“Chosen, But Not Special”

I find this Michael Chabon op-ed , written in the wake of Israel’s interception of the Gaza flotilla, to be remarkable, and not in a good way. A few extremely cleverly oblique references to God, while the figure who identifies that God rather than merely naming him — guess who? — is comprehensively repressed. Chabon apparently wants his fear to be taken seriously that inside any gentile who dares suggest Jews evolved themselves extra-big brains must be an anti-Semite. So fine: I don’t think Jews have been hated, or continue to be hated, because they’re crafty, Mr. Chabon. It’s not because they’re “the people of Maimonides, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk and Meyer Lansky.” It’s because they’re the people of Moses.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Notes on Anosmia

John Wilson

One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…

Empire of Unreality

Algis Valiunas

Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…

The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist

Peter J. Leithart

It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…