Departments

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Jewish history

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    4/10/2023

    Who Attacked Jascha Heifetz in 1953?

    Although ties to Jewish extremist organizations were suspected, the person who attacked a violinist in 1953, allegedly for performing the works of Richard Strauss, has never been found. The story resonates with conflicts in Israeli society today. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    4/3/2023

    Is Holocaust Education Making Antisemitism Worse?

    by Dara Horn

    It's becoming clear that more lessons about the Holocaust won't address the problem of antisemitism in contemporary America, because it places both Jews and prejudice against them in another time and place. 

  • SOURCE: Substack
    3/19/2023

    A Prominent Story about How "Diversity" Entered College Admissions is Wrong

    by Charles Petersen

    The plaintiffs in a case seeking to outlaw affirmative action in admission policies are relying on a false narrative that "diversity" entered Harvard's admissions criteria as a way to limit the number of Jews admitted. While the existence of Jewish quotas is documented, the two aren't connected. 

  • SOURCE: LitHub
    3/6/2023

    How Superman Became a Christ-Figure

    by Roy Schwartz

    How did the comic book creation of two American Jews, whose origin story incorporates Moses, come to be understood as a stand-in for Jesus? Mostly through the movies. 

  • SOURCE: Forward
    2/27/2023

    Philosopher Lewis Gordon's Impact on Black Jewish History

    Gordon said for him, “Black consciousness links to all oppression and that’s exactly the kind of Jewishness I was raised in. It was always explained as connected to the ethical, the political dimensions of what it was to be Jewish."

  • SOURCE: New York Review of Books
    1/22/2023

    How the Russian Jews Became Soviet

    The novelist Gary Shteyngart, who emigrated from the USSR to the US as a child, reviews Sasha Senderovich's "How the Soviet Jew was Made," a work that gives short shrift to neither the "Soviet" nor "Jewish" sides of the question. 

  • SOURCE: Jewish Currents
    1/10/2023

    Beinart: Antisemitic Zionism Isn't a Contradiction in Terms

    Conservative Zionists have reached accommodated American evangelicals' demands for a Christian-dominated America in exchange for support for a Jewish greater Israel. The media are reluctant to discuss this connection.

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    12/21/2022

    Enjoying the Christmas Lights? Thank Jewish Refugees from the Ottoman Empire

    by Devin E. Naar

    The story of Christmas lighting in America follows the paths of Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Turkey, who coped with nativist prejudice, linguistic difference, and labor exploitation to find community and work—including in light bulb factories. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    12/20/2022

    Israel's Religious Right Pushes for Restrictive Changes to Law of Return

    As Jews around the world are considering Israel as a refuge from antisemitism, that country's religious fundamentalist parties have the political leverage to decide that many fewer people are Jewish enough to qualify for immigration and citizenship. American Reform Jews are particularly affected.