbia Magazine, the glossy publication sent to around 350,000 graduates of the university’s undergraduate schools, cover to cover. Read more

A poem for October 7

october 7 mourning in fury Read more

The Jewish antisemite on Trump’s plane

Who’d a thunk, who would ever have thunk that we would wax nostalgic for Stephanie Clifford aka Stormy Daniels, but just about now, most of us – standard-issue non-MAGA Republicans above all – would be much happier if it were the erotic film actress whispering whatever she might be whispering into Donald Trump’s ear rather than Laura Loomer, who appears to be one of the former president’s flavours of the moment if not of the month and beyond. Read more

Israel’s very soul lies in the balance

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Kamala Harris is the “pro-Jewish candidate” in this year’s U.S. presidential election

Zealots — true believers — are far worse than merely dangerous. They can be, to seriously mix metaphors here, ideological pied pipers who lead gullible, not to say dumb, lemmings into the sea. Read more

Why most American Jews will and should vote for Kamala Harris

Caroline Glick, the former Jerusalem Post columnist who authored a pro-Trump, anti-Harris hit piece published by J-Wire a few days ago, views the world through such a hardline right-wing prism that a point-by-point refutation of her article, while probably fun to write, would not be particularly instructive. Read more