Anti-Semitism
May 16, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Seth Mandel, writing in the current issue of Commentary: By every metric, American Jewish campus life is a shadow of what it once was. The City University of New York is losing the last two Jewish members of its 80-member senior leadership team—in the city with the largest Jewish population in the world. Jewish enrollment in elite universities, most notably the Ivy League, is in free fall. And a sense
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May 10, 2023 — Scott Johnson
We are obviously crushed by the voluminous bad news. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provides what must count as today’s good news. He has foiled Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s attempt to host an event at the Capitol Building with anti-Israel groups decrying the founding of Israel as a “catastrophe.” “This event in the US Capitol is canceled,” McCarthy announced in a tweet on Tuesday (below). “Instead, I will host a bipartisan discussion
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April 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Vice President Kamala Harris had warm words for Al Sharpton at his New York jamboree this past Friday. The White House has posted the transcript of Harris’s remarks here. Harris had this to say right at the top of her speech (warning: reading may induce nausea): Rev, I love you. (Laughter.) And I thank you on behalf of all of us — everyone — for all that you do and
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April 4, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Let’s take in two news items that don’t appear related on the surface. First, Inside Higher Ed reported recently that anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses increased 41 percent in 2022, adding “That is greater than the 36 percent increase in incidents in the United States over all.” Second, yesterday the Washington Post published an article from a third-year Stanford Law student that claims the bulk of Stanford law students are really
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March 19, 2023 — John Hinderaker
We last saw Sarah Idan when she was Miss Iraq in the 2017 Miss Universe pageant. She made international news when Miss Israel posted a photo of the two of them on Instagram, with kind words about Ms. Idan. That caused predictable blowback in the Arab world, causing Idan to issue an apology in Arabic. It wasn’t enough; her Iraqi citizenship was revoked and her family fled to another country.
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February 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Speaker Kevin McCarthy marshaled the votes to remove Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on grounds of her anti-Semitic bigotry. David Harsanyi comments on her removal in this New York Post column. Anticipating her removal, Omar had this to say on the House floor: “I am a Muslim. I am an immigrant. And, interestingly, from Africa. Is anyone surprised that I am a target?”
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December 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Whoopi Goldberg is in the news again — here and here, for example. Ignorance and malice can be mitigated, but stupidity is something with which you are stuck. Ms. Goldberg is the bearer of a toxic combination. Her thoughts on the Jewish people are a case in point. Something does not compute. When I was a teenager I read every paperback book I came across on the Holocaust. Among the
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December 23, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Stanford has issued a 75-page report on its discrimination against Jews in the 1950s. The report resulted in an apology for its past practices by University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne. In a terrific Minding the Campus article, John Rosenberg, who writes at Discriminations, asks how much things at Stanford have really changed: Someone should ask him why he believes the policy of restricting the number of Jews was wrong. Does he
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December 3, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Joe Biden tried to make political hay out of the Kanye West/Donald Trump fiasco by denouncing Hitler. I just want to make a few things clear: The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity. — President Biden (@POTUS) December 2, 2022 How bold! Is Joe cutting-edge, or
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December 1, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I didn’t pay close attention to the controversy over Kanye West’s apparently anti-Semitic comments of a few days ago. This was partly because I have zero interest in hip-hop music or in fashion, the fields in which West has had success, and mostly because he obviously is mentally ill. To the extent I have seen West’s political musings, they are utterly incoherent. But the Left found West a convenient target
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November 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The artist formerly known as Kanye West is a deranged anti-Semite. My reference to his mental health issues cuts him some slack, but he spews the anti-Semitism straight. See, for example, Elliot Kaufman’s December Commentary essay “O Ye of Little Faith: The Anti-Semitism of Kanye West.” I took note of West’s deranged anti-Semitism when Tucker Carlson presented him as a sage and vouched for his soundness of mine. I wrote
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November 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
We are awash in a wave of anti-Semitic hatred and violence that is coursing through the black community and elsewhere. I heard it in the troubled musings of Kanye West and wrote about in “Anti-Semitism for Ye — but not for me.” The December Commentary features Elliot Kaufman’s deep backgrounder “O Ye of Little Faith: The Anti-Semitism of Kanye West.” Over the weekend comedian Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live
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November 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Dave Chappelle hosted Saturday Night Live last night. In his opening monologue, Chappelle held at painful length that “the Jews” control the world but that this can only be said out loud ironically — because, you know, “the Jews.” It was an unsubtle performance that might be funny if you are on board with that particular “point of view.” Then it might be hilarious. I caught up with video of
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October 28, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I wrote an appreciation of singer/songwriter Don McLean in this 2019 installment of Sunday Morning Coming Down. I also interviewed Don for this 2020 installment. We have just received this statement condemning anti-Semitism from Don’s public relations outfit: Lately a flood of antisemitic invective has been triggered by the ranting of a stupid attention-seeking fool we all know. I want to say I stand with my Jewish friends and I
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October 16, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Bill Maher included Benjamin Netanyahu as a guest on his most recent show and opened with a question regarding the anti-Semitic ravings of Kanye West, now known as Ye (video below). I don’t take Ye’s ravings with Netanyahu’s equanimity, but Netanyahu has a handle on the big picture and responded in the spirit of Maher’s show. Ye got this particular ball rolling in an interview aired by Tucker Carlson last
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October 4, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Jews begin the observance of Yom Kippur at sundown tonight with the Kol Nidre prayer service. Ten years ago our friend Rachel Paulose asked to join us at our service. Since then she has regularly attended the service with us and joined my family when we break our fast, although she is at work out of town this year. Next year in the Twin Cities! The first time around at
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September 19, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Over the weekend the Wall Street Journal ran Charles Isherwood’s review of a new one-man play depicting the career of Jan Karski. Isherwood’s review ran under the headline “‘Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski’ Review: Dramatically Bearing Witness.” Karski’s name should be known far and wide and it’s good to be reminded of him, though I would find the moralizing that frames the play annoying. Turning the play and
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