A select portfolio of my writings. For more complete listings, follow the links to my author archives at the publications below.
Tablet Magazine | Archive
Why A Muslim Comic Book Writer Introduced a Yeshiva Student Into the Marvel Universe (1/4/18)
This past Hanukkah, G. Willow Wilson, the award-winning Muslim author behind the Ms. Marvel comic series, introduced a yeshiva student and kosher food into its storyline. Here's why she did it—and what she thinks religion can bring to comics. "To a lot of people, particularly people who might identify as more secular, religion is something that they see as inhibiting the imagination and inhibiting storytelling," she said. "To me, religion is part of the engine of the human imagination."
We Built a Bot That Trolls Twitter's Worst Anti-Semitic Trolls (12/2/16)
On Twitter, racists like to impersonate minorities like Jews and say viciously bigoted things in order to defame them. So we created a sheriff who calls them out on it. Think of it as a golem for the internet age. As featured in the New York Times and Fast Company.
I Spent the Shabbat After Trump's Election With Muslim Leaders From Across America (11/15/16)
Imagine hearing a presidential candidate promise repeatedly to block members of your faith from entering the country and ruminating on the prospect of a registry for your fellow adherents. Then imagine that candidate was elected president by your country’s citizens. Imagine the uncertainty, the sense of betrayal, and the fear. That was the context for the weekend.
See also: Muslim Voices After Trump, a Tablet series I edited as a follow-up
10 Israeli Rabbis You Should Know (10/6/16)
These individuals are traditionalists and radicals, artists and activists, of the left and of the right. They are men and women, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, Ethiopian and American, secular and ultra-Orthodox. Together, its members comprise the metaphysical mosaic that makes up the state of Israel, and what it means to be a Jew there today.
The Top Five Most Hilarious Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories (5/19/16)
In addition to being hateful and ignorant, anti-Semites are often hilarious. In that spirit, I’d like to pay tribute to the most ridiculous anti-Jewish fulminations I’ve come across in my years covering them. These eruptions of inspired idiocy span centuries and continents, from America to Europe to the Middle East. They implicate the Jews and the Jewish state, as well as Monica Lewinsky and the animal kingdom, in their nefarious plots. In other words, it’s a collection that should satisfy any connoisseur of fine anti-Semitism.
10 American Rabbis You Haven't Heard Of, But Should (9/9/15)
From an Orthodox rabbi tipped for the Nobel Prize in Economics to a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, you may not know the names of these Jewish leaders, but their influence is felt in every denomination, in every corner of the country.
Hillary Clinton's Gefilte Fish Email, Explained (9/1/15)
That time a traditional Jewish food threatened the U.S.-Israel alliance. As featured on The Rachel Maddow Show.
The Mormons on Mount Scopus (5/15/15)
In 1986, ultra-Orthodox pop star Mordechai Ben David released a single titled “Jerusalem Is Not for Sale.” From its name and overwrought opening stanzas—“Jerusalem, her holiness crying, defiling her dearest location”—one could be forgiven for thinking it is a religious protest song against dividing the city in a peace deal. But far from an anthem against encroaching Palestinians, the song is actually a call to arms against Mormons. It is a relic of the explosive debate that engulfed Israeli society over the construction of Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem campus, which marks its 27th anniversary this week.
In Israel, Memorial Day is About the Living as Well as the Dead (4/20/15)
Tuesday night marks the start of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. Across the country, vigils will be held commemorating those lost in war and terrorist attacks. Family members will appear on television and talk about sons, daughters, and spouses in the past tense. It’s a national discourse with a very particular set of collective rituals and tropes. And it’s one that Yaron Edel wants to change. A little over a year ago, Edel founded an organization called Resisim, taking its name from the Hebrew word meaning both “shards” and “shrapnel.” Its goal: to refocus the Israeli conversation on the living, and not just the dead.
The $12 Million Israeli Project to Get Religious and Secular Jews to Study Bible Together (1/9/15)
Launched over Hanukkah, 929 is a $12 million Israeli initiative to turn the Tanakh into a national conversation. Drawing its name from the 929 chapters of the Hebrew Bible, the project aims to get hundreds of thousands of Israelis from all walks of life to complete the corpus over three-and-a-half years by covering five chapters a week. The hub of the enterprise is its website, where readers can find commentary from a wide array of contributors, from celebrated secular authors like Etgar Keret and A.B. Yehoshua, to spiritual leaders like ultra-Orthodox former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and progressive trailblazer Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum.
Why Jews--and Everyone Else--Should See "Meet the Mormons" (12/9/14)
You won’t find much in Meet the Mormons about the church’s internal struggles over women’s roles or the faith’s staunch opposition to gay marriage, or be introduced to polygamous LDS splinter cells. But then, you won’t hear much about the diversity, contributions, and personal fulfillment of everyday Mormons in the mainstream media. The film is certainly not a totalizing portrait of the LDS Church, which is unsurprising given its origins. But it is perhaps a necessary corrective to the cartoon caricatures of Mormonism that too often masquerade as respectable representation.
15 American Rabbis You Haven't Heard Of, But Should (9/15/14)
Our showcase of American rabbis is not a ranking, and it makes no attempt to be comprehensive. Instead, our aim is to highlight the work of Jewish leaders and teachers who don’t typically command the national spotlight but whose influence has been profound. Some are longstanding rabbis who have done their work outside major organizations and synagogues, or just beyond the reach of the media; others are rising young leaders whom the broader Jewish world has yet to discover.
Israel, Let's Not Become Europe (7/15/14)
The reemergence of virulent and violent anti-Semitism across Europe should trouble people of conscience everywhere. But it should trouble Jews in particular for another reason: When it comes to its treatment of its Arab citizens, today’s Israel is increasingly beginning to look like today’s Europe.
Meet the Mormon Bishop Who Is On a Mission to Promote Jewish Missionaries (6/19/14)
Over the past 25 years, Mark Paredes has worked as a national outreach director for the American Jewish Congress, a regional director for the Zionist Organization of America, an attaché at the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, and a State Department diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. He speaks fluent Hebrew, blogs for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and has lectured in synagogues across America. But despite this résumé, Paredes isn’t Jewish. He’s a Mormon bishop. And between his personal and professional responsibilities, the 46-year-old interfaith activist has arguably done more grassroots work than any other person in America to advance Jewish-Mormon relations.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's Very Jewish Dissent--and Mistake (5/5/14)
In registering her objections to a landmark high court decision on legislative prayer, Justice Elena Kagan drew on her Jewish heritage to make her case. She also made one mistake in her recounting of Jewish history in colonial America. This piece prompted an official correction by the Supreme Court of the United States.
‘Jeopardy’ for Jews: Who Wants To Be the World’s Next Top Torah Scholar? (5/1/14)
This coming Tuesday, on Israel’s Independence Day, the finals of the Chidon HaTanakh—the International Bible Contest—will take place in Jerusalem and will be broadcast live across the country. It’s a major television event, a game show where Torah trivia is the only subject; think Jeopardy for Jews. As in every other year, several Americans will be among the contestants seeking to translate their mastery of the minutiae of the Hebrew Bible into victory. And as in every other year, they will be expected to lose. Since the international competition’s inception more than five decades ago, only three Americans have ever taken home the top prize. But in 1988, two U.S. teens defied the odds in a televised showdown.
The Volokh Conspiracy is Out to Get You—and Everyone in America (4/3/14)
Last week, when the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether religiously owned corporations like Hobby Lobby should be exempt from providing contraception coverage to their employees, the government’s reply brief cited dozens of cases and statutes—and one blog with a weird name, The Volokh Conspiracy. Founded in 2002, the site is now one of the Internet’s most-read legal blogs, boasting a diverse readership of scholars and policymakers—as well as Supreme Court Justices—across the ideological spectrum. But how did a center-right blog written by libertarian-leaning professors become the most influential in American legal circles? The story begins with its founder and namesake, a Soviet Jewish refugee named Eugene Volokh.
See also: In Chicago, Elite Academics Reflect on What it Means to be a Jewish Lawyer (4/10/14)
Most academic conferences don’t feature scholars reading their bar mitzvah speeches, playfully referring to each other with rabbinic titles, or reminiscing about the influence of their childhood Passover Seders on their intellectual output. But the “Judaism and Constitutional Law” conference, which took place last week at DePaul University in Chicago, was not a typical academic affair.
The Myth of the Israel Lobby (2/27/14)
This weekend, when the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee opens, critics of the organization will inevitably bemoan its “stranglehold” on the American government and insist that if not for AIPAC’s influence and “unlimited funds,” the foreign policy of the United States in the Middle East would be dramatically different. And AIPAC will be all too happy to play along. “You see this napkin?” its foreign policy director once challenged a reporter. “In 24 hours, we could have the signatures of 70 senators on this napkin.” But are these outsized portraits of the Israel lobby's influence in Washington accurate? Not even close.
When an Israeli Ambassador Debated a British Historian on Israel's Legitimacy—and Won (1/31/14)
It’s a familiar chain of events: A prominent scholar and public intellectual visits a college campus to speak to students. In his remarks, he shocks his audience and the Jewish community by asserting that the Zionist treatment of the Palestinians is morally equivalent to the Nazi treatment of the Jews. Naturally, the address elicits strong condemnation from the local Israeli ambassador. But this is 1961, not 2014. The setting is Montreal, where the famed British historian Arnold Toynbee, a specialist in international affairs, delivered a controversial lecture to students at McGill University. And the story didn’t end with an exchange of op-eds and public apologies. Instead, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Yaacov Herzog, responded by challenging Toynbee to a public debate.
The Rise of Kosher on College Campuses (1/22/14)
The great knish controversy erupted at Harvard in the spring of 1992. It began with a toaster oven. The unassuming appliance was introduced into the dining hall of Dunster House—one of Harvard’s 12 residential dormitories for upperclassmen—as a courtesy to kosher-keeping students. Until then, observant Jews had been restricted to consuming the few kosher staples on offer, like sliced bread and tuna fish. Now for the first time, with the aid of their new toaster, they could sample such delicacies as rabbinically certified frozen knishes and pizza bagels. But this did not sit well with Noel Ignatiev, a tutor in History and Literature at Dunster, who protested what he deemed an unacceptable breach in the “separation of church and state.”
Can Jonathan Sacks be Chief Rabbi of the World? (11/12/13)
By most accounts, Jonathan Sacks was having a very successful run as chief rabbi of the United Kingdom. He’d published dozens of well-received books on Judaism and its place in the modern world. He had a popular column in the Times of London, and was a frequent face on the BBC, where he would do a yearly special on faith with such guests as Richard Dawkins and author Howard Jacobson. The most visible voice of religion in Britain’s public square, he’d been called an “intellectual giant” by Tony Blair, who cited his work while teaching at Yale, and “a light unto this nation” by Prince Charles. And yet, this past August, Sacks stepped down as chief rabbi.
See also: Jonathan Sacks on European Anti-Semitism, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and More
Israel's U.N. Envoy Has a Message for the World: Laugh With Me (9/24/13)
One morning this past July, Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, holed himself up in his office with his communications team. Iran and Syria had just announced their candidacies for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, and Prosor wanted to make sure that the absurdity of two of the world’s most egregious human rights abusers running for its highest human rights body was not lost on the press. It wasn’t enough that these candidacies be condemned—they had to be mocked. He soon released a response to the wire services: “Putting Iran and Syria on a Human Rights Council is like putting the Godfather in charge of a witness-protection program.”
Reconciling Modern Biblical Scholarship with Traditional Jewish Belief (9/18/13)
“Virtually all of the stories in the Torah are ahistorical,” declares a manifesto posted in July on TheTorah.com. Not only did the events in the Garden of Eden and the Flood of Noah never transpire, readers are informed, but “Abraham and Sarah are folkloristic characters; factually speaking, they are not my ancestors or anyone else’s.” Such sweeping sentiments might be expected from an academic scholar, or perhaps a critic of fundamentalist religion. But the author of this manifesto is an Orthodox rabbi.
How Cory Booker's Adopted Jewish Identity Reflects His Politics (8/12/13)
Last May, when Cory Booker, the 44-year-old African-American mayor of Newark, got up to address the graduating class of Yale University, he warned them he was going to do something out of the ordinary. “Today, I want to do something a little different than you were probably expecting from this Christian man from Newark, New Jersey,” Booker began. “I want to do something that has probably never been done before at this university. I want to stand here as a Christian goy in all of my non-Jewish self and give you all a d’var Torah.”
When Clarence Darrow Phoned a Talmudist (7/22/13)
On July 21, 1925, a jury in Dayton, Tenn., convicted high school teacher John Scopes of violating the state’s law against teaching human evolution. The trial, which pitted celebrated attorney Clarence Darrow against three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, lives on today thanks to popular reenactments on stage and screen. But here’s something you never saw in “Inherit the Wind.” In the middle of the trial, Clarence Darrow phoned the top Talmudist at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Louis Ginzberg. Here's why.
Israeli Film 'Fill the Void' is Jane Austen for Jews (6/11/13)
The cloistered confines of Haredi society are no stranger to Israeli television and film, which has long been fascinated by the isolated enclaves of the ultra-Orthodox. But unlike those depictions, Fill the Void is not the product of outsiders looking in, but rather an insider speaking out. After years of crafting films exclusively for female religious audiences, ultra-Orthodox writer and director Rama Burshtein obtained approval from her Hasidic community’s rabbi to make the jump to the mainstream. Fill the Void, Burshtein’s first film for the general public, is the result.
This piece appeared in German translation in the journal Israel & Palästina (March 2013).
Einstein's Last Speech (4/17/13)
On Israel’s Independence Day in 1955, Albert Einstein was scheduled to address the American people on ABC, NBC and CBS. His speech--a passionate plea for peace and defense of the fledgling state of Israel--had been written in conjunction with the Israeli consulate and famed Ambassador Abba Eban. But on April 18, eight days before Einstein was to deliver it, the physicist died suddenly at the age of 76. Here's what he intended to say.
America's Anti-Gun Theocrats (3/19/13)
The charge that faith leaders are inappropriately meddling in our politics is one that only seems to be leveled at religious conservatives and not at their liberal counterparts. For the overwhelming majority of critics, it’s not really the fact of religion’s involvement in politics that’s troubling—it’s the “wrong” religious views being involved in politics. Take a closer look and one finds that their cries of “theocracy!” tend to be motivated more by partisanship than principle.
The Orthodox Go To Washington (3/5/13)
“The official buzz is Iron Dome, but the unofficial buzz might be velvet dome,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, a longtime Chabad emissary in Washington, D.C. (who famously kashered the White House kitchen), referring to the velvet skullcaps worn by the numerous Chabad attendees. “You used to see maybe a couple dozen yarmulkes at the AIPAC conference. Now there are many hundreds.” Cited by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren here.
Judaism's Epic Food Fight (2/21/13)
Pulitzer Prize winners and public intellectuals, from Alan Dershowitz to Steven Pinker, attempt to settle the age-old culinary question: latkes or hamantaschen? “I would argue that the real significance of the Latke-Hamantaschen debate is that it cannot be resolved,” said Aaron David Miller, former Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiator under three U.S. presidents and six secretaries of state. “But it’s a debate that’s simply too important to abandon.”
Treasury's First Orthodox Chief (1/10/13)
Jack Lew, President Obama’s current chief of staff and his pick for Treasury secretary, is the highest-ranking Orthodox Jew in the history of the U.S. government. It’s a distinction that imposes some unusual burdens—like having to dodge opinionated congregants who try to accost him about politics in synagogue. “Your friends protect you—they sit around you and make it a little harder for strangers to come and give you a hard time,” he explained to me. “I just tell people, ‘If I wanted to work on Saturday, I have this 24/7 job. I come to shul to pray.’”
Religious Revolution in Israel (12/26/12)
An unlikely alliance of renegade rabbis and right-wing politicians seeks to strip Israel's ultra-Orthodox religious establishment of its power and reform the country's corrupt Chief Rabbinate. Here's what this means for Israel, American Jews, and the upcoming Israeli elections.
Not Another Rabbi for Obama (9/4/12)
At this moment, there are over 600 rabbis signed on as “Rabbis for Obama.” But Rabbi David Wolpe, who will be delivering a prayer Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, isn’t one of them--and he insists his blessing is not a political endorsement.
GOP Convention's Rabbi-in-Chief (8/27/12)
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik--religious bridge-builder, incorrigible contrarian, conservative political activist and scion of a famous Orthodox dynasty--will give the opening invocation at this year's Republican National Convention.
Don't Know Much 'bout Orthodoxy (8/21/12)
Reporters stereotype Orthodox Jewish women as meek, isolated, and without serious careers. Have they met any?
The Scientific Case for Circumcision (6/27/12)
“Male circumcision is a highly significant, lifetime intervention. It is the gift that keeps on giving. It makes sense to put extraordinary resources into it.” Who would you guess recently offered this paean to foreskin fleecing? A rabbi? An imam? Nope. Try U.S. AIDS coordinator Eric Goosby at a health convention last month for top officials from 80 countries.
See also: "Leading Pediatric Group Endorses Circumcision" (8/24/12)
The Most Anti-Israel President (4/10/12)
According to op-ed pages and partisans, Barack Obama has bullied the Jewish state more than any president in history, while Benjamin Netanyahu has been Israel's most intransigent Prime Minister. They said the same about Ronald Reagan and Menachem Begin.
Protocols of the Elders (2/16/12)
In America today, there is a small group of privileged citizens who wield disproportionate power over the rest of the country and seek to bend national policies to suit their collective will. Bound together by clannish, somewhat secretive ritual practices, and disproportionately represented among the nation’s wealthy and its political class, this population uses its largess and extensive influence to mold America to its perfidious ends. Their ultimate aim is to take over the United States. I am talking, of course, about Mormons.
This past Hanukkah, G. Willow Wilson, the award-winning Muslim author behind the Ms. Marvel comic series, introduced a yeshiva student and kosher food into its storyline. Here's why she did it—and what she thinks religion can bring to comics. "To a lot of people, particularly people who might identify as more secular, religion is something that they see as inhibiting the imagination and inhibiting storytelling," she said. "To me, religion is part of the engine of the human imagination."
We Built a Bot That Trolls Twitter's Worst Anti-Semitic Trolls (12/2/16)
On Twitter, racists like to impersonate minorities like Jews and say viciously bigoted things in order to defame them. So we created a sheriff who calls them out on it. Think of it as a golem for the internet age. As featured in the New York Times and Fast Company.
I Spent the Shabbat After Trump's Election With Muslim Leaders From Across America (11/15/16)
Imagine hearing a presidential candidate promise repeatedly to block members of your faith from entering the country and ruminating on the prospect of a registry for your fellow adherents. Then imagine that candidate was elected president by your country’s citizens. Imagine the uncertainty, the sense of betrayal, and the fear. That was the context for the weekend.
See also: Muslim Voices After Trump, a Tablet series I edited as a follow-up
10 Israeli Rabbis You Should Know (10/6/16)
These individuals are traditionalists and radicals, artists and activists, of the left and of the right. They are men and women, Mizrahim and Ashkenazim, Ethiopian and American, secular and ultra-Orthodox. Together, its members comprise the metaphysical mosaic that makes up the state of Israel, and what it means to be a Jew there today.
The Top Five Most Hilarious Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories (5/19/16)
In addition to being hateful and ignorant, anti-Semites are often hilarious. In that spirit, I’d like to pay tribute to the most ridiculous anti-Jewish fulminations I’ve come across in my years covering them. These eruptions of inspired idiocy span centuries and continents, from America to Europe to the Middle East. They implicate the Jews and the Jewish state, as well as Monica Lewinsky and the animal kingdom, in their nefarious plots. In other words, it’s a collection that should satisfy any connoisseur of fine anti-Semitism.
10 American Rabbis You Haven't Heard Of, But Should (9/9/15)
From an Orthodox rabbi tipped for the Nobel Prize in Economics to a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, you may not know the names of these Jewish leaders, but their influence is felt in every denomination, in every corner of the country.
Hillary Clinton's Gefilte Fish Email, Explained (9/1/15)
That time a traditional Jewish food threatened the U.S.-Israel alliance. As featured on The Rachel Maddow Show.
The Mormons on Mount Scopus (5/15/15)
In 1986, ultra-Orthodox pop star Mordechai Ben David released a single titled “Jerusalem Is Not for Sale.” From its name and overwrought opening stanzas—“Jerusalem, her holiness crying, defiling her dearest location”—one could be forgiven for thinking it is a religious protest song against dividing the city in a peace deal. But far from an anthem against encroaching Palestinians, the song is actually a call to arms against Mormons. It is a relic of the explosive debate that engulfed Israeli society over the construction of Brigham Young University’s Jerusalem campus, which marks its 27th anniversary this week.
In Israel, Memorial Day is About the Living as Well as the Dead (4/20/15)
Tuesday night marks the start of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day. Across the country, vigils will be held commemorating those lost in war and terrorist attacks. Family members will appear on television and talk about sons, daughters, and spouses in the past tense. It’s a national discourse with a very particular set of collective rituals and tropes. And it’s one that Yaron Edel wants to change. A little over a year ago, Edel founded an organization called Resisim, taking its name from the Hebrew word meaning both “shards” and “shrapnel.” Its goal: to refocus the Israeli conversation on the living, and not just the dead.
The $12 Million Israeli Project to Get Religious and Secular Jews to Study Bible Together (1/9/15)
Launched over Hanukkah, 929 is a $12 million Israeli initiative to turn the Tanakh into a national conversation. Drawing its name from the 929 chapters of the Hebrew Bible, the project aims to get hundreds of thousands of Israelis from all walks of life to complete the corpus over three-and-a-half years by covering five chapters a week. The hub of the enterprise is its website, where readers can find commentary from a wide array of contributors, from celebrated secular authors like Etgar Keret and A.B. Yehoshua, to spiritual leaders like ultra-Orthodox former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and progressive trailblazer Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum.
Why Jews--and Everyone Else--Should See "Meet the Mormons" (12/9/14)
You won’t find much in Meet the Mormons about the church’s internal struggles over women’s roles or the faith’s staunch opposition to gay marriage, or be introduced to polygamous LDS splinter cells. But then, you won’t hear much about the diversity, contributions, and personal fulfillment of everyday Mormons in the mainstream media. The film is certainly not a totalizing portrait of the LDS Church, which is unsurprising given its origins. But it is perhaps a necessary corrective to the cartoon caricatures of Mormonism that too often masquerade as respectable representation.
15 American Rabbis You Haven't Heard Of, But Should (9/15/14)
Our showcase of American rabbis is not a ranking, and it makes no attempt to be comprehensive. Instead, our aim is to highlight the work of Jewish leaders and teachers who don’t typically command the national spotlight but whose influence has been profound. Some are longstanding rabbis who have done their work outside major organizations and synagogues, or just beyond the reach of the media; others are rising young leaders whom the broader Jewish world has yet to discover.
Israel, Let's Not Become Europe (7/15/14)
The reemergence of virulent and violent anti-Semitism across Europe should trouble people of conscience everywhere. But it should trouble Jews in particular for another reason: When it comes to its treatment of its Arab citizens, today’s Israel is increasingly beginning to look like today’s Europe.
Meet the Mormon Bishop Who Is On a Mission to Promote Jewish Missionaries (6/19/14)
Over the past 25 years, Mark Paredes has worked as a national outreach director for the American Jewish Congress, a regional director for the Zionist Organization of America, an attaché at the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, and a State Department diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. He speaks fluent Hebrew, blogs for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, and has lectured in synagogues across America. But despite this résumé, Paredes isn’t Jewish. He’s a Mormon bishop. And between his personal and professional responsibilities, the 46-year-old interfaith activist has arguably done more grassroots work than any other person in America to advance Jewish-Mormon relations.
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's Very Jewish Dissent--and Mistake (5/5/14)
In registering her objections to a landmark high court decision on legislative prayer, Justice Elena Kagan drew on her Jewish heritage to make her case. She also made one mistake in her recounting of Jewish history in colonial America. This piece prompted an official correction by the Supreme Court of the United States.
‘Jeopardy’ for Jews: Who Wants To Be the World’s Next Top Torah Scholar? (5/1/14)
This coming Tuesday, on Israel’s Independence Day, the finals of the Chidon HaTanakh—the International Bible Contest—will take place in Jerusalem and will be broadcast live across the country. It’s a major television event, a game show where Torah trivia is the only subject; think Jeopardy for Jews. As in every other year, several Americans will be among the contestants seeking to translate their mastery of the minutiae of the Hebrew Bible into victory. And as in every other year, they will be expected to lose. Since the international competition’s inception more than five decades ago, only three Americans have ever taken home the top prize. But in 1988, two U.S. teens defied the odds in a televised showdown.
The Volokh Conspiracy is Out to Get You—and Everyone in America (4/3/14)
Last week, when the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether religiously owned corporations like Hobby Lobby should be exempt from providing contraception coverage to their employees, the government’s reply brief cited dozens of cases and statutes—and one blog with a weird name, The Volokh Conspiracy. Founded in 2002, the site is now one of the Internet’s most-read legal blogs, boasting a diverse readership of scholars and policymakers—as well as Supreme Court Justices—across the ideological spectrum. But how did a center-right blog written by libertarian-leaning professors become the most influential in American legal circles? The story begins with its founder and namesake, a Soviet Jewish refugee named Eugene Volokh.
See also: In Chicago, Elite Academics Reflect on What it Means to be a Jewish Lawyer (4/10/14)
Most academic conferences don’t feature scholars reading their bar mitzvah speeches, playfully referring to each other with rabbinic titles, or reminiscing about the influence of their childhood Passover Seders on their intellectual output. But the “Judaism and Constitutional Law” conference, which took place last week at DePaul University in Chicago, was not a typical academic affair.
The Myth of the Israel Lobby (2/27/14)
This weekend, when the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee opens, critics of the organization will inevitably bemoan its “stranglehold” on the American government and insist that if not for AIPAC’s influence and “unlimited funds,” the foreign policy of the United States in the Middle East would be dramatically different. And AIPAC will be all too happy to play along. “You see this napkin?” its foreign policy director once challenged a reporter. “In 24 hours, we could have the signatures of 70 senators on this napkin.” But are these outsized portraits of the Israel lobby's influence in Washington accurate? Not even close.
When an Israeli Ambassador Debated a British Historian on Israel's Legitimacy—and Won (1/31/14)
It’s a familiar chain of events: A prominent scholar and public intellectual visits a college campus to speak to students. In his remarks, he shocks his audience and the Jewish community by asserting that the Zionist treatment of the Palestinians is morally equivalent to the Nazi treatment of the Jews. Naturally, the address elicits strong condemnation from the local Israeli ambassador. But this is 1961, not 2014. The setting is Montreal, where the famed British historian Arnold Toynbee, a specialist in international affairs, delivered a controversial lecture to students at McGill University. And the story didn’t end with an exchange of op-eds and public apologies. Instead, Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Yaacov Herzog, responded by challenging Toynbee to a public debate.
The Rise of Kosher on College Campuses (1/22/14)
The great knish controversy erupted at Harvard in the spring of 1992. It began with a toaster oven. The unassuming appliance was introduced into the dining hall of Dunster House—one of Harvard’s 12 residential dormitories for upperclassmen—as a courtesy to kosher-keeping students. Until then, observant Jews had been restricted to consuming the few kosher staples on offer, like sliced bread and tuna fish. Now for the first time, with the aid of their new toaster, they could sample such delicacies as rabbinically certified frozen knishes and pizza bagels. But this did not sit well with Noel Ignatiev, a tutor in History and Literature at Dunster, who protested what he deemed an unacceptable breach in the “separation of church and state.”
Can Jonathan Sacks be Chief Rabbi of the World? (11/12/13)
By most accounts, Jonathan Sacks was having a very successful run as chief rabbi of the United Kingdom. He’d published dozens of well-received books on Judaism and its place in the modern world. He had a popular column in the Times of London, and was a frequent face on the BBC, where he would do a yearly special on faith with such guests as Richard Dawkins and author Howard Jacobson. The most visible voice of religion in Britain’s public square, he’d been called an “intellectual giant” by Tony Blair, who cited his work while teaching at Yale, and “a light unto this nation” by Prince Charles. And yet, this past August, Sacks stepped down as chief rabbi.
See also: Jonathan Sacks on European Anti-Semitism, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, and More
Israel's U.N. Envoy Has a Message for the World: Laugh With Me (9/24/13)
One morning this past July, Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, holed himself up in his office with his communications team. Iran and Syria had just announced their candidacies for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council, and Prosor wanted to make sure that the absurdity of two of the world’s most egregious human rights abusers running for its highest human rights body was not lost on the press. It wasn’t enough that these candidacies be condemned—they had to be mocked. He soon released a response to the wire services: “Putting Iran and Syria on a Human Rights Council is like putting the Godfather in charge of a witness-protection program.”
Reconciling Modern Biblical Scholarship with Traditional Jewish Belief (9/18/13)
“Virtually all of the stories in the Torah are ahistorical,” declares a manifesto posted in July on TheTorah.com. Not only did the events in the Garden of Eden and the Flood of Noah never transpire, readers are informed, but “Abraham and Sarah are folkloristic characters; factually speaking, they are not my ancestors or anyone else’s.” Such sweeping sentiments might be expected from an academic scholar, or perhaps a critic of fundamentalist religion. But the author of this manifesto is an Orthodox rabbi.
How Cory Booker's Adopted Jewish Identity Reflects His Politics (8/12/13)
Last May, when Cory Booker, the 44-year-old African-American mayor of Newark, got up to address the graduating class of Yale University, he warned them he was going to do something out of the ordinary. “Today, I want to do something a little different than you were probably expecting from this Christian man from Newark, New Jersey,” Booker began. “I want to do something that has probably never been done before at this university. I want to stand here as a Christian goy in all of my non-Jewish self and give you all a d’var Torah.”
When Clarence Darrow Phoned a Talmudist (7/22/13)
On July 21, 1925, a jury in Dayton, Tenn., convicted high school teacher John Scopes of violating the state’s law against teaching human evolution. The trial, which pitted celebrated attorney Clarence Darrow against three-time Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan, lives on today thanks to popular reenactments on stage and screen. But here’s something you never saw in “Inherit the Wind.” In the middle of the trial, Clarence Darrow phoned the top Talmudist at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Louis Ginzberg. Here's why.
Israeli Film 'Fill the Void' is Jane Austen for Jews (6/11/13)
The cloistered confines of Haredi society are no stranger to Israeli television and film, which has long been fascinated by the isolated enclaves of the ultra-Orthodox. But unlike those depictions, Fill the Void is not the product of outsiders looking in, but rather an insider speaking out. After years of crafting films exclusively for female religious audiences, ultra-Orthodox writer and director Rama Burshtein obtained approval from her Hasidic community’s rabbi to make the jump to the mainstream. Fill the Void, Burshtein’s first film for the general public, is the result.
This piece appeared in German translation in the journal Israel & Palästina (March 2013).
Einstein's Last Speech (4/17/13)
On Israel’s Independence Day in 1955, Albert Einstein was scheduled to address the American people on ABC, NBC and CBS. His speech--a passionate plea for peace and defense of the fledgling state of Israel--had been written in conjunction with the Israeli consulate and famed Ambassador Abba Eban. But on April 18, eight days before Einstein was to deliver it, the physicist died suddenly at the age of 76. Here's what he intended to say.
America's Anti-Gun Theocrats (3/19/13)
The charge that faith leaders are inappropriately meddling in our politics is one that only seems to be leveled at religious conservatives and not at their liberal counterparts. For the overwhelming majority of critics, it’s not really the fact of religion’s involvement in politics that’s troubling—it’s the “wrong” religious views being involved in politics. Take a closer look and one finds that their cries of “theocracy!” tend to be motivated more by partisanship than principle.
The Orthodox Go To Washington (3/5/13)
“The official buzz is Iron Dome, but the unofficial buzz might be velvet dome,” said Rabbi Levi Shemtov, a longtime Chabad emissary in Washington, D.C. (who famously kashered the White House kitchen), referring to the velvet skullcaps worn by the numerous Chabad attendees. “You used to see maybe a couple dozen yarmulkes at the AIPAC conference. Now there are many hundreds.” Cited by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren here.
Judaism's Epic Food Fight (2/21/13)
Pulitzer Prize winners and public intellectuals, from Alan Dershowitz to Steven Pinker, attempt to settle the age-old culinary question: latkes or hamantaschen? “I would argue that the real significance of the Latke-Hamantaschen debate is that it cannot be resolved,” said Aaron David Miller, former Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiator under three U.S. presidents and six secretaries of state. “But it’s a debate that’s simply too important to abandon.”
Treasury's First Orthodox Chief (1/10/13)
Jack Lew, President Obama’s current chief of staff and his pick for Treasury secretary, is the highest-ranking Orthodox Jew in the history of the U.S. government. It’s a distinction that imposes some unusual burdens—like having to dodge opinionated congregants who try to accost him about politics in synagogue. “Your friends protect you—they sit around you and make it a little harder for strangers to come and give you a hard time,” he explained to me. “I just tell people, ‘If I wanted to work on Saturday, I have this 24/7 job. I come to shul to pray.’”
Religious Revolution in Israel (12/26/12)
An unlikely alliance of renegade rabbis and right-wing politicians seeks to strip Israel's ultra-Orthodox religious establishment of its power and reform the country's corrupt Chief Rabbinate. Here's what this means for Israel, American Jews, and the upcoming Israeli elections.
Not Another Rabbi for Obama (9/4/12)
At this moment, there are over 600 rabbis signed on as “Rabbis for Obama.” But Rabbi David Wolpe, who will be delivering a prayer Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, isn’t one of them--and he insists his blessing is not a political endorsement.
GOP Convention's Rabbi-in-Chief (8/27/12)
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik--religious bridge-builder, incorrigible contrarian, conservative political activist and scion of a famous Orthodox dynasty--will give the opening invocation at this year's Republican National Convention.
Don't Know Much 'bout Orthodoxy (8/21/12)
Reporters stereotype Orthodox Jewish women as meek, isolated, and without serious careers. Have they met any?
The Scientific Case for Circumcision (6/27/12)
“Male circumcision is a highly significant, lifetime intervention. It is the gift that keeps on giving. It makes sense to put extraordinary resources into it.” Who would you guess recently offered this paean to foreskin fleecing? A rabbi? An imam? Nope. Try U.S. AIDS coordinator Eric Goosby at a health convention last month for top officials from 80 countries.
See also: "Leading Pediatric Group Endorses Circumcision" (8/24/12)
The Most Anti-Israel President (4/10/12)
According to op-ed pages and partisans, Barack Obama has bullied the Jewish state more than any president in history, while Benjamin Netanyahu has been Israel's most intransigent Prime Minister. They said the same about Ronald Reagan and Menachem Begin.
Protocols of the Elders (2/16/12)
In America today, there is a small group of privileged citizens who wield disproportionate power over the rest of the country and seek to bend national policies to suit their collective will. Bound together by clannish, somewhat secretive ritual practices, and disproportionately represented among the nation’s wealthy and its political class, this population uses its largess and extensive influence to mold America to its perfidious ends. Their ultimate aim is to take over the United States. I am talking, of course, about Mormons.
New York Times
Confessions of a Digital Nazi Hunter (12/27/17)
We built a Nazi-hunting Twitter bot to expose racists on the platform. Then Twitter banned the bot—and left the Nazis. The great irony of the whole affair? The bot was doing Twitter’s job for it. The service has been notoriously prone to abuse since its inception and has struggled to curb it. Rather than asking Twitter to provide a top-down solution, however, we created a bottom-up one. We used Twitter’s tools to police itself—until Twitter fired the sheriff. If the platform is going to rescue itself from the trolls, it will need to foster these efforts, not fight them.
We built a Nazi-hunting Twitter bot to expose racists on the platform. Then Twitter banned the bot—and left the Nazis. The great irony of the whole affair? The bot was doing Twitter’s job for it. The service has been notoriously prone to abuse since its inception and has struggled to curb it. Rather than asking Twitter to provide a top-down solution, however, we created a bottom-up one. We used Twitter’s tools to police itself—until Twitter fired the sheriff. If the platform is going to rescue itself from the trolls, it will need to foster these efforts, not fight them.
Wall Street Journal
Religion: As Seen Inaccurately On Screen (2/28/14)
"I learned who Rachel was in church," muses a troubled character with the same name in the hit series "House of Cards." "Jacob fell in love with her while she was watering a lamb, and she became his wife after he worked seven years to earn her hand in marriage. Rachel had one son, Joseph. He became a king." There's only one problem with this account: It's wrong. Jacob agreed to work for Rachel for seven years, but ended up working 14. She had two sons, not one. And Joseph did not become king, but rather Pharaoh's deputy in ancient Egypt. This biblical bungling shouldn't be surprising: Faith doesn't play well in Hollywood, where TV and movie writers typically oscillate between ignorance and antipathy toward it.
"I learned who Rachel was in church," muses a troubled character with the same name in the hit series "House of Cards." "Jacob fell in love with her while she was watering a lamb, and she became his wife after he worked seven years to earn her hand in marriage. Rachel had one son, Joseph. He became a king." There's only one problem with this account: It's wrong. Jacob agreed to work for Rachel for seven years, but ended up working 14. She had two sons, not one. And Joseph did not become king, but rather Pharaoh's deputy in ancient Egypt. This biblical bungling shouldn't be surprising: Faith doesn't play well in Hollywood, where TV and movie writers typically oscillate between ignorance and antipathy toward it.
Washington Post
Conspiracy Theories About the Rothschilds Are a Symptom. The Problem is Much Deeper. (3/21/18)
When an anonymous troll of any political persuasion trumpets anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on social media, it is the sign of a broken person. These individuals know that their communities would reject them if they put their names to their hate, and so they conceal their identities online. But when public figures feel free to share such content unselfconsciously on their feeds, it is the sign of a broken culture. It means that within their ideological universe, they do not expect to experience any opprobrium.
You Don't Have to Be a Muslim to Be Horrified By Trump's Anti-Muslim Bigotry (11/29/17)
Neither Trump’s anti-Muslim animus nor his cavalier attitude toward publicizing its purveyors should come as a surprise. After all, during the 2016 campaign, he openly declared that “Islam hates us.” As a Jew and journalist who reports regularly on anti-Semitism and is frequently the target of it, I’m quite familiar with this sort of hateful generalization. To the bigot, there are not many different kinds of Jews with many different kinds of views, there is only “the Jews,” who are singled out and reduced to their most reviled actions and exemplars, real or imagined. To Trump, there is only one kind of Muslim and one kind of Islam. In the space of a tweet, a vibrant faith is recast as a mendacious monolith.
'Jews Will Not Replace Us': Why White Supremacists Go After Jews (8/14/17)
Jews are the only “white people” obsessively targeted by white supremacists. So are they really white, not at all or something in between? After Charlottesville, it’s clear we no longer have the luxury of debating the finer points of this question. For the time being, the racists have settled it for us. Racism, after all, is essentially the result of socially constructed categories imposed by bigots to separate out-groups from an in-group: white from nonwhites, Germans from Jews and so on. As such, any serious anti-racist effort needs to confront the racists where they are.
Five Myths About Anti-Semitism (2/3/17)
For a phenomenon often dubbed “the world’s oldest hatred,” anti-Semitism is not well understood. From top Iranian officials who blame the Talmud for the international drug trade to British political activists who claim that the Mossad is stealing their shoes, anti-Jewish bigotry can be bewildering and bizarre. But given the prejudice’s longevity, virulence and recent resurgence in Europe and America, it’s well worth debunking common misconceptions that impede our ability to fight it.
When an anonymous troll of any political persuasion trumpets anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on social media, it is the sign of a broken person. These individuals know that their communities would reject them if they put their names to their hate, and so they conceal their identities online. But when public figures feel free to share such content unselfconsciously on their feeds, it is the sign of a broken culture. It means that within their ideological universe, they do not expect to experience any opprobrium.
You Don't Have to Be a Muslim to Be Horrified By Trump's Anti-Muslim Bigotry (11/29/17)
Neither Trump’s anti-Muslim animus nor his cavalier attitude toward publicizing its purveyors should come as a surprise. After all, during the 2016 campaign, he openly declared that “Islam hates us.” As a Jew and journalist who reports regularly on anti-Semitism and is frequently the target of it, I’m quite familiar with this sort of hateful generalization. To the bigot, there are not many different kinds of Jews with many different kinds of views, there is only “the Jews,” who are singled out and reduced to their most reviled actions and exemplars, real or imagined. To Trump, there is only one kind of Muslim and one kind of Islam. In the space of a tweet, a vibrant faith is recast as a mendacious monolith.
'Jews Will Not Replace Us': Why White Supremacists Go After Jews (8/14/17)
Jews are the only “white people” obsessively targeted by white supremacists. So are they really white, not at all or something in between? After Charlottesville, it’s clear we no longer have the luxury of debating the finer points of this question. For the time being, the racists have settled it for us. Racism, after all, is essentially the result of socially constructed categories imposed by bigots to separate out-groups from an in-group: white from nonwhites, Germans from Jews and so on. As such, any serious anti-racist effort needs to confront the racists where they are.
Five Myths About Anti-Semitism (2/3/17)
For a phenomenon often dubbed “the world’s oldest hatred,” anti-Semitism is not well understood. From top Iranian officials who blame the Talmud for the international drug trade to British political activists who claim that the Mossad is stealing their shoes, anti-Jewish bigotry can be bewildering and bizarre. But given the prejudice’s longevity, virulence and recent resurgence in Europe and America, it’s well worth debunking common misconceptions that impede our ability to fight it.
The Atlantic | Archive
'Homeland' is Anything But Islamophobic (12/18/12)
Homeland is no gung-ho salute to US militarism and tactics in the war on terror, nor a black-and-white portrayal of “good” Americans versus “evil” Muslims. On the contrary, the show problematizes the security state, reveals the horrific collateral damage of America’s drone program, and pointedly demonstrates how such unaccountable power invariably leads to corruption. In episode after episode, the human propensity for monochromatic moral thinking—an “us or them” mentality—is shown to be the true villain, rather than one particular nationality or ethnic group.
A version of this piece also appeared in The Guardian (12/23/12)
Why 'The West Wing' is a Terrible Guide to American Democracy (10/1/12)
Building a democracy around The West Wing's version of politics is setting one's self up for disappointment. The show overstates the power of personalities to triumph over fundamental political realities. It exaggerates the import and impact of presidential rhetoric. And it concordantly minimizes the internal and external obstacles even the most well-meaning and capable politicians face when attempting to make policy. Such creative liberties add up to a romanticized portrayal which leads viewers to expect more from their elected officials and government than either can reasonably deliver.
What Tony Blair Can Teach Mitt Romney About Faith in Politics (5/24/12)
Pundits say a politician can't run for office successfully while running away from his religious beliefs. The former prime minister offers a surprising counterexample.
Homeland is no gung-ho salute to US militarism and tactics in the war on terror, nor a black-and-white portrayal of “good” Americans versus “evil” Muslims. On the contrary, the show problematizes the security state, reveals the horrific collateral damage of America’s drone program, and pointedly demonstrates how such unaccountable power invariably leads to corruption. In episode after episode, the human propensity for monochromatic moral thinking—an “us or them” mentality—is shown to be the true villain, rather than one particular nationality or ethnic group.
A version of this piece also appeared in The Guardian (12/23/12)
Why 'The West Wing' is a Terrible Guide to American Democracy (10/1/12)
Building a democracy around The West Wing's version of politics is setting one's self up for disappointment. The show overstates the power of personalities to triumph over fundamental political realities. It exaggerates the import and impact of presidential rhetoric. And it concordantly minimizes the internal and external obstacles even the most well-meaning and capable politicians face when attempting to make policy. Such creative liberties add up to a romanticized portrayal which leads viewers to expect more from their elected officials and government than either can reasonably deliver.
What Tony Blair Can Teach Mitt Romney About Faith in Politics (5/24/12)
Pundits say a politician can't run for office successfully while running away from his religious beliefs. The former prime minister offers a surprising counterexample.
The Jewish Review of Books | Archive
No Sex in the City: On Srugim (Spring 2010)
Srugim is the kind of show that doesn’t usually make it to television, even in Israel. Your conventional network docket does not have a slot for a “faith-based soap opera,” and for good reason—between disinterested non-religious viewers and easily offended religious ones, there would seem to be a very small demographic for such programming. But Srugim—the title refers to the knitted kippot worn by modern Orthodox men—never did get the memo, and its first season garnered praise, as well as a sizable audience, from all corners of Israeli society and even some American viewers, who watched it online.
Srugim is the kind of show that doesn’t usually make it to television, even in Israel. Your conventional network docket does not have a slot for a “faith-based soap opera,” and for good reason—between disinterested non-religious viewers and easily offended religious ones, there would seem to be a very small demographic for such programming. But Srugim—the title refers to the knitted kippot worn by modern Orthodox men—never did get the memo, and its first season garnered praise, as well as a sizable audience, from all corners of Israeli society and even some American viewers, who watched it online.
The Harvard Crimson | Archive
FILM
"Moneyball" (9/27/11)
“Moneyball” is the quintessential anti-sports movie. It is a baseball film in which the actual game barely features, and the players themselves are given mere bit parts in their own story. There is no inspiring pep talk delivered by a charismatic coach, and no swelling, adrenaline-pumping victory anthem in the movie’s rather pedestrian soundtrack. There isn’t even a championship game. Every human element of the traditional sports film—the cathartic emotional highs, the gritty and grizzled athletes, the intense and sweaty close-ups—has been mercilessly excised. All of which is quite fitting, given that “Moneyball” is essentially about the irrelevance of each of these to the game of baseball.
"Sherlock Holmes" (2/2/10)
“Sherlock Holmes” functions more as a nod to the logical bent of Conan Doyle’s series than as a serious portrayal of it. From impossibly large explosions whose implausibility is exceeded only by the number of proximal characters who manage to survive them, to magical African flowers which perform convenient plot functions, this is not a film showcasing mind over matter. On occasion, we witness Holmes’s renowned analytical capabilities, but rarely are these moments integral to the story. Holmes uses his intellect not so much to outwit the villains as to discover their next target, whereupon conflicts are resolved in fantastical action sequences. But none of this is to say that “Sherlock Holmes” is not a good movie—it’s just not one that viewers may be expecting.
BOOKS
"36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction," by Rebecca Goldstein (4/20/10)
The strength and weakness of philosophical novels is that they often feel like a multiple choice test for which the author has circled several answers to the same question. Whereas a traditional philosopher must present a rigorous argument that is carefully constructed and proven, the philosophical novelist revels in the ambiguity of his or her characters, and the conflicting ideas that make up their lives and conversations. Rebecca Goldstein—who has made a career out of presenting philosophical concepts in fictional form—offers with her latest book a showcase of the advantages and frustrations attendant to this curious medium. “36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction” doesn’t settle any of the questions it raises, but it certainly edifies, entertains, and provokes.
"I Am Martin Eisenstadt," by Martin Eisenstadt (2/3/10)
Martin Eisenstadt, a former McCain campaign adviser, television talking head, and senior fellow at the neoconservative Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, is the bedrock upon which our illustrious nation rests—if he does say so himself. “Pundits have been essential to American democracy since the birth of our great country,” he says. “If George Washington was the first American president, then it could be said that Ben Franklin was the first American pundit. And guess whose face is on a higher denomination bill? I rest my case.”
THEATER
"Dead Man's Cell Phone" (10/23/09)
The opening of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” has the suspicious feel of a playwright’s practical joke. A woman sits alone at a café table. A well-dressed man sits very still at another. Suddenly his cell phone rings, at which point everyone in the theatre looks around to see which poor soul forgot to shut theirs off. It takes a few rings before they realize this is actually the first sound of the show they just paid to watch. After countless performances interrupted by inconsiderate spectators’ beeping and jingling pockets, this particular production and its crew have finally turned the tables on the audience. This is but the first of many winks that Sarah Ruhl’s playful script—being performed by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston through Nov. 14—has in store.
EDITORIAL
To Save The Jews (3/2/12)
The notion that Jews are an endangered minority can be hard to fathom on a campus like Harvard’s. After all, who here doesn’t have a Jewish friend or professor? Indeed, living in a country like the United States, with its historically unprecedented low levels of anti-Semitism, the idea that Jews might face discrimination due to their national identity or religious beliefs seems like a relic of the distant past. But outside the Harvard bubble, Jews comprise just roughly 2% of Americans and only 0.2% of the world’s population. And unfortunately, discrimination against this tiny minority not only exists but is commonplace in many parts of the world.
Protecting the Dignity of Discourse on Campus (4/18/11)
When viewed through the lens of pragmatism rather than partisanship, the prosecution of those who disrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren with the intent to prevent him from speaking clearly protects our civil discourse. Imagine, for contrast, a campus climate in which it is possible for any sufficiently motivated group to shut down an event to which it is ideologically opposed. Not only would Ambassador Oren be shouted off the stage, but Nancy Pelosi would be accosted with cries of “baby killer,” while Omar Barghouti, who spoke recently at Harvard to advocate boycott of Israel, could be met with jeers of “terrorist” and “anti-semite.” It is essential for the preservation of considered campus conversation that such suppressive “speech” never be tolerated, no matter the opinion being espoused. Simply put, no partisan should have a vocal veto over the marketplace of ideas.
"Moneyball" (9/27/11)
“Moneyball” is the quintessential anti-sports movie. It is a baseball film in which the actual game barely features, and the players themselves are given mere bit parts in their own story. There is no inspiring pep talk delivered by a charismatic coach, and no swelling, adrenaline-pumping victory anthem in the movie’s rather pedestrian soundtrack. There isn’t even a championship game. Every human element of the traditional sports film—the cathartic emotional highs, the gritty and grizzled athletes, the intense and sweaty close-ups—has been mercilessly excised. All of which is quite fitting, given that “Moneyball” is essentially about the irrelevance of each of these to the game of baseball.
"Sherlock Holmes" (2/2/10)
“Sherlock Holmes” functions more as a nod to the logical bent of Conan Doyle’s series than as a serious portrayal of it. From impossibly large explosions whose implausibility is exceeded only by the number of proximal characters who manage to survive them, to magical African flowers which perform convenient plot functions, this is not a film showcasing mind over matter. On occasion, we witness Holmes’s renowned analytical capabilities, but rarely are these moments integral to the story. Holmes uses his intellect not so much to outwit the villains as to discover their next target, whereupon conflicts are resolved in fantastical action sequences. But none of this is to say that “Sherlock Holmes” is not a good movie—it’s just not one that viewers may be expecting.
BOOKS
"36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction," by Rebecca Goldstein (4/20/10)
The strength and weakness of philosophical novels is that they often feel like a multiple choice test for which the author has circled several answers to the same question. Whereas a traditional philosopher must present a rigorous argument that is carefully constructed and proven, the philosophical novelist revels in the ambiguity of his or her characters, and the conflicting ideas that make up their lives and conversations. Rebecca Goldstein—who has made a career out of presenting philosophical concepts in fictional form—offers with her latest book a showcase of the advantages and frustrations attendant to this curious medium. “36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction” doesn’t settle any of the questions it raises, but it certainly edifies, entertains, and provokes.
"I Am Martin Eisenstadt," by Martin Eisenstadt (2/3/10)
Martin Eisenstadt, a former McCain campaign adviser, television talking head, and senior fellow at the neoconservative Harding Institute for Freedom and Democracy, is the bedrock upon which our illustrious nation rests—if he does say so himself. “Pundits have been essential to American democracy since the birth of our great country,” he says. “If George Washington was the first American president, then it could be said that Ben Franklin was the first American pundit. And guess whose face is on a higher denomination bill? I rest my case.”
THEATER
"Dead Man's Cell Phone" (10/23/09)
The opening of “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” has the suspicious feel of a playwright’s practical joke. A woman sits alone at a café table. A well-dressed man sits very still at another. Suddenly his cell phone rings, at which point everyone in the theatre looks around to see which poor soul forgot to shut theirs off. It takes a few rings before they realize this is actually the first sound of the show they just paid to watch. After countless performances interrupted by inconsiderate spectators’ beeping and jingling pockets, this particular production and its crew have finally turned the tables on the audience. This is but the first of many winks that Sarah Ruhl’s playful script—being performed by The Lyric Stage Company of Boston through Nov. 14—has in store.
EDITORIAL
To Save The Jews (3/2/12)
The notion that Jews are an endangered minority can be hard to fathom on a campus like Harvard’s. After all, who here doesn’t have a Jewish friend or professor? Indeed, living in a country like the United States, with its historically unprecedented low levels of anti-Semitism, the idea that Jews might face discrimination due to their national identity or religious beliefs seems like a relic of the distant past. But outside the Harvard bubble, Jews comprise just roughly 2% of Americans and only 0.2% of the world’s population. And unfortunately, discrimination against this tiny minority not only exists but is commonplace in many parts of the world.
Protecting the Dignity of Discourse on Campus (4/18/11)
When viewed through the lens of pragmatism rather than partisanship, the prosecution of those who disrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren with the intent to prevent him from speaking clearly protects our civil discourse. Imagine, for contrast, a campus climate in which it is possible for any sufficiently motivated group to shut down an event to which it is ideologically opposed. Not only would Ambassador Oren be shouted off the stage, but Nancy Pelosi would be accosted with cries of “baby killer,” while Omar Barghouti, who spoke recently at Harvard to advocate boycott of Israel, could be met with jeers of “terrorist” and “anti-semite.” It is essential for the preservation of considered campus conversation that such suppressive “speech” never be tolerated, no matter the opinion being espoused. Simply put, no partisan should have a vocal veto over the marketplace of ideas.
The New York Journal News LoHud Yankees Blog
Anatomy of a Rivalry: Yankees and Red Sox (1/27/11)
Like many epic enmities, the Yankees/Sox rivalry is fueled by the narcissism of small differences. That is, what makes the competition so acute is the similarity between the two clubs in talent, style and approach, which throws their slight disparities into sharp relief. To take an illustrative example from my backyard, the storied university rivalry between Harvard and Yale sure isn’t predicated on the vast differences between the two twin Ivy League elites; rather, it stems from their commonalities. Because the two schools are so alike in terms of academics, student body, and culture, their most minute distinctions are put under the microscope in a search for uniqueness and superiority, intensifying the rivalry to the extreme. Every detail becomes a battleground. Each side wants to be the best when it comes to the traits both so dearly prize. So to with Yankees/Sox.
What Advanced Statistics Can and Can't Teach Us About Baseball (1/21/10)
While we may not yet have adequate metrics to discern the impact of such mental and personal factors on baseball performance — to distinguish statistical noise from psychological poise — that does not mean the factors themselves do not have an impact. Indeed, intuitively, if we view baseball as a real-world job like any other, we should come to the very opposite conclusion.
Like many epic enmities, the Yankees/Sox rivalry is fueled by the narcissism of small differences. That is, what makes the competition so acute is the similarity between the two clubs in talent, style and approach, which throws their slight disparities into sharp relief. To take an illustrative example from my backyard, the storied university rivalry between Harvard and Yale sure isn’t predicated on the vast differences between the two twin Ivy League elites; rather, it stems from their commonalities. Because the two schools are so alike in terms of academics, student body, and culture, their most minute distinctions are put under the microscope in a search for uniqueness and superiority, intensifying the rivalry to the extreme. Every detail becomes a battleground. Each side wants to be the best when it comes to the traits both so dearly prize. So to with Yankees/Sox.
What Advanced Statistics Can and Can't Teach Us About Baseball (1/21/10)
While we may not yet have adequate metrics to discern the impact of such mental and personal factors on baseball performance — to distinguish statistical noise from psychological poise — that does not mean the factors themselves do not have an impact. Indeed, intuitively, if we view baseball as a real-world job like any other, we should come to the very opposite conclusion.
