by Matthew Friedman | Jul 10, 2024 | Commentary, Essays
I laughed so hard that I passed beer through my nose. The occasion was the first episode of Saturday Night Live’s 14th season which aired just days after the High Holy Days in 1988. Hosted by Tom Hanks, whose movie Big had been a surprise summer blockbuster, with the...
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 10, 2024 | Essays
I have not worn my hammer-and-sickle T-shirt in public for a long time. In fairness, I rarely wear T-shirts in public, let alone logo T-shirts… these days, anyway. For some reason, as I have grown older, I keep hearing my late-mother’s voice in my head: “T-shirts are...
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 10, 2024 | Essays, Politics
The images of Israelis protesting in the streets of Tel Aviv are arresting. They have continued for months, sparked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government’s attempt to introduce judicial reforms that would undermine Israeli democracy....
by Matthew Friedman | Jul 10, 2024 | Arts, Dossier, Essays
At the end Viktor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis, Kaiser Uberall accepts his fate: he will be sacrificed to restore the balance of life and death that his own arrogance and brutality so tragically upset. It is one of the most powerful moments in 20th century...
by Matthew Friedman | Oct 8, 2023 | Commentary, Editorial
I have been watching the events in the State of Israel with horror. Hundreds, perhaps a thousand Israelis have been killed in Hamas’s attack, hundreds more Gazans have died under Israeli missiles and “bunker-buster” bombs. And the State of Israel’s Defense Minister...
