Archive
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Articles
Fill the Void: A Haredi Film
The 2012 Israeli film “Fill the Void,” now being released in the U.S., is almost unique in being about haredi Jews and directed by a member of that sector....
Conservative Judaism, Intellectually Untethered
When the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement within Judaism issued guidelines for homosexual marriage by a vote of thirteen in favor, none...
On the Left’s Attitude Towards the Jews
“The discussion of socialist and Marxist attitudes to antisemitism . . . has often been confused by the erroneous and illogical assumption that left-wing parties are immunized against racial,...
Why American Christians Embraced Israel
Israel, alas, is widely viewed with disdain, if not outright hostility, in the contemporary Western world. The biggest exception to this sentiment is the United States and, arguably, the...
Against American Exceptionalism
In reading an essay by Peter Collier on the late Christopher Hitchens in the February 2012 issue of the New Criterion , I was brought up short when I...
Judgment by Eric Ambler
Eric Ambler (1909-1998) is one of my favorite authors of light fiction and certainly one of the pre-eminent writers of spy fiction. I admire equally his plots and his...
A Figure of Biblical Proportions: A Review of Stern: The Man and His Gang
During the First World War, the British, including two Jewish battalions of the Royal Fusiliers, conquered the Ottoman-ruled Land of Israel (then known as Palestine). After the war, the...
A Review of Seven Minutes in Heaven
I saw this fine Israeli 2008 film last week. So far as I am aware, it is the first film by writer-director Omri Givon. At first the main theme...
Liberty and Identity
Recently the World Jewish Congress held a conference in Jerusalem at which famous Soviet refusenik Natan Sharansky gave the keynote address. In it he maintained that people need both...
The New Film Version of Brighton Rock
While I have read (and enjoyed) a number of Graham Greene’s spy stories (what he called entertainments), I have never read any of his religious novels, including Brighton Rock....
Throwing Out the Whole Thing
Last evening I heard a piece on National Public Radio about a twenty-one year old man who has left orthodox Judaism. The piece also included an interview with someone...
Cinematic Cosmic Joy
I have previously written in this space of Eric Rohmer’s film L’amour après-midi , in my opinion, the best film of one of the best filmmakers after the incomparable...
Eric Rohmer’s “Chloe in the Afternoon”: A Humanizing Pleasure
Recently I saw the 1943 Ernst Lubitsch film, Heaven Can Wait . In it, a roué dies and winds up being interviewed by a very gentlemanly Satan to see...
Srugim
One of the many themes not dealt with adequately if at all, by contemporary fiction is a realistic portrayal on the effect of religion upon sincere believers. Often modern...
