Europe
Toward an Archeology of HellTuesday, February 7, 2012 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Remembrance is a contradictory imperative. Respectful preservation of the past, especially the remains of those who have gone before us, stands at odds with the need to understand the same past, especially through means like archeology.
The Dangerous Mr. NelsonMonday, February 6, 2012 by Diana Muir Appelbaum | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Eric Nelson is a danger to academia. You would not think so from his background. He is the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University. He has had a proper education, at Harvard and Trinity College, Cambridge.
The Pale GodFriday, February 3, 2012 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Imagine God not as a benign force infusing the universe with love and sustaining it with mercy, and not as a stern judge smiting sinners from on high with his cosmic zap-gun, but as a grandfatherly figure, kind but, truth be told, somewhat out of it, sitting in a corner, tolerant of the various paths his children have chosen.
Hear, O Friends of IsraelThursday, February 2, 2012 by Daniel Johnson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1987, exactly a quarter-century ago, the appearance of a work of Jewish history caused a stir. For one thing, the author was not Jewish; for another, the book was unashamedly supportive of the State of Israel, which even then was enough to provoke hostility, especially on the Left.
Bloomsbury’s RabbiTuesday, January 31, 2012 by Matthew Ackerman | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A translator stands between two languages and between the two worlds that the languages represent. If he does his job well, he may belong in neither place. Such was the fate of Samuel Koteliansky, an emigré Russian Jew who translated Chekhov, befriended D.H. Lawrence and Katherine Mansfield, and circulated on the fringes of the Bloomsbury group.
Rematch!Monday, January 30, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
London—Europe's biggest city, with 5.8 million eligible voters—goes to the polls on May 3rd to elect a mayor. Like any big city mayoral campaign, the contest will revolve mainly around local issues. But the race also has the potential to return a vitriolic anti-Zionist to City Hall.
Whose Holocaust?Friday, January 27, 2012 by Margot Lurie | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
For much of Europe, today is the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dedicated his address this year to children murdered by the Nazis, with the message that "the best tribute to the memory of these children is an ongoing effort to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust, so that no such horror is visited upon future generations."
The Couch and the ConfessionalTuesday, January 10, 2012 by Joseph J. Siev | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Sigmund Freud's last book, Moses and Monotheism, was published in 1939, a year after he fled, mortally ill with cancer of the jaw, from Nazi-occupied Vienna to London. The book is famous for its speculations that Moses was not Jewish and that the people he led out of Egyptian slavery murdered him.
The State of ChristianityThursday, January 5, 2012 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On a sun-drenched day during the week before Christmas, Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre was crowded with pilgrims from Nigeria. They were taking turns kneeling and praying at a marker on the spot where, sacred history has it, Jesus was crucified, entombed, and resurrected.
Goodnight, ViennaWednesday, January 4, 2012 by Daniel Johnson | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Jews of Vienna did not merely understand the world: they took Marx's point and changed it, too. From Freud's psychoanalysis to Wittgenstein's philosophy, from Mahler's music to Herzl's Zionism, they made a unique contribution to modernity.
Editors' Picks
Changing Course on Circumcision , Spiegel. As Israeli lawmakers line up to castigate Germany for the recent court ruling outlawing ritual circumcision, the German government is preparing to change the law.
Europe’s Zionist Anti-Semites Charles Hawley, Spiegel. Although Europe’s hard Right parties remain hostile to European Jewry, they are equally critical of the EU’s unsympathetic approach to Israel—and have gone to Israel to say so.
Inquisition Tourism Hilary Larson, Jewish Week. Five hundred years after the expulsion of Jews, and twenty since their official readmittance, scarcely any Jews live in Spain today. But a new tourist campaign hopes at least to bring them back on vacation.
Pius the Pious? , Washington Post. Under pressure from the Vatican, Yad Vashem now presents Pope Pius XII’s silence during the Holocaust as an attempt to protect the Church—and, by extension, the Jews.
Après Merah, le Déluge Guy Millière, Gatestone Institute. Despite France’s focus on its Jews in the wake of the Toulouse killings, anti-Semitic attacks have only intensified—and the media, the government, and the police are all turning a blind eye.
A People of One Book Walter Arnstein, H-Net. Timothy Larsen aims to demonstrate the immense religiosity of Victorian England—but, if anything, he understates the case.
Confessions of a Narcissist David Rieff, Nation. Claude Lanzmann's memoir is a self-indulgent failure. But Shoah is a work of genius, and that does indeed justify a life.
Anglo-Jewry: A Contradiction in Terms? Linda Grant, New Statesman. If Jews are, in the words of literary critic Leslie Fiedler, the natural voice of modern America, Jewish writers in Britain remain the voice of the permanent counter-culture.
Return to Vienna Lisa Silverman, H-Net. Jews who grew up in cosmopolitan pre-war Vienna came back after the war to find themselves strangers at home. Yet Austria's capital still fascinates Jewish writers.
Disunited Synagogue David Cesarani, New Statesman. While some at the New Statesman may still believe Jews to be a powerful enemy within, Anglo-Jewry has never agreed on anything—whether religious practice, Zionism, or the admittance of Jewish refugees.