I Remember Babylon
Exordium!Friends have asked for my reaction to Ilhan Omar, Jeremy Corbyn, and the whole issue of left antisemitism in politics. And I kept putting it off, because the more I considered it, the more...
View ArticleCorbyn, Milne, Antisemitism: What Happened
I’ve posted before about Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour antisemitism problem. It's about a month since the 2019 general election in which Corbyn went down in flames, Labour's worst Parliamentary result...
View ArticleUK Ruling Today: Corbyn's Labour Discriminated Against Jews
I’ve been waiting a long time for this story to drop — as in more than a year — so naturally it drops just days before the US election.Short VersionIn the December 2019 general election in the UK,...
View ArticleThe Bombing of Babi Yar
I can’t let it go in silence.Most of the Jews the Nazis killed didn't go to the gas chambers. They were swept up by paramilitary as Nazis captured territories to the east. One of the largest Jewish...
View ArticleHow do you know who your friends are?
A few days ago, as a failed exercise in rage containment, I did a short diary on the Russian bombing of the Holocaust mass grave named Babyn Yar (Babi Yar in Russian), a place where over thirty...
View ArticleThe Corbyn Antisemitism Thing Timeline
I’m drafting a diary about defining antisemitism, on the left and on the right, spurred by David Baddiel’s recent book “Jews Don’t Count”— likely to be the only book in history blurbed by Sarah...
View Article"Jews Don't Count"
Some thoughts crystalized by a recent book from David Baddiel, Jews Don’t Count.Baddiel is a well-regarded children’s author in the UK, comic television personality, twitterator, and — probably most...
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Antisemitism 102: The Blood Libel
Two weeks ago I did a lo-o-ong diary on the IHRA “working definition” of antisemitism and what it means for the left, and — to my amazement — it hit the rec list and started what was mostly a fruitful...
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It's the little details that break your heart.
Of Shakespeare’s big four tragedies, one of them went unperformed for quite a long time when the theaters were reopened after the Restoration: King Lear. It was just too depressing on two many levels....
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Antisemitism 102: Kanye West, Roger Waters, and What the Jews Aren't
Well, here we go again. In a matter of days, a big pile of antisemitic horseshit from Kanye West and another, sadly, from someone I used to have absolutely boundless admiration for.The OffensesTwitter...
View ArticleMy Stupid, Inexplicable Hobby Becomes Relevant, Damn It
Everybody has hobbies. Some are stupid, some are arcane, but most are explicable.If you check my past diaries, you'll know one of mine: I keep an eye on the Holocaust deniers and their arguments, and...
View ArticleJewish-American Heritage Month: Is Yossarian Jewish?
Meet one of my heroes.May is Jewish American Heritage Month, and this one began in spectacular fashion: the May 1 centennial of the birth of one of the giants of American Jewish culture, author Joseph...
View ArticleMy Roger Waters Diary
I had something else planned for this diary, something more comprehensive about antisemitism, the left, and how the left sometimes struggles to see left-wing antisemitism as antisemitism, a rank...
View ArticleAn Antisemitic Tune in Three Keys
Yeah, Roger Waters’s antisemitism is in the news again. And yeah, I’m gonna diary about it.No, Roger Waters isn’t an antisemite for wearing the Nazoid crossed-hammers costume. Waters is opposed to...
View ArticleCongressman Renounces DSA after "Hate-Filled and Antisemitic Rally"
Shri Thanedar is a Congressman from Michigan, right next to Rep Tlaib’s district, and he was up until today a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.No more. Why? Here’s his statement:Today I...
View ArticleMeanwhile, the Labour UK Party
I’ve written a few diaries now and then about the Labour Party in the UK, usually in the context of a long-smouldering antisemitism crisis under its hapless previous leader, the tankie Jeremy Corbyn,...
View ArticleAntisemitism ≠"Against Semites"
I’m still planning a diary about antisemitic anti-Zionist Soviet propaganda and the shadow it still throws across the rhetoric of the left. But this diary squeaked out.It’s about the word...
View ArticleAside on Antisemitism on the Left
This time around I decided to put a little more narrative into my narrative. I’m still going to do a diary about anti-Soviet anti-Zionist antisemitism, as I’ve been promising, but let’s get a little...
View ArticleHappy Hundredth to "Rhapsody in Blue"
Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” got its premiere one century ago tonight.It was my gateway drug to classical music. I had the ill fortune of being in high school during the heyday of disco, in which...
View ArticleWhen Bernstein Borrows
I. BernsteinFolks, a lot to write about on the Jews-are-news front, but today it’s this — one of my favorite works of all is having a birthday. Sort of. So I’m going to do some amateur...
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