David P. Goldman

Browsing Rabbi Dana Evan Kaplan’s new book Contemporary American Judaism, I note a great deal of ritual acknowledgement of “Jewish diversity” and not a word about Jewish fertility. That is a deadly flaw, for the sort of Judaism the author espouses will disappear if only because it . . . . Continue Reading »

Why should America support Israel in the first place? That’s a fair question to ask down here in Melbourne, Australia, where the United Israel Appeal of Victoria kindly invited me to address communal, school and civic audiences as well as a large number of smaller groups. Australia’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Tony Badrun flagged this note by the Lebanon Star’s opinion editor Michael Young. No friend of Israel, Young notes how confused and self-defeating is Obama’s array of contradictory and incoherent initiatives in the Middle East:With respect to the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, . . . . Continue Reading »

From conversations with friends and acquaintances in Hong Kong, the damage the Obama administration has done to American interests in the Far East may be far worse than meets the eye. The Bush administration, whatever its other failings, achieved something that no previous US administration had . . . . Continue Reading »

In case anyone failed to catch my drift last week, permit me to reiterate my distaste for yet another protest from the collected Jewish leadership over a supposed Catholic agenda to convert us. When Jews get together at the moment, do you think they complain about how many of our co-religionists we . . . . Continue Reading »

I don’t usually repost material from my little “Inner Workings” blog over at Asia Times Online, but I couldn’t resist this item, as it bears on the overall political situation and the position of the administration. It’s all part of making the US a banana republic.Stock . . . . Continue Reading »

Recently newspapers reported the death of the Rev. “Ike” Eikerenkoetter, a roguish televangelist who preached a prosperity gospel and sold $19.95 prayer rugs guaranteed to help you pray for money. Because my student digs near Columbia were in a zip code that included parts of Harlem, I . . . . Continue Reading »

Tom Keene is doing a radio/television simulcast tomorrow with a number of contributors to his Bloomberg Book of Master Market Economists. I will do the 7 a.m. . . . . Continue Reading »

Prof. Dr. Felix Koerner, S.J., has fraternal advice for Muslims beset by Christian missionaries: don’t overreact, but develop your own consciousness as Muslims in order to respond to them. An invitation to go over to the other side, he added, really is a stimulus to refresh one’s own . . . . Continue Reading »

My essay on Heine and Dante (in fact, on idealized love for Beatrice vs Herodias) appears on the main First Things website this morning. Heinrich Heine remains my moral compass, not because he got everything right (he got many things hideously wrong until the very end of his life) but because he . . . . Continue Reading »