FROM THE FILTER

The High Road
"It is a moral idiot who thinks that anti-Semitism is a threat only to Jews," snarls Christopher Hitchens, drawing a distinction between the future of a "state for Jews" and a Jewish state. The whole Israel conundrum reminds him of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "aphorism about the necessity of living with flat-out contradiction."
05.13.08 | EMAIL | PERMALINK

Opposites Attract
Writing in Mr. Beller's Neighborhood, Heidi Rain recalls her fascination with a catechism booklet-toting childhood friend. "It was probably my first encounter with anything so conceptual, so metaphoric. Like sin." As a Reform Jew, "there wasn't just one right way. There were options."
05.13.08 | EMAIL | PERMALINK

Nextbook Festival of Ideas
Nextbook's "Jews and Power" festival in NYC is on May 18. For info on how to join us, click here. For a taste of what's in store, check out participant Aaron David Miller: "Jews and their non-Jewish allies have a powerful voice on America's Middle East policies, but they should not and do not have a veto."
05.09.08 | EMAIL | PERMALINK

Developing Intolerance
Michael Kimmelman assesses the rise of anti-Semitism in Hungary. While Communism attempted to eradicate differences, the opposite may have since become a problem: "What is now being denied here is the notion that Jews, no matter how we behave, are the same as non-Jews," a sociologist tells him.
05.08.08 | EMAIL | PERMALINK

By Any Other Name
Haaretz reprints a letter in which writer Aharon Reuveni claims credit for naming the Jewish state in 1948. In it, he summarily rejects "all manner of bizarre, faulty, untoward and tasteless names" including "State of the Hebrews." Israel, he wrote, "hints at man's war with the forces of nature, which is the basis for all human progress."
05.07.08 | EMAIL | PERMALINK

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