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Description:
A moderated forum conceived in the spirit of Isaiah Berlin. The focus is on Jewish secular concerns, particularly politics and culture.
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The campaign against Columbia continues
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Campus Watch has just released a bulletin ([link]) claiming that
Columbia's Middle East Institute "sent out invititations" to an event honoring Amir Baraka,
a well-known antisemite. Invitations are normally assumed to be sent by
sponsors, and so it is implied here that the Middle East Institute... more »
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Saul Bellow o"h
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Saul Bellow was in no sense whatever a Jewish pope but I suspect that his death is felt in a special way by every Jew who reads. This is doubly interesting because Bellow famously didn't want to be thought of as a Jewish writer. But what constitutes that "special way"? In my own case it's partly because Moses Herzog, perhaps even more than Malamud's Arthur... more »
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The Peace Prize
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I note that Thomas Friedman of the Times wants to give the Nobel Peace Prize to Ayatollah Sistani for bringing about the possibility of a peaceful society in Iraq. Maybe so. Certainly, our feelings about Bush's war to one side, we all hope for such an outcome. But we're still very far from... more »
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verbal violence in Israel
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I have been thinking a lot about the alarming level of verbal violence in Israel. Nehemia Strasler wrote very pointedly on this subject in his recent HaAretz piece (the URL of the English version is
[link]) and I thought I would bring it to the attention of "Isaiah Forum" readers. The poisonous talk has come from the right (see Strasler's article) and the left. Not too long ago Jews started calling other Jews "Nazis" -- a contemptible comparison, no less a light than Leibovitz inventing "Judo-Nazi". These malice-packed names are in the courts now with all kinds of people suing one another. My general position is let them all rave unless there is proven incitement to real violence -- but there may be holes in that stance in specific instances. Legal minds need to go to work here.... more »
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A splintered right?
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Talking of holocaust-denying, the Zionist Organization of America is running a fiery denunciation of Mahmoud Abbas by its president, Morton Klein and Neil Sher. [link]
The real aim of the article is to disparage any sort of rapprochement between the Sharon government and that of the PLO. But it's also clear... more »
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An Accidental Revisionist?
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Rolf Hochhuth is a German author, probably best known for his 1963
play, "The Deputy." In the play, Hochhuth proposes that Pope Pius
XII, by barely protesting the extermination of Jews by Nazi Germany,
was complicit in the holocaust.
About two weeks ago, Hochhuth, now 74, was interviewed by a minor... more »
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By way of introduction
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Thanks for joining Isaiah B. I hope we'll learn much from one another. Given the state of affairs out there, by definition never good, and our normal Jewish contentiousness we will surely have enough to keep our juices flowing.
Where many lists have elaborate ground rules, I'd like to begin with a... more »
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No more topics in this group.
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