People have every right to decide what they will read and what not. What or to whom they will listen or not. They also have the right to try to dissuade people from what they consider to be undesirable events and occasions. But the one thing that annoys me intensely, and I think is absolutely futile, is to try to…
General Topics
The Seventeenth of Tammuz
Five really bad things happened to the Jewish people on the Seventeenth of Tammuz. Which is why we fast then from dawn to dusk. This year the seventeenth is on Shabbat, but we fast on Sunday. Shabbat is reserved for happy days. What happened? According to the Mishnah, Moses broke the two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai after the…
Paper in the Wall
In 1974 when Henry Kissinger was pressurizing Golda Meir to make concessions in the interest of peace in the Middle East, Golda took him to the Western Wall. Kissinger stood there and was visibly moved. He started to pray. He said, “Dear God I want to thank you for enabling me, a penniless German Jewish refugee to succeed beyond expectations…
Whitney Triple Chaser Exhibit
I accept that I am hyper sensitive to criticisms of Israel. And I accept that a free world requires freedom of speech. But in the present climate of increasing and ever-present hatred of Israel coming from so many sectors of American and European intellectual and political life, if we honestly believe in free speech we ought to insist on the…
Shaking Hands
I was brought up in Britain at a time when civility and good manners were regarded as next to godliness. This applied to how you dressed, cut your hair, comported yourself, spoke and ate at table. Not knowing which fork to use relegated you to the level of barbarians. In a world of royals and aristocrats, you needed to know…
Israel & China
For as long as I can recall I have been an idealist. I have always tried my best to support the underdog, the oppressed and the poor. Yet I am also a pragmatist. Sometimes banging one’s head against a brick wall is not a very sensible option. Back in the 1950s, I used to support the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).…