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RBG and the Jewish Tradition of Dressing with Intention
Of the many lessons Ruth Bader Ginsburg embodied – that our legal status should not be contingent on gender; that we can value people with whom we virulently disagree, and that disagreement can make us better; that choosing the right life partner can make all the difference – the one that most resonates with me […]
When Joe Biden announced his candidacy for President of the United States, c1984
Louis Gordon recalls a career-defining speech from over two decades ago. Thirty-six years ago, during my senior year at Brandeis University, I attended Herut USA’s conference in New York City. It was the first such event by Herut in many years and was well attended largely due to the featured speakers who included then former Israeli […]
The problem of love in Corbyn’s Labour Party: Reflections on Left Out
How Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire’s ‘Left Out’ shows how love was always a greater problem than hate in Corbyn’s Labour Party
Post-truth, QAnon and the Jewish response – a call for submissions
I’m not an absolutist. I’ve long understood that if you asked ten people to recall the same event they all witnessed, you will get ten different versions. Some of those versions will directly contradict each other. We understand this happens because everyone processes what they see through the lens of their own experience. The concept […]
Considering the antisemitism of Jeremy Corbyn
Extracts from the yet unpublished Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn by Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire are being published in The Times this week and include interesting tidbits about Jeremy Corbyn and his alleged antisemitism. The latest revelations are a quote from one of Corbyn’s right-hand men, Andrew Murray, saying that […]
MRS AMERICA: Everything coming up Bagels
True story: About three weeks into a new job, my first in England, which had thus far included a lot of activities labelled ‘induction’ (a term unfamiliar to my North American brain, but which seemed to mean go drink coffee while having small talk about the weather and bad shows like The Great British Bake […]
Labour is Cleaning House, the Tories Must, Too.
Barnaby Marder explains why if the Labour Party is tackling antisemitism, we have a right to expect the same from the Conservatives. In the Jewish Chronicle last week (August 12, 2020) Lee Harpin wrote a puzzling article about how leading Conservatives were ‘baffled over signs of Jewish support for Labour’. Quite apart from the fact that the article seems suspiciously like a non-story, it implies […]
Communal Consistency of Causes: a response to Dan Jacobs
Harry Marin responds to Dan Jacobs’ piece, ‘Leaders take a moral stand on the Uyghurs, why not on Palestine?’ On 22nd July, JewTh!nk published an article entitled: ‘Leaders take a moral stand on the Uyghurs, why not on Palestine?’ This article by Dan Jacobs raised a number of interesting questions (statement of conflict of interest: […]
Stop Bullying Seth Rogen
I hesitate to wade into this debate. It feels like it’s been done to death already (gesticulates). But there is something no one has said about the Maron/Rogen interview. Seth Rogen is being bullied. Some sections of the Jewish community are bullying him. Not because of his talent or some might say his lack of, […]
My Hero, Seth Rogen
I have long admired Seth Rogen and I still do. No amount of selective quotation from his hour-long interview with Marc Maron will change my mind. In fact, it has reinforced my appreciation for him. Rogen (whose surname must be mispelled as often as mine is) first came into my life as part of Judd […]