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Actions Speak Louder Than (Even Ugly) Words

By Rafael Medoff

Newly released tapes of President Richard Nixon’s private conversations in 1973 include a remark that antisemitism will increase in the United States if American Jews “don’t start behaving.” As outrageous as that comment was, it should be kept in mind that Nixon was not the first American president to privately express antisemitic sentiments — nor is it clear how such views affected those presidents’ policies regarding Jewish concerns.Read More

Morgenthaus vs. Genocide

By Rafael Medoff

Robert Morgenthau’s announcement that he will retire after more than three decades as Manhattan’s district attorney caps an impressive career in law enforcement. With his latest case, against banks illegally aiding the governments of Iran and Sudan, three generations of Morgenthaus have now confronted perpetrators of genocide — which is as tragic a commentary on the persistence of human rights abuses in modern times as it is a tribute to a remarkable family that has fought those abuses.Read More

When Leonard Bernstein ‘Dug’ the Irgun

By Rafael Medoff

‘I dig absolutely.” Those three awkward words, spoken by Leonard Bernstein to a Black Panther spouting pseudo-Marxist rhetoric at a soiree in the Bernstein home in 1970, immortalized the stereotype of the guilt-ridden upper-class liberal embracing violent radicals. The composer found himself publicly mocked, first by William F. Buckley Jr. in a newspaper column titled “Have a Panther to Lunch,” and then in the pages of The New Yorker by Tom Wolfe — who was inspired by the incident to coin the term “radical chic.”Read More

Create a Temporary Israeli Haven for Darfur Refugees

By Rafael Medoff and Stephen Solarz

The Israeli government has announced that it will not admit any more refugees from the Darfur genocide, and has begun deporting to Egypt many of those who recently arrived.Read More

Recognize Resurgence of Antisemitism in France

By Edward Koch and Rafael Medoff

Physical attacks on Jews in France increased by 45% last year, and verbal attacks increased by 71%, according to a new report prepared by CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organizations. That is bad enough news. But to make matters worse, the French ambassador to the United States has been quoted as claiming that antisemitism in France actually decreased by 48% last year.Read More


 

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