Currently Browsing: Uncategorized 114 articles
Groucho Marx and the Spirit of American Humour
Nathan Abrams learns a great deal from a new biography of Groucho Marx. I’m by no means a Marxist. By that I mean I am no Marx Brothers maven. In that context, I learned a great deal from ‘this biography of sorts’ of Groucho Marx by Lee Siegel. Born in 1890, Julius Henry Marx was […]
The Federalist Society Makes Aliyah
Joshua Michaels on the sophistry of the Federalist Society and the shande that is the attempt of right-wing legal activists to replicate in Israel. Desperate for a reprieve from the dullness of COVID lockdown, I stumbled upon a free online course on Sholem Aleichem’s Tevye the Dairyman, hosted by Professor Ruth Wisse of Harvard University […]
The Island
This illustrated story told with images and text by Helen Blejerman (translated by Adrian Nathan West) is a fictional narrative with autobiographical elements. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God […]
From Mount Sinai to the Blue Ridge
Martin Elliot Jaffe discusses Jewish Bluegrass Mountain Music. Join my wife and me on a pre-pandemic evening, Saturday night at Temple Tifereth Israel in Beachwood, Ohio as an enthusiastic crowd participates in a unique new American Jewish tradition: a night of bourbon tasting, soul-stirring, foot-stomping music by the wildly popular Jewish bluegrass group NEFESH Mountain, […]
Adam and Eve
A new poem by Robert ‘Smokey’ Miles. The first man looked at the rib girlWho was ripped right from his chestHe said ‘You look cute in your birthday suitAnd I really do dig your breasts.’Then he palindromed ‘Madam I’m Adam!’She said, ‘I’m Eve, please don’t leave!’And soon they got up and at ’emAnd reproduced like […]
Mazel Tov to the Golden Globe Winners
The results of the Golden Globes were announced last night. To congratulate the Jewish winners and those shows with some Jewish content, here is a reminder of what our film and television critics thought of them. Schitt’s Creek (two awards) may not be The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, says Vincent Brook, but it is marvellous and very, […]
‘Law Not War’
Nathan Abrams reviews Parting Words by Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor for the Nuremberg war crimes trials. The American Jewish lawyer, Benjamin Ferencz has had a remarkable life. His career, which spanned more than seven decades, is a classic rags to riches story. From miserable poverty, he became the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg […]
Discounted Jews
Nathan Abrams finds flaws in David Baddiel’s new book about antisemitism Jews Don’t Count. I finally got my copy of Jews Don’t Count, David Baddiel’s new book about antisemitism. Despite being a longtime fan and bearing more than a passing physical resemblance to him, I desperately didn’t want to like this book. Maybe it’s because the media only seems to pay attention to these issues when it’s a celebrity like Baddiel, Simon Schama or Anthony Julius. As he puts it himself in the book, ‘I am, […]
Jewish Space Lasers
When Republican Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene blamed the Californian wildfires on a secret Jewish Space Laser, the internet went wild with memes. Mel Brooks’ ‘Jews in Space’ featuring Star-of David-shaped spaceships, flown by haredim, singing of the glories of ‘defending the Hebrew race’ was particularly popular. As was the Death Star of David. There were also […]
It’s Time to Celebrate Jewish Power
Loolwa Khazzoom celebrates the Jews in the new Biden administration. I watched inauguration day with great emotion, for numerous reasons, including the fact that a Black Indian woman is in the White House, for the first time in history. I was equally excited not only about the corollary fact that there is a second gentleman […]