The Dossier
Essays
Commentary
Reviews
The Shadow of the Gun: Felix Salten’s Dark Warning in a New Translation of Bambi
“Two leaves fell from the great oak tree at the edge of the meadow.” Thus begins…
Standing Up to History
I am not an optimist by inclination. I was raised Jewish in the 1960s and 1970s, and learned about...
What’s In a Label? History, Meaning and the Power of Words
What’s in a label? That question has been on my mind since Audie Wood’s most recent column first...
Welcome to the United States of Christ
I can hear my mother’s voice: “You shouldn’t say things like that.” Nancy Salter, who died 16...
“Grooming” is the Blood Libel All Dressed Up for 2022
The shabby old man was a “loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which he...
“Why is This Night Different:” The Antisemitic Violence of the Christian Seder
Beth Cole had not yet decided whether or not she would make a brisket for the Passover Seder this...
Vladimir Putin Is a Bond Villain, and Not Even One of the Good Ones
Did Russian boys grow up during the Cold War dreaming of someday being Blofeld? I can imagine a...
A BDS for Russia
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is sending negotiators to meet with a Russian delegation at...
Monster Trucks! Canada’s MAGA Moment
They came in their thousands – by the tens of thousands, if you believe them – belching diesel...
Maus, Memory, and Resistance
I spent much of the day rereading Art Spiegelman’s brilliant graphic novel Maus. It felt like the...
The Absurd Horsemen of Our Apocalypse
On 2 January 2016, a band of armed anti-government extremists occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge...
Image of Madiba: Remembering Nelson Mandela
I wept when my mother died in the winter of 2006, and when my father died in the spring of 2012....
Illuminating Chanukah, Part II: Lighting the Lights
I. The Chanukiah I...
Illuminating Chanukah, Part I: The Legend of the Maccabees
I. The Story My childhood memories of Chanukah* are suffused with feelings of warmth and...
The Watershed Moment of Occupy Wall Street
The man with the megaphone was getting a response. Standing in front of the Wells Fargo Bank at...
White Terrorism is “Just One of Those Things”
A white man wearing a Stars and Stripes bandana threw a Molotov cocktail into the Travis County...
AOC, the Dress… And Desire
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Met Gala dress blew-up the Internet last week. For a brief moment, the...
Out of a Clear Blue Sky: The Legacy of 9/11
My first memory of that day is of the sky. It was clear and bright, and as I walked along de...
The Texas Anti-Abortion Law and the Ecumenism of Hate
I am enraged. The decision by the Supreme Court of the United States last week declining to hear...
So, Nu? The Cultural Politics of Yiddish in the 21st Century
YidLife Crisis, an award-winning online comedy series featuring fast-talking Montreal funnymen...
Narrating the Fall of Kabul
The scenes from Kabul are uncanny; specters from the past which are simultaneously shocking and...
Ghosts of Olympics Past
I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of elation on 24 September 1988 as I watched Ben Johnson...
I’m Rubber, You’re Glue: Semiotic Nihilism and the American Right
The crowd demonstrating outside the Massachusetts Department of Education offices on Pleasant...
“Off the Radar:” White, Christian America’s Unremarkable Bigotry
On Saturday, a 28-year-old man crashed a stolen truck into a house in Winthrop, MA, and shot and...
Memorial Day: How America Remembers
He came down the stairs on the right: a man in his late-60s or early 70s, walking slowly, with a...
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