Britain has made some positive contributions to world culture over the years. But all this counts for very little compared to the impact of Britain’s rude, bad-tempered export, Simon Cowell, and his show Pop Idol, now transformed into American Idol. A whopping 34 million Americans watch American Idol weekly on television and (don’t ask me how or why), casting as…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
The Da Vinci Code
I really wanted to carry on talking serious stuff this week, but the hooha over The Da Vinci Code won. Apparently intelligent people seem incapable of learning from history. Various Jewish groups got all worked up about Mel Gibson’s film about Jesus. They argued that it was anti-Semitic and would fuel hatred and ought to be modified. As a result,…
Tragedy
When a young ultra-Orthodox man admits to biting and beating his handicapped infant to death, how is it possible that the greatest rabbis of our generation publicly declare that this is a blood libel on the part of the secular Israeli authorities and that the man is innocent, before any trial or complete investigation? This is what happened recently in…
The Road to Jerusalem
Passover is a pilgrim festival. For thousands of years Jewish pilgrims have been making their way up to Jerusalem. It is a very special route. After a recent short visit, I turned up a piece I wrote home to my parents over forty years ago after the very first time I went “up” to Jerusalem: The Central Bus Station in…
Human Rights
Recently, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that a woman left infertile after cancer treatment cannot use her frozen embryos to have a baby. Natallie Evans started IVF treatment with her then partner Howard Johnston in 2001 following a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. The embryos were created and placed in storage. After the couple split up, Johnston withdrew consent…
Rabbis and Imams in Seville
Just got back from Seville in Spain where I attended a the Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace. Strange that it was the first time I had ever been to Spain. It had nothing to do with the ban on returning to the land that expelled the Jews in 1492 (most halachic experts believe it has lapsed).…