This is the third of a three-part newsletter investigating Russia’s stated reasons for invading and destroying Ukraine. President Putin and Russian media repeatedly stress that Ukraine is a fascist country run by neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Is there any truth to these charges? This third newsletter weighs Ukraine’s history regarding anti-Semitism, fascism and neo-Nazi movements, and […]
Category Archives: Anti-Semitism
This is the second of a three-part newsletter considering the subject of Russian propaganda and disinformation regarding their purported reasons for invading and destroying Ukraine. President Putin and state-controlled Russian media repeatedly stress that Ukraine is being run by neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. This second newsletter weighs Russia’s role (both in history past and present) […]
As a little Jewish boy growing up in Montreal I used to sing a Yiddish Purim (Feast of Esther) song: “Haynt is Purim, kinder; S’iz der yontif groys!” (‘Today is Purim, children! It’s the great holiday!’). And once again, according to the Jewish calendar we have arrived at the yearly celebration of the Feast of […]
My Yiddish-speaking parents were communists. They believed that socialist revolution held the key to a better world, and they poured their lives out in support of what they called ‘the progressive movement.’ They loved music. My dad used to be a cantor in the U.S. Army and as a youngster he sang in Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt’s […]
Let’s move the hands of the clock back more than 2,400 years to ancient Iran. Two high-level Persian court politicians had become so angry with King Ahasuerus that they plotted together to assassinate him. The old Latin word for this plan – conspiracy – comes from the joining of ‘spiro’ (to breath) and ‘con’ (together). […]
In the Marx Brothers’ 1935 smash hit “A Night at the Opera,” Fiorello (Chico) and Otis B. Driftwood (Groucho) are in the thick of a business transaction regarding an opera singer’s contract. Fiorello points to a line in the contract and asks “Hey, wait, wait! What does this say here, this thing here?” Driftwood answers, […]