Two Passages from the Obama Photo Book
Michelle, Ma Belle Paul McCartney had been awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in a ceremony in the East Room. For most of the evening, other artists performed his songs. But for the conclusion,…
“Holy the Supernatural Extra Brilliant Intelligent Kindness of the Soul!”
The title comes from Allen Ginsberg’s poem, Howl
Free Julian!
As founder and editor of WikiLeaks, his crime has been to make sense of dark times. WikiLeaks has an impeccable record of accuracy and authenticity which no newspaper, no TV channel, no radio station, no…
“What Will Become of Yiddish?”
Chava Rosenfarb, Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays Edited by Goldie Morgentaler McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019 Scholar and professor Morgentaler has gathered an impressive collection of writings by her mother, Chava Rosenfarb. A…
If Not a Room, Perhaps a Shed
For Lala Above all, you must illumine your own soul with its profundities and its shallows, and its vanities and its generosities, and say what your beauty means to you or your plainness and what…
Share the Wealth with Bob Suberi: Venezuela and Its Struggle for Sovereignty
This evening’s sharing will focus on Venezuela’s response to crippling U.S. sanctions. I was born in Southern California in 1948 to Jewish immigrants from Jerusalem. I served in Vietnam after being drafted in 1968 then…
The Chasm between Them and Us
Kadya Molodovsky, A Jewish Refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg’s Journal Translated by Anita Norich The accomplished Yiddish writer Molodovsky wrote this novel in serialized form in 1940-41, knowing obviously what was happening at the…
Share the Wealth with Shahed Megdal: The Arab Conference at Harvard
About the conference: Arab Conference at Harvard is the largest Arab conference in America, bringing together thousands of students and professionals to discuss key issues with the region’s most prominent politicians, business people, and civil…
Socrates and the Existence of Billionaires
Someone might say: “Are you not ashamed, Socrates, to have followed the kind of occupation that had led to your being now in danger of death?” However, I should be right to reply to him:…
Medicine for the Sick
The Dalai Lama: We should have this [compassion] from the depths of our heart, as if it were nailed there. Such compassion is not merely concerned with a few sentient beings such as friends and…