Contents:

A Road to Nowhere Jewish Experiences in Unifying Europe

In the era of transnationalism, to maintain and nurture a certain mode of Jewish civilization does not need to be strictly tied to territory. Variable Jewish Population Definitions and Estimates The population trends outlined here so far were based on numbers that mostly reflected the core Jewish population concept. But it should be acknowledged that among the consequences of the process of increas- ing integration of Jewish communities in the broader societal context, expressed among other things by a rising rate of intermarriage, is the need to build up of a complex definitional approach to the defini- tion of who is Jew.

In our practice the core Jewish population includes persons who, in censuses or other social surveys, define themselves Jewish or persons with Jewish parents who define themselves lacking a religious identification; the extended Jewish population also includes per- sons with Jewish background who declare an identification other than Judaism; and the enlarged Jewish population also includes any other members in the same nuclear families without Jewish ancestry. Unfortunately there are only few instances in which a complete typology can be specified of the various groups and sub-groups that constitute the broadest possible extension of the relevant subject of investigation.

One such example comes from the Census of Scot- land whose returns are available separately and in greater detail than those of the main part of the United Kingdom Graham, In , persons in Scotland declared that either their upbring- ing or their current religion was Jewish. It is more likely that the results of such lifetime comparison would be highly diverse in different parts of the continent.

Nonetheless, it is highly revealing that the one and only detailed observation available from an official state source should produce such a result. And the net result may well be one of a weakened interest to be part, or at least to explicitly state belonging with the Jewish section of total society.

Search results

Widely different figures may emerge out of alternative identifica- tional options that refer, for example, to those who ever identified with Judaism, or to those who currently do, or to those who currently do plus their non-Jewish family members. Table 3 provides exam- ples of estimates that may be suggested for 17 selected countries with the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Four types of estimate are reported, reflecting the official national census returns when they exist; our estimates of the core Jewish population based on careful evaluation of all available sources; our estimates of the enlarged Jewish population, including as well the non-Jewish family members, and in a few cases also the Law of Return estimates that also include non-Jewish children and grandchildren of Jews, and the respective spouses.

At a first glance it appears that in some cases census results are significantly higher than the current estimate Belarus, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine. This simply reflects the continuing emigration and erosion of the Jewish population since the date of census. In several other cases, the census estimate is lower than the core estimate Austria, Romania, United Kingdom.

This reflects the widespread assumption that a cer- tain fringe of the Jewish population preferred not to declare itself as such in the census. These supposed Jewish unknowns need to be rein- tegrated in the overall total. In one case, Hungary, the gap between census and estimate is particularly wide 13, as officially reported in , and about 49, as estimated in Core Jewish popula- tions are evaluated with an accuracy rating that takes into account the more or less recent date of the baseline and the method of data collec- tion and updating. Enlarged Jewish populations are obviously larger than the respective core population, but the amount of difference has to be evaluated case by case see for example: Finally, the Law of Return potential, which actually is a theoretical notion, is estimated for four countries in Eastern Europe.

The assumption is that the number of eligible for the Law of Return may become in the course of time three times or more as large as the original core population. Evidently, undifferentiated use of these various estimates is bound to enhance strong disagreements about the actual Jewish population size. Experience teaches that— inasmuch as the data were collected seriously and impartially, if they exist at all—the ensuing disagreements can be solved by making refer- ence to one unified definitional system. Regional Development and the Jewish Presence Describing the main changes in Jewish population size may be useful for a general assessment of continental patterns, and history certainly Table 3.

Main Jewish populations in Europe. Total members in Jewish households. Persons with at least one Jewish parent. Jews, children and grandchildren of Jews, and respective spouses, no matter if not-Jewish. But in view of the already noted fragmented character of European history, still the question remains whether it would be possible to find a parsi- monious explanatory key of greater analytic potency to the emerging distribution of Jewish population.

Such an explanation, beyond the more explicit and known factors, would be able to detect some lead- ing forces underlying the overall continental experience in its entirety. One important aspect to be considered is the West-East gradient that long prevailed in European politics and to a large extent, though not completely, became superseded with the end of the Cold War and the gradual eastward expansion of the European Union. Significant demo- graphic, economic and cultural structural differences that go back not only to the previous generations but deeper into the past are still vis- ible in the social fabric of the continent.

Some of these differences are demonstrated in Figure 6 that shows the spread of two indicators for the total population, the GNP per inhabitant and the net balance of international migration, by major regional divisions within countries. There also appears to be a positive gradient when moving from the more peripheral to the more central regions of Western Europe.

The question under investigation here is the relation- ship between the size of the Jewish presence and the changes therein, and these underlying socioeconomic differences. To operationalize the latter, we use the Human Development Index—a composite measure of health, education and income in real purchase power terms—for each country. We look at country HDI levels in about 40 countries in the baseline year , and fol- low the changes in Jewish population size between —close the baseline point—and in Figure 7.

The Index of Human Development ranges between 0 and 1. It readily appears that a positive relationship exists between the ini- tial quality of life in a country and the subsequent direction of Jewish population development. It can be easily inferred that the causal effect runs from the macro toward the micro, i. Most of the single observations seem to follow quite a coherent logic, not far from the interpolated central value of the series of data, with one exception—a very distant outlier on the high side of socio- economic development and at the top of Jewish population growth.

Of course, the causes of the particularly German concentration of Jewish population growth in Europe relate to the specific and especially favor- able legal framework for immigration developed in Germany with particular attention to the needs of Jewish migrants Erlanger, But it also appears that such special developments are com- patible with the general conceptual framework suggested here, namely the significant sensitivity and response of Jews to changing constraints and opportunities in their countries of residence and in potential coun- tries of destination.

But given the small size, the socioeconomic concentration, and the peculiar political-cultural profile of the Jewish population, the final effects on population distribution appear far more striking in comparison with the total population.

THE 12 LOST TRIBES FOUND PART 15 THE 144,000 LEADERS

Better insights on the determinants of the changes in the Jewish presence in Europe can be gathered by disaggregating the Jewish population between two groups of countries, West and East, and two periods of time—— and — The intermediate point corresponds with the beginning of the great exodus from the Soviet Union.

The variables compared are HDI change in each of the two time intervals, and Jewish population change in the same periods. Here the findings appear more complex and perhaps somewhat more contradictory. Looking first at countries in Eastern Europe and the Figure 7. Jewish population change in European countries by initial HDI, — —,0 —,0 —50,0 0,0 50,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 ,0 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, HDI Je w is h Po pu la tio n Pe rc en t C ha ng e 19 70 —2 00 8 jews in europe: Jewish population change by HDI change, West vs.

East Europe, — and — Balkans, between and the relationship between life quality and changes in Jewish population size is not clear, if at all existing. The same relationship becomes instead quite striking between and This indicates that with the full opening of the gates of the FSU to migration, the intensity of exodus was definitely and negatively related to the level of development of the respective republics.

Other countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, where too changing poli- tics and new democratic regimes brought about greater openness to emigration, happened to be more socioeconomically developed than the FSU, and their Jewish populations were relatively more stable, even if declining. In fact in some former Soviet republics, the HDI between and not only did not improve, but did actually diminish, the main causal factor being the temporary collapse in health and life expectancy.

West Europe — — The relationship between HDI change and Jewish population change appeared to be negative in both periods examined. This points to the existence of problematic general societal adjustments within the respective coun- tries, and to their negative effects on overall resilience of local Jewish populations. In general, the countries with the lowest improvement in HDI had as a rule somewhat better Jewish population resilience. Dur- ing the later period, the same reverse relationship appears, helped here by the fact that the very fast increase in the number of Jews in Ger- many happened at a time when the country was absorbing the heavy financial burdens of the political re-union, while also integrating larger masses of immigrants.

The noted negative relationship between the major social indicators and changing Jewish population size in the West meant that some of the more developed Western European societies were experiencing a condition of malaise. We have here an admittedly very crude and indirect indication of the difficulties that more advanced societies encounter at keeping their life quality under the challenges of socioeconomic globalization, international migration and socio-cultural change.

If protracted in long run, this could gener- ate some emigration and therefore a further readjustment of Jewish population size in the respective countries. Their overall Jewish population as well as the ratio of Jews to total population are compared in through The evolution over time of Jewish population size was clearly entirely different in the five strata of countries.

Countries with the higher level 7 For a discussion of global trends, see: DellaPergola, Rebhun and Tolts, Similar conclusions apply to the second best group of countries. On the other hand, the lower the ranking of the respective countries, the more visible were the losses of Jewish population incurred between and As noted above, this was mainly due to emigration from those less socially developed countries.

The differences are strik- ing in the bottom quintile that included the republics of the former Soviet Union. Similar changes appear regarding the percent of Jews out of total population. The results are graphically demonstrated in Figure 9 by country HDI quintiles. While over time this ratio tended to decline constantly and consistently across the board, it was again more resil- ient in countries better equipped from the socio-economic point of view. In the past the relationship between the share of Jews in soci- ety and the development of that society had a U shape, the share of Jews to total population being in 5 per in the top quintile, 1.

In this tended to become a positive relationship, Jews representing 3. This is clear evidence of the dif- ferential action of hold and push factors in the host societies, and of Table 4. It is worth recalling here that in a more distant past the Jewish pres- ence tended to reflect mutable political circumstances, including very significantly invitations to settle and expulsions by the ruling powers. The situation in the s still reflected old historical patterns, though significantly modified by the Shoah.

Over the last tens of years, a true revolution occurred regarding the Jewish presence in Europe which tended increasingly to become a dependent variable of the quality of environmental circumstances offered by the different national societies. Indeed looking at Jewish popula- tion distribution at the national level may be somewhat misleading when it is clear that most of Jewish community life occurs at the local level.

Jews per 1, population, by country HDI quintiles, — 0. Table 5 provides a list of the 21 European cities with a current core Jewish popula- tion of 10, and above. Such high concentration clearly confirms the analytic hypotheses out- lined in the previous sections, namely the frequent association of Jews with environmental circumstances favorable to their particular needs. These propensities include the presence of higher education institu- tions, cultural facilities and professional activities that are more often available in large cities with a great amount of economic diversity and strong international connections.

It seems unlikely that an effective Jewish community organization can be developed and maintained in many such locali- ties. We return to this issue in our conclusions. Family Patterns and Demographic Transitions Having assessed the impact of mobility on Jewish demography, the other main significant process at work is family formation and child- bearing and its consequences for the age composition of the popula- tion. The great driver of population development in the long term is the birth rate which reflects the average propensity to have children the fertility level and the age composition of a population.

The latter is in turn affected by the number of births in previous years, by inter- national migration, and to some extent in contemporary societies also 8 See the monumental work of Leitenberg, See also DellaPergola, Parisb France , 2. Londonc United Kingdom , 3. Moscowd Russia 90, 4. Marseilles France 45, 5. Budapest Hungary 40, 6. Petersburg Russia 35, 7. Manchester United Kingdom 22, 8. Lyon France 20, 9. Istanboul Turkey 16, Bruxelles Belgium 14, Rome Italy 13, Nizza France 12, Berlin Germany 11, Definitions vary by country. Some of the estimates may include non-core Jewish population.

The circular process between childbearing and age composition is worth of special attention, and indeed plays quite an important role in the case of European Jewry. In addition, the question of Jewish identification of the children of intermarriage has come to play a significant role in the overall pattern of demographic continuity see Reinharz and DellaPergola, Low birth rates and relatively high rates of intermarriage have long prevailed among some Jewish communities in Europe since the beginning of the twentieth century. This generated larger and, respectively, scantier cohorts born between and , who in turn reached adulthood and the age of possible parenting between the s and the s.

An echo effect of more births might have been expected, but European fertility levels declined sharply since the s. The Jews anticipated somewhat these various developments, resulting in low birth rates all across the board, though with significant internal differentiation according to the religiosity and other social characteris- tics among the Jewish population. Table 6 provides selected examples of the balance between Jewish births and deaths in some countries during recent years.

It can be noted that the number of births identified as Jewish was significantly exceeded by the number of deaths. In Western Europe the negative gap was somewhat smaller, yet consistent. It can be noted that in the UK the most recent data available through Jewish community sources point to a reversal of the trend through some increase of the number of births and a decrease in the number of deaths Graham and Vulkan, While the former is entirely plausible due to periodical changes in age composition and especially the growing share of the Orthodox among the total Jewish population, a decline in deaths of such pro- portions is totally implausible and can be explained only through a significant increase in cases of death of Jews not reported through Jewish burial societies.

In Germany the arrival of tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants from the FSU had very little impact on the number of births but a significant impact on the number of deaths—indirect evidence of the aged composition of the more recent arrivals Zentral- wohlfahrtsstelle, The case of Israel is reported just to show how dramatically different the demographic situation can be in a commu- nity which is relatively young structurally and where fertility rates are close to 3 on the average, the highest of any contemporary developed society.

Data for Eastern Europe at the end of the nineteenth century and the begin- ning of the twentieth show the young structure of a population still affected by high birth rates. In the course of time the process of inter- nal change proceeds through a transitional type, evolving into an age- ing type and finally in what we have termed a terminal type.

Such a population composition also visibly denounces the non-incorporation within the Jewish population of many children of intermarriages. It is unavoid- ably bound to numerical decline in future years, as in fact has been the case over the past decades. Assuming as many births to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, the total births would be 5, Assuming as many births to Jewish fathers and non-Jewish mothers, the total births would be 1, The largest age group in each population is underlined.

Future Expectations It is not easy to predict what the future development of European Jewish communities will be because the main determinant may be tied to political developments that constitute a highly volatile part in the complex of European civilization. However medium range pop- ulation projections to the year that reflect the assumption of 32 sergio dellapergola a continuation of the major factors that currently shape European Jewish demography point to a likely further diminution in population size DellaPergola, Rebhun and Tolts, The FSU republics are expected to loose nearly , Jews, mostly due to their overaged age composition, while the other countries mostly part of the Euro- pean Union are expected to loose about 80, It should be stressed that only minor effects of international migration are included in these calculations as demonstrated by recent data on migration to Israel see Table 8.

As might be expected, some reverse relation appears between these two aspects of Jewish life. This shows that the cycle of Jewish demographic reproduction across generations is sensitive to the amount of exposure to Jewish socialization agents which in turn may reflect the organizational resources and critical mass of a given Jewish community. Some Conclusions In the light of the ongoing and expected demographic trends, Euro- pean Jewry in the twenty-first century will not be small, as it will be in any case larger than the population of at least two if not three countries members of the European Union: Malta, Luxembourg, and possibly Cyprus.

Jews in Europe will have the potential to develop an attrac- tive, creative, meaningful community framework, and this will surely be significantly different from the ones we knew in previous centuries and generations. The ultimate challenge stands ahead in the ability to preserve not a mere community of presence—driven by and dependent on favorable market forces, but a community of creativity—able to nurture and transmit its own demographic momentum and cultural identity.

A major aspect of the sweeping changes ahead will reflect the ability of the European Jewish community system to address trends affecting each Jewish community in the peculiar ways of the respective geo- political and cultural contexts. To exist as such, a Jewish community must have a critical mass, and this can be demonstrated not only in terms of people but also of institutions. One central commitment of the Jewish community is the education of the younger generation.

To do this, the more efficient instrument is a Jewish day-school. In this respect we can conduct an elementary exercise that will demonstrate the dilemmas faced by the Jewish leadership when trying to develop viable programs aimed at ensuring the Jewish future. Let us assume that a Jewish school in a given city has 12 grades, from first grade to matriculation, and each grade has 20 pupils.

This makes for pupils.

Assume about half of all the local Jewish chil- dren are enrolled in the Jewish school, and the other half go to public or other private schools. This makes for a total of Jewish school- going children aged 6 to Assume, as in real communities at this 34 sergio dellapergola time in European countries that because of the low birth rate of the recent past the 6—17 age segment constitutes about 10—15 percent of the total Jewish population.

The resulting total Jewish population would be comprised between and people—or an average estimate of about This means that communities significantly below these standard sizes do not really have a possibility to maintain a viable Jewish schooling system. The argument is highly hypothetic and includes many assumptions, each of which have their own flex- ibility, but such a simple exercise certainly creates a factual baseline for more in-depth discussion of the implications of the presence or absence of a critical mass.

One alternative strategy tested by Jewish communities in several cities is the admission of non-Jewish children in Jewish schools. Another strategy might be an educational consor- tium between several small Jewish communities located in the same geographical region. Still another strategy would be the introduction of supplementary Jewish teaching in the framework of existing public schools.

The discussion of these and other possible Jewish educational strategies is way beyond the purpose of this chapter, but in any case cannot be entirely ignored when looking at the future of Jewish com- munities in Europe. We need to theorize, research and understand these and similar issues honestly, away from old myths and new superstitions. In such debate it should be recognized that Jews often depend on circum- stances beyond their control. Nevertheless, a better outcome may with effort be secured by acknowledging the broader situation through sys- tematic and multi-disciplinary research, detecting and fostering broad commonalities across the Jewish cultural spectrum, and building the necessary institutional infrastructure to satisfy the emerging needs.

A realistic assessment of where and how Jewish individuals and their institutions can best shape their own demographic and cultural future should combine with a willingness to initiate policy decisions and cooperative processes apt to promote these goals. These transformations are related to vari- ous factors, such as the sharp spike in number of Diaspora core mem- bers. These dramatic demographic increases and changes have several implications: It is clear that like other nations, social entities and Diasporas, the Jewish People, and the Jewish Diaspora, have unique characteristics, but they also demonstrate various similarities to other Diasporas.

Like many other ethno-national-religious Diasporas the entire Jewish Diaspora, and the majority of individual Jewish diasporic entities in hostlands, are undergoing significant changes. This article focuses on the European Jewish Diaspora and the changes that influence it. The analysis is based on the argument that members and activists in this Diaspora, as well as concerned Israelis, should realize that learning from the experiences of other homelands, Diasporas and diasporans can ensure the survival and redevelopment of the Jewish Diaspora in general and the Euro- pean Jewish Diaspora in particular.

This has been the result of two crucial develop- ments: These developments increase their integration into the host society and at the same time bolster their commitment to the Jewish entity. As a result, many Jews in the more liberal European democracies that exhibit tolerance toward Diasporas are not ashamed to identify themselves as Jews and are willing to be active in Jewish diasporic organizations not only for ideological reasons, but also out of self-interests that are quite strongly supported by the community.

In addition, the Jews in liberal host states are ready to raise money for the development of their communities and their homeland—Israel—and for dealing with anti-Semitism, anti-Israeli activities, and anti-diasporic incidents. As noted, all these developments are happening in both the Western and Eastern European Jewish entities. In recent decades, especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the realignment of independent states in Eastern Europe and the changes that have occurred in these communities, the question has arisen regarding Jewish communal growth and a unified Jewish Euro- pean community within the framework of a unified Europe.

In view of the reemergence and growth of the various European Jewish com- munities, another basic question should be posed: This article attempts to answer these fun- damental questions. In other words, the fear of another Holocaust forces many European Jews to assimilate or abandon their communities and migrate to non-European hostlands. Diana Pinto offers an entirely different view. Pinto indeed con- tends that European Jewry could become the third pillar of World Jewry, that is, an integral partner in an Israel-American Jewish-Euro- pean triangle.

According to her view, the three pillars would cooper- ate and support one another, thus providing continuity to the entire Jewish nation. Diana Pinto and her advocates do not rely solely on the demographics of the European Jewish Diaspora other scholars disagree with her figures and prognostications. Optimists like Pinto base their views mainly on historical and contemporary cultural and social developments after the fall of the Soviet Union and in light of the positive processes in East European democracies, such as their entry into the European Union.

The optimists argue that a Jewish-Christian-Moslem dialogue is desirable and feasible, and may reduce the recrudescent anti-Semitism in some European countries especially France and Italy. Furthermore, advocates of this approach claim that many European Jews of diverse personal and social back- grounds are returning to Judaism and renewing their ties with the community along modern and post-modern lines. Modern communi- cation systems have proven very useful in energizing this process. Some of the participants in the Berlin Conference who have contributed to this volume support the interme- diate approach.

They recognize the dilemmas and challenges facing the European Jewish Diaspora, and at the same time they cherish the hope that in the distant future it will overcome the many obstacles on its path to unity and emerge as the third pillar. Intermediate views are based on facts and not a few assumptions.

First, some of the analysts question the accuracy of the demographic factors. Be that as it may, the relevant figures show that changes are taking place in certain communities the estimated number of Euro- pean Jews is between 1. The main issue that divides the advocates of the middle-way approach is the definition of Euro- pean Jewish identity. Those who take the formalistic approach toward religious identity base their position on age, rate of intermarriages and birth rate. On the other hand, scholars who take a more liberal view of Jewish identity claim that because of migration trends the number of European Jews is actually increasing.

Second, some scholars contend that the main problems facing European Jews lie not only in their demographic situation but in their difficulty in overcoming historical memories concerning the many the european jewish diaspora 39 persecutions and their uncertain position in various European states. In other words, they constantly sense their precarious position. Some of these scholars attach great importance to the burgeoning anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism, and the growing anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli activity carried out by Moslems whose numbers are dramatically growing in Europe.

With the reemergence of ethnicity and nationalism they will undoubtedly flourish and gain increased power and influence ibid. The following are eleven key parallels between the Jewish Diaspora and other ethno-national-religious Diasporas. The Jewish Diaspora developed as a result of exile as well as voluntary migration due to 2 Compare the Introductory chapter of this volume by Julius H.

Voluntary migration has been enlarging Jewish communities in certain European countries, like Germany and Spain and even in Portugal. Jewish immigration to European countries is coming not only from the homeland, Israel, but as well from the secondary and tertiary movement of Jews from other hostlands, such as from the former Soviet republics to the United States and Western Europe. The identity of Jewish Diaspora core members and some peripheral members especially those who have been well integrated into their host societies is based on non-essen- tialist primordial factors such as genetic factors, the memory of the historical founders of the Jewish nation, collective historical factors, ethno-national-religious-cultural factors, religious observance, ethnic affiliation, and psychological loyalty to the nation.

Many Jews actually benefit from their affiliation with the Jewish diasporic entity since it offers them the promise of protection from hostile individuals and groups, and cooperation in operating various kinds of legal and illegal businesses, etc. Although these practical benefits are rarely discussed they unite the core mem- bers and some peripheral members and are necessary for the survival of a dispersed people like the Jews.

The Jewish People is spread out in many host countries and geographical regions. This has had both positive and negative consequences. One positive consequence, for example, has been that if problems arise in one host country, the Diaspora may be able to move to another country. A negative con- sequence is that too scattered a dispersal makes it more difficult to unite the various communities or maintain workable ties among their members.

The entire Jewish Diaspora, including the European Diasporas, is not a homogeneous entity; it is a highly heterogeneous entity made up of a myriad of groups and movements, such as reli- gious and secular Jews, nationalists and individualists, leftists and right- ists. The close ties that diasporic Jews maintain toward their host countries, country of birth, and other non- Jewish ethnic groups in the host countries and elsewhere is done via traditional means of communication visits, snail mail, line phones as well as via modern communication technologies cellular phones, TV, Internet, and Skype.

The number of Diaspora chat rooms is constantly growing. The historical consciousness of members of the the european jewish diaspora 41 Jewish Diaspora parallels that of other Diasporas, such as the Chinese, Indian, and Armenian. The Jewish Diaspora, like other ancient and historical Diasporas, has had to cope with many adversaries in the Jewish case, especially anti-Semitism in its fluctuating levels of inten- sity.

All Diasporas, Jewish and non-Jewish, have learned to overcome these problems. Loyalty to the hostland or homeland in the Jew- ish case, Israel is not automatic and is not universally accepted by the entire Diaspora. Thus, heartfelt loyalty may be given either to the homeland or hostland, may be divided between the two, or may exist in juxtaposition in the form of dual allegiance.

In the Jewish case, the majority exhibits dual allegiance, while most ultra-Orthodox and left-wing Jews in the Diaspora have no sense of loyalty toward Israel. Most Diasporas are well organized. The num- ber of Jewish Russian Diaspora organizations, for example, is impres- sive and constantly on the rise.

The Jewish Diaspora also exhibits a vacillating interest in returning to the homeland. Given the abundance of parallels between the Jewish Diaspora and other ethno-national- religious Diasporas, we may assume that like all these other Diasporas also the European Jewish Diaspora will not disappear. For this reason, Jewish activists and academics should try to learn from the strategies of other Diasporas and apply this knowledge to the rapidly growing Jewish Diaspora in Europe.

The Revival and Reorganization of the European Jewish Diaspora When reevaluating the renaissance of the European Jewish Diaspora and the likelihood of it becoming the third pillar of the Jewish Peo- ple, the main changes it is undergoing should be studied and men- tioned very carefully. The three main changes are: The geographic dispersal of the Diaspora after the breakup of the Soviet Empire. According to the most reliable data, which, as stated, not all scholars agree on, most European Jewish communities are concentrated in a number of urban centers prior to World War II most Jewish com- munities were located in the periphery.

The Little Volcano Inside

Parallel to the geographical changes, demographic changes have also taken place. In many cities and urban centers the number of younger Jews who remain in close contact with 42 gabriel sheffer the community is increasing. Given the extent of geographical and demographic changes, there is a growing tendency and demand toward both formal and informal membership and involvement in the communities.

Despite these changes, further reorganization in the communities is urgently needed. Reconstruction and reorganization depend to a large extent on the ability to raise sufficient funds for the cultural, social, political and economic development of the European Jewish Diaspora. Despite the current economic crisis and difficulty in acquir- ing the required sums, it seems that the Jewish communities and orga- nizations will succeed in obtaining them, to an extent with the support of American Jewry. One of the most serious problems facing the European Jewish Diaspora in its regeneration and effort to become the third pillar in World Jewry is the lack of ideological, organizational, and pragmatic harmony between Jewish individuals and communities.

This drawback is related, inter alia, to globalization that facilitates the adoption of transnational ideas and patterns of activities and the adoption of vari- ous outlooks that are not conducive to diasporic existence. The lack of harmony is also linked to Liberalism, post-modernism, indifference, ignorance of Jewish historical cultural traditions, and the absence of the need to identify with the Jewish People.

The upshot has been increased ambiguity toward Jewish identity. Moreover, the heterogeneity of the European Jewish Diaspora that is similar to the heterogeneity of the American and Israeli communi- ties has had an impact on one of the major factors in group affilia- tion: Unfortunately there are no accurate figures concerning European Jewry but one may assume that a similar situation exists and contributes, in part, to the difficulty in determining the exact numbers of European Jews and the true nature of their identities.

Other significant and frustrating developments have been described by some analysts. They have noted the tension-laden, aggressive, con- flictual relation between the Jewish Diaspora in Europe and other ethnic groups and Diasporas: North African Moslems in France, Palestinians in Germany, certain European governments, and radi- cal ideological groups such as neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. Last but the european jewish diaspora 43 not least is the problematic relationship between individual Jews and Jewish groups, on the one hand, and Israel, on the other. The main issues dividing these groups are the status of religion in Israel and the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

All of these changes and developments pose major challenges to Diaspora activists and concerned individu- als who are sincerely interested in reviving and expanding European Jewish communities. Scholars like Diana Pinto have taken note of these challenges. Pinto has listed four major issues: These are not the only challenges facing the reawakening Jewish Diaspora in Europe. I would like to add additional challenges and factors. First of all and most importantly there is an urgent need to redefine a common Jewish identity.

This redefinition should refer to assimilation and social integration, or separation and autonomy. Israel and other Jewish communities should also be involved in this process. The second major challenge is the redefinition of the social boundar- ies of each European Jewish community. This means that there is a need for carefully defined criteria for inclusion or exclusion of those who want to be part of these communities.

These last two issues are connected to abstract questions of identity and identification. The following issues relate to the structure, organization, and processes that should be adopted and applied by the communities. Talented, 44 gabriel sheffer motivated, and efficient leaders and activists must be found; greater resources must be sought for the maintenance and development of local, state, and regional communities and their ability to deal with the abovementioned challenges. This might affect the support for Israel. In addition, Jewish communities should determine their own poli- cies.

It is their prerogative to decide on the centralization or decentral- ization of their structure and organizations. Another pressing challenge is the need for strategic deci- sions on the nature of the connection between the European Diaspora, Israel, and other Jewish communities if European Jewry really intends to become the third pillar. Finally, given the pronounced heterogene- ity of all the European Jewish communities and their considerable dif- ferences, a large amount of intellectual and practical efforts will have to be invested in coordinating their activities toward traditional as well as new goals of a unified European Jewish Diaspora.

Conclusions If European Jewish communities hope to survive, flourish, and attain greater clout in Europe and World Jewry they will have to be much more active and invest greater efforts and resources. This is essential in light of the major social and political divides that still exist between European countries. The unification of Europe is still a far off reality. But if European Jewry deals effectively with the challenges it faces, then in the distant future it just might become the elusive third leg of the triangle, a key partner in the Jewish triumvirate.

My approach may be defined as not categorically pessimistic, but rather guardedly optimis- tic. And this guarded optimism about the future of Jewry applies also to other Jewish communities worldwide. However, the European community that emerges from the ruins of World War II and the Holocaust must deal with a very different Jewish world than the pre-Holocaust one—a Jew- ish world which is greatly affected by the growing dominance of the sovereign Jewish State of Israel.

In this post Jewish world, the close relations and identification with the cultural and political life of Israel are an essential component of any attempt to develop and empower a vital Diaspora Jewish existence. Their most important ideological 46 ofer schiff struggle was to prove that a strong attachment to the Jewish State may serve as a sound basis for a long-term flourishing Jewish exis- tence in the Diaspora. The most important and charismatic leader of this group was Abba Hillel Silver.

The uniqueness of his brand of Diaspora advocacy lies in its conception of Jewish nationalism and statehood as merely a scaffolding albeit a supremely important one for the construction of an independent religio-cultural identity, capable of integrating with its non-Jewish surroundings; and seeing itself as a beginning stage of an inter-religious and intercultural federation for social justice and univer- sal freedom in the spirit of the Jewish prophets.

This Diaspora approach to Jewish nationalism led to an ongo- ing conflict with the major Israeli approaches of the time. The lat- ter, though they also viewed Jewish nationalism and statehood as the means for establishing a model society in the spirit of the prophets, held a different order of priorities with regard to the Jewish sovereign- state interest and the goals of Jewish universalism. The disagreement was between those who, like Silver, felt that the national-Israeli agenda should be subordinated to the broad, universalistic, Diaspora-Jewish agenda, and those who sought to subordinate the universal social goals of justice and equality to the agenda and interests of the Israeli state- hood endeavor.

This essay, then, deals with a version of Diaspora advocacy that suffered a nearly unconditional defeat within the post Jewish and Zionist political arenas—a version whose implied ideological and political option has been long forgotten and, to all appearances, rejected.

Once the State had been established this tension grew twofold, and came to be regarded as the embodiment of an internal threat. From this point of view, one may see the struggle that resolved on the political-Zionist plane during the early s as the reflection of a much broader ideological struggle between Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, one that is still relevant and has yet to be resolved. The core Diaspora universalistic ideology, which was presented by Silver 48 ofer schiff and his colleagues as an alternative to the Israel-centered negation of the exile version of Zionism, was based in large parts on the pre-Holo- caust universalistic tenets of the Jewish Reform movement—a doc- trine that originated in nineteenth century and pre-Holocaust Europe and of which Silver, a leading Reform Rabbi, was an integral part.

He warned against the secular Israeli-Zionist model—describing it as a serious danger to Jewish existence. He explained that only a continuous dialogue between the Jewish centers of Israel and the Diaspora may ensure the necessary integration of religion and Jewish nationality—an integration that in his view was the desired content of the new post Zionism, and the key to the long-term existence of Judaism. Silver, November ; Silver, Kaplan, ; cultural pluralism as an american zionist option 49 Silver did not limit himself to sermons and speeches, but pursued his two-center advocacy also in the world Zionist arena and in the Israeli one, attempting to force the Israeli leadership to acknowledge Ameri- can Judaism as an equal and independent power.

His first attempt occurred already in August , at the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency, which was convening at that time in Jerusalem. He and his loyal colleague, Emanuel Newman, demanded a reorganiza- tion of the Jewish Agency, calling office holders in the Israeli govern- ment to resign from their posts in the Jewish Agency, and presenting it as a way to ensure the independent power of the world Zionist move- ment. They maintained that the Zionist move- ment must adapt itself to a new post reality, in which most of Diaspora Jewry will keep their present citizenship, but at the same time will seek a strong emotional and ethical commitment to Israel as a democratic and enlightened Jewish center.

In both instances Silver and his colleagues won a victory in the votes, but found, almost imme- diately, that their victory was in vain, and that soon after it turned into a frustrating defeat. In January , only a few months after most of the Israeli leaders, who were nominated to serve in the Israeli government including Ben-Gurion , were forced to resign from their offices in the Jewish Agency, Silver suffered his most serious defeat ever.

Secretary of the Treasury in the Roosevelt administration , he and the Ameri- can Zionist movement also lost their chances for independence, and hence he had no choice but to resign from all his posts in the Jewish Agency and in the Zionist movement. Similarly, in August , after Kaplan, Rather than giving special status and independence to the Diaspora Zionists, the new law in fact made sure that they had no authority of their own, not even among Diaspora Jewry.

This refusal to grant any legitimacy to an independent and self- conscious Diaspora movement was true also on the personal level. Despite repeated direct and in-direct requests, Ben-Gurion refused to meet Silver, and when he finally invited him for tea together with Newman, soon after the 23rd Zionist Congress , he refused to speak politics, and limited himself to a conversation about the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, thus singling out his refusal to acknowledge Silver even as a political adversary. At the same time, Ben-Gurion was ready to grant his acknowledgment and attention to Jacob Blaustein head of the American Jewish Committee.

Silver found himself helpless against a strong and continuous alliance between Ben-Gurion and Blaustein, who as a non-Zionist had no intention of invigorating the cultural or national Diaspora self-awareness of American Jewry. Silver ended this period of controversy defeated and frustrated. He had to contend with a growing discrepancy between his popularity and high general American standing he had strong political ties within the Republican Party, and after Eisenhower and his new Republican administration came into power, he was the first Jewish cleric ever to officiate at the inauguration of the new president , and the continuous cold shoulder he and the American Zionist movement got from the Israeli leadership.

It was clear to him by that time that his goal of using the identification with Israel as an essential cornerstone in the building of a viable Diaspora Jewish community cannot be achieved by openly challenging the dominance of Israel and its leadership. In retrospect, one can describe Silver as one of the first among a long line of Diaspora Jewish leaders who found their Diaspora Jewish leadership entangled in growing controversy when choosing to criti- cize Israel. Sacks, like Silver before him, quickly learned that being in a position of Diaspora Jewish leadership obliged him to defend Israel and to try to improve its image even in cases where he deeply objects to its conduct and policies.

Like Silver, he had to find a way that both embraces Israel, and affirms his own independent and autonomous Diaspora Jewish agenda. In both contexts, his use of this quote signified a new, much less con- frontational, tactic, and in both cases this moderate tactic did not sig- nify any fundamental change in his ardent religious-democratic and universalistic belief. He was convinced that the democratic system is superior to any other political system, and that in periods of peace and economic development this inherent superiority becomes most apparent.

He believed that ultimately these developments will destroy Communism and all other dictatorships from within see for example Silver, April 21, ; Silver, February 12, ; Silver, October 15, In contrast to his early con- frontations with Israel, after he pursued an almost submissive posture, stressing again and again his loyalty to Israel and avoiding any appearance of involvement in its internal politics.

This was a gradual 52 ofer schiff change, and it reached its first peak in , when Silver accepted the position as the head of the Israeli Bonds—the same non-assuming Diaspora-ideology wise position which was previously held by Mor- genthau. Now, in , he accepted a position which was devoid of any Diaspora advocacy, and which was solely dedicated to serve the eco- nomic interests of Israel, no matter what its internal or international policies were. This change of attitude reached its second peak in —57, during the Sinai War and the political international turmoil hence after. In effect, he accepted a passive role of blind support and admiration of Israel, with no presumption to interfere in its policies.

This could first be seen in March-April when Silver visited Israel and was received by the Israeli leader- ship with open arms. Even before his arrival, the Israeli newspapers were tipped about a historic meeting that is due to take place between Ben-Gurion and Silver.

On his part, Silver announced in a press confer- ence that he is not interested in any position in the Zionist Congress or in the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency, and he clarified that in his meeting with the Prime Minister there was no discussion of political issues related to the Zionist movement. The question still remains as to the means avail- able to Diaspora Jewish leaders, seeking to enhance a vital and flour- ishing Jewish existence which is committed to Israel and its policies, and yet, at the same time, has its own Diaspora Jewish agenda. Quite the contrary, he described his brand of Diaspora Zionism as a spiritually superior stage than the basic Israeli survivalist one.

He likened the re-construction of Jewish sovereignty to a struggle to secure the flow of oxygen needed for Jewish life. As long as this free flow of oxygen was interrupted or threatened, the Jewish people could not help but to devote all their energies to the existential need of breathing. HaBoker, April 5, , p. One intriguing example of this tactic was his speech in the opening session of the ZOA Zionist Organi- zation of America Conference, which took place in New York on September 14, , and which celebrated the 60th anniversary since the first Zionist Congress in Basel.

He sponsored a violent coup d'etat against the elected government in Beirut last year with his Hezbollah militia. He sponsors a terrorist insurgency against the elected government of Iraq, while his fanatical proxies shoot and kill American soldiers. A car bomb cell belonging to the regime's Lebanese franchise was recently arrested in Azerbaijan, and more cells were rolled up in Egypt. Terrorists sponsored and encouraged by him and his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini, have murdered civilians from Argentina to Japan. He does not need to call openly for an uprising, but he should be taking the accounts of reporters and our intelligence operatives in Iran and broadcasting them to the world.

He should be amplifying the voices of the Iranians who have, once again, been deprived of any say in how they will be governed, and using them to pressure the Iranian regime at a time when it is plainly very fragile. History teaches us see: Carter, Jimmy that it's important to line up with the Iranian people, not against them. Now is the moment. Look at the irregularities Mousavi is citing now: There is no way such things could change the overall outcome which is clearly in favor of Ahmadinejad.

If you compare this to the flaws of the presidential election in Florida in , it seems very insignificant. I worry that this will cause him to stop liking baseball though he's had a good season on the Northwest Little League AA Red Sox, where his batting average is, as best as I can tell,. In the Post today, John Feinstein asks the obvious question: Why are the Nats holding on to Manager Manny Acta?

It's a question I've asked many times myself. There are plenty of reasons to keep Acta, a couple of reasons to fire him. The reasons to keep him are evident every day. He's a class act; he's a bright, young baseball guy managing a young team. His players like him, and they show up every day and really try to play for him, albeit not very well.

If Acta is fired now, you can bet he's going to get another managing job down the road, and there's a very good chance he'll be a success. So why fire him? Because sometimes in sports you have to make change for the sake of change. One can almost feel the "here we go again" sense the players have in the late innings night after night.

Most nights they know there are two guarantees: It's going to rain, and they're going to find some way to lose either by bullpen implosion or some horrible defensive gaffe. So long as he agrees that Palestine shouldn't be a state for the Palestinians, I guess it doesn't really matter. Wright's recent comments, Goldblog reader Doron Arazi shares this Soviet-era joke: A prominent scientist is being summoned to his institute's party secretary.

Our institute was ordered to purge all residual Zionist influences among intellectuals and scientists. You have a Zionist grandmother. Benjamin Netanyahu crossed the Rubicon yesterday. In order to serve the country, he abandoned his father's ideological home. The decision to leave his home came at great emotional cost. The prime minister agonized for 10 days over the text that would redefine him. But in the end, Netanyahu did the right thing. He neither stuttered nor blinked. Instead, he placed the spotlight squarely on one irreplaceable phrase: We should not acknowledge international "rights" of countries that deny fundamental rights to their people.

I would think that would be at the core of any Obama foreign policy in fact, it seems to be with regard to Cuba, for example. Nor, as a practical matter, should the U. In fact, how about amending the Non-Proliferation Treaty to limit the right to the pursuit of peaceful nuclear programs only to democracies? This election should lead us to meet with our allies and reconsider our approach to the Iranian nuclear question -- especially because through a major multilateral rebuff of the regime we might further weaken them in their own country, a place where the opposition seems so vital and poised to make such a promising change.

I've also argued that, although repressive, the Islamic Republic offers significant margins of freedom by regional standards. I erred in underestimating the brutality and cynicism of a regime that understands the uses of ruthlessness. Who would have thought that the Iranian regime could be so brutal and cynical and ruthless and undemocratic?

Well, perhaps gay people, who are executed by the regime for their sexual orientation. Perhaps peace-loving Baha'is, who are mercilessly persecuted by the regime. Perhaps Iranian Jews, who are forced by the regime to abase themselves before gullible Western journalists. Perhaps the families of women stoned to death after being accused of adultery by the regime. Perhaps the dissidents of the universities, who know that a country led by a dictator who calls himself "Supreme Leader" isn't actually an incipient democracy.

Perhaps the liberal Shia reformers, who know that their country has been hijacked by obscurantist fundamentalists. Perhaps Israel, which is regularly threatened with extermination by these same obscurantist fundamentalists. Perhaps men like Elie Wiesel, who know that Holocaust denial is a crime against history. Perhaps the moderate Arab states of the Gulf and beyond, who quake in fear of a nuclear-armed Iranian empire.

Perhaps the International Atomic Energy Agency, which watches helplessly as the regime defies the demands of the U. Perhaps the families of Iranian terror victims around the world, including those in Argentina, where Iranian agents bombed a Jewish cultural center, killing 85 innocent people. I'm sure there are others who could have told us about the nature of this regime, if only we had asked.

Netanyahu succeeded overnight in taking back a very major concession that previous Israeli governments had made and turning it into a significant bargaining chip. For years - surely ever since Ehud Barak made his famous magnanimous peace offer - Israeli support for a two-state solution was more or less taken for granted. In a surprisingly short period, Netanyahu has put Israel into a position in which if it agrees to two states, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will be able to say that they and Obama have wrested a major concession from Israel's "right-wing government.

Here's a question -- has any good ever come out of the comments section of a major on-line content provider? You don't provide a blackboard for every hater out there at the bottom of your blog -- why does the Washington Post think that it's a good idea? Why not make these guys at least get their own damn blogs? The thinking is that comments sections engage existing readers, and bring in new readers, especially the ones with big mouths.

But I've only rarely read something in a comments section that was worthwhile. In my own case, I get enough anti-Semitism through e-mail; I'm not such a masochist that I would want to make myself even more available to douchebag Jew-haters. Add starShareShare with noteEmailEdit tags: The von Brunns had moved to Maryland before we looked at the house, and he was incarcerated when we bought it, imprisoned for attempting to hold hostage members of the Federal Reserve Board. When we moved in, we realized we'd bought it from an anti-Semite survivalist because he'd left behind several boxes of anti-Jewish books.

We immediately added them to the trash. We celebrated Passover Seders, exchanged Hanukkah gifts and raised two wonderful Jewish children there. It is also easy to forget that what makes Iran dangerous is not merely its pursuit of nuclear weapons but, rather, its campaign for regional hegemony, which is emboldened by nuclear development. In his Cairo speech, President Barack Obama reaffirmed "America's commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons.

A Road to Nowhere Jewish Experiences in Unifying Europe

What makes Iran different is the goal that country is pursuing, not the means it is using. This is why Iran--and not France or India--turned out to be what experts call "one of the most critical national security challenges facing the United States. His rhetoric helps makes their case that Iran is a danger to them. They don't expect Iran to change under new, more "moderate" leadership, because national security and foreign policy are not in the hands of the president, in any case. Me, I'm slightly more hopeful than that: Maybe something extraordinary is brewing, and maybe the ayatollahs are learning that they are truly out of step with many of their people.

Two weeks ago, a Muslim extremist shot two soldiers, killing one, outside a recruiting station in Arkansas. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad acted alone, just as James von Brunn apparently did. He was, like von Brunn, captive to a supremacist ideology that, in his mind, justified the murder of an innocent man.

Like von Brunn, authorities said, he had mapped out Jewish targets for potential attack. And yet, no mention of the hate crime committed by a Muslim; only hate crimes committed by white, right-wing extremists were worthy of mention in Warner's column. This is true for other columnists on the liberal side of the spectrum. The murder of Private William Long seems to be of no concern, and without larger meaning.

Of course, on the other side of the spectrum, great thinkers like Glenn Beck are blaming the attack on Holocaust Museum on -- well, it's hard to figure out what he's talking about, but it is safe to say that he's not blaming white America. The attacks in Arkansas and Washington are both manifestations of a radical type of intolerance, and they are linked in very deep ways.

The left, generally speaking, doesn't want to acknowledge Muslim intolerance, and the right, generally speaking, doesn't want to acknowledge white, Christian intolerance. But they both exist, and they should both be acknowledged. Usually mine are of the "put-the-mayo-in-the-tuna-can" variety, but here's a better idea: We should try to convince anti-Semites that the Holocaust Museum itself doesn't exist, that the alleged presence of the alleged Holocaust Museum on the National Mall is actually just another aspect of pernicious Zionist propaganda.

If the nutjobs don't believe it's there -- and they're gullible enough to believe that, since they already believe that the Holocaust itself never happened -- then they won't attack it. Like I said, just an idea. We who were here have so much to be thankful for: For Officer Johns who gave his life defending this museum. For the guards who did precisely what they are trained to do and did it so very well.

For the fact that this man's hate resulted in the death of "only" one man and not of scores more. Above all, we have to be thankful for the existence of this place. It is a place that stands to teach about the consequences of hatred and prejudice. This week it taught that lesson in the most horrifying of ways. Today the building will be full again. There will be staff members and, we hope, people who have decided not to let the haters win.

They know that the only way to defeat those who spread evil is by not letting them stop us. Who ever thought that there would be a time when coming to a museum which teaches about hatred, prejudice and anti-Semitism would itself be an act of defiance? In other words, he regrets speaking plainly instead of deploying a euphemism. As a service to Goldblog readers, I've culled some of the most interesting comments: We should stand back and let the Arabs have their way with them. See what they think then. I'm laughing at the tool who said "White power! Neo-Nazi's would stomp his semitic ass into Gefilte fish!!

Note the proper spelling of "gefilte. Jews have always felt like they are a superior race - they don't give a shit about Americans or anyone else in the world. It's crazy that they are repeating the same racism they felt in WW2 against the Palenstenians. I don't know what Israel has done for America as a so-called ally except make all the Muslims in the world our enemy.

I am so proud and confident of Obama - if anyone can make this right he can. Listen people and listen good these people are ignorant there drunk and their statements mean nothing. By the way don't believe in the hype that America is going to help the world. And plus this is a very important fact their not the real Jews that the bible speaks of we are the minorities Blacks, latinos,mexicans. Their the synagoue of satan look it up!!!! I guess I really have been onto something Lyrics from one of the songs im working on: Finally, there's this piece of universal wisdom: Von Brunn, who lives in Annapolis, was known for decades to fellow white supremacists who read his elaborate conspiracy theories on his Web site and met him through a network of radical racist groups.

He was smart enough to join Mensa, but even admirers considered him a loner, a hothead and a man consumed with hatred. I've seen it operate in several countries, and it is not staffed, generally speaking, by the most enthusiastic, go-getter types. But Wackenhut certainly performed well yesterday, at a tragic cost. The guards responded to Von Brunn just as they should have, and shot him immediately without hurting a single bystander.

If the guards had not been armed, the Holocaust Museum would have been the scene of a massacre. I think the Jewish community should take this as a lesson, in particular those institutions that are only "protected" by unarmed guards. You can't fight a rifle or a shotgun with a stick, or a whistle, or good intentions. Only armed guards are at all capable of stopping an attack. American Jews -- and this is broad generalization here -- are queasy around weapons. This queasiness is rooted in our urban and suburban existence.

But one of the lessons of the Holocaust to me -- I said this in my book, Prisoners, to some criticism -- is that it is more difficult to kill an armed Jew than an unarmed Jew. I'd rather see Jews guard Jewish institutions than non- Jews, because it's our responsibility to defend ourselves that's my vestigial labor Zionist ideology speaking , but if JCCs and synagogues and Jewish museums don't want to pay extra for Israeli guards, than at least they should hire well-trained and armed protection.

Wackenhut would do quite nicely, it seems. The president never said a word about me. Or, for that matter, about any of the other , or so Jews born in the Middle East who fled the Arab and Muslim world or who were summarily expelled for being Jewish in the 20th century. With all his references to the history of Islam and to its questionable "proud tradition of tolerance" of other faiths, Mr. Obama never said anything about those Jews whose ancestors had been living in Arab lands long before the advent of Islam but were its first victims once rampant nationalism swept over the Arab world.

Muslims created this atmosphere where hatred of the Jews is okay and must be "tolerated" as a legitimate point of view. The shooting today is just yet another manifestation emanating from that viewpoint-another manifestation of the welcome mat that Muslims rolled out for fellow anti-Semites of all stripes to no longer be afraid to come out of the closet. I've never read Debbie Schlussel before. But if it's meant seriously, then it's ridiculous. White Christians have done an excellent job being anti-Semitic for several hundred years -- almost a couple of thousand, actually -- without any help whatsoever from Muslims.

In fact, it is Muslim Jew-haters who rely on the publications of European and white American anti-Semites -- most notably the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the International Jew -- for inspiration. I hope Schlussel retracts this absurd piece of "analysis. I don't think Muslims dominated the German Bund. Today should be about two things: Remembering a victim of terrorism, and thinking about what in this world would make someone commit an act of intolerance and violence against a museum built to remind people of the dangers of intolerance and violence.

Also, perhaps, the timelessness of the mental illness known as anti-Semitism. It turns out -- no surprise at all, I guess -- that Von Brunn was also a big lister of Jews. Perhaps this means nothing but I feel that I should acknowledge that a black man was killed on guard duty at the Holocaust museum. That may mean nothing. But I think it should be said.

No, it means something. More than something, in fact. The great tragedy of the rift between blacks and Jews is that while we waste time arguing with each other, our common enemy -- racialist fascism -- goes unfought. All were victims of the same sick ideology. Here's Mark Weber, the Holocaust revisionist I quoted earlier, on race: Read the whole thing.

It won't take you long. Other religious targets may be subject to vandalism or even discriminatory acts but there are few other religious institutions that day in and day out must be concerned about acts of terrorism in the form of bombs, gun attacks, etc. On many levels Jews have been and remain the quintessential victims of religious intolerance and hatred in western civilization.

Weber said that the shooting is a "terrible and stupid and criminal thing, and any reasonable person would condemn it. He got angry and said "every movement and organization has insane people in it. What was this guy's point? I can't even figure that out. Weber said he was opposed to the creation and maintenance of the Holocaust Museum, because "obviously this museum doesn't exist as an expression of altruistic concern for humanity but as an expression of the enormous power of the Jewish community.

He did say, however, that it does not depict history accurately; for instance, he said, gas chambers never existed. You get the idea. James Von Brunn Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 4: Its about my 12th visit. Why do I keep returning there? Because I learn something new every time.

The first thing I noticed this visit was that the whole camp is a building site, with workmen swarming all over the camp area. The country's economy is going South at full speed but they still seem to have millions to invest in renovating the concentration camps. The next obvious thing I noticed was, the new design plays down the very significant role of the suffering endured after the war by the thousands of Germans who were imprisoned and murdered by the Soviet occupiers, who are now known as 'Liberators' because they liberated millions of Germans from most of which they owned or loved.

The German victims are mentioned on signs and documents but in such a way that the uninitiated are led to believe that these people too were victims of Nazi terror and not Soviet victims after the war had ended. Because of the 'renovation work' being done much of the camp was cordoned off today, but other parts I had previously not been able to get close to, were open.

The last time I was in the camp I asked the Museum curator where exactly the camp brothel was situated, at first she pretended that there never was such a building in the camp, but I pressured her into admitting it was 'approx' around the Hospital barracks 'somewhere'. Today I could get up close to the Hospital barracks, so I started looking into all the windows hoping to discover something new I told her I was looking for the Brothel, she looked at me in surprise and said 'I don't know where the Brothel was, but it might have been in the Underground rooms below us' THIS was news for me, the Area below the two Hospital Barracks had underground rooms?

If you look at this area on the photo below there is no clue that anything like underground rooms exist between the two rows of hospital barracks. There are no air vents or similar to give clues, and nothing about underground facilities is mentioned in the camp tour broschures. I started to quiz this lady as to what else was in these underground rooms, she shrugged her shoulders and said ' Mitunter, eine Kegelbahn' Amongst other things they had a bowling alley I questioned her whether I had heard her correctly, she said "Ja, aber ich muss weiter" "Yes but I have to go now" , and she went inside the barracks.

I had learnt something new. Is there anyone receiving this letter that can verify what this woman told me? While I was walking on from this last conversation I was approached by a middle aged couple who spoke no German, and English only with a strong accent I didn't recognise. He approached me and started asking me questions about where were the 'gas chambers'?

I told him there were no gas chambers in Sachsenhausen, he became agitated and he actually frothed at the mouth, his voice went up an octave, saying I should not lie , his Grandparents had been in Auschwitz and they had told him that gassings occurred in all camps I then realised I had just met Mr and Mrs Victimnumber from Israel Mr and Mrs Victimnumber told me they had just come from Dachau and he had seen the 'gas-chambers there, where the sign says in 5 languages There is a law in Germany forbidding people telling the facts, so I chose to shut-up and ask him to tell me what HE thought it was all about.

According to him, this is how the Nazis did it, OH I said, is that right? To take showers with", I answered. I looked at him and said "Don't they have showers in Israel? I almost expected to get back to the Camp Entrance and find the 'thought-police' waiting for me. Nope it was OK. What I did notice however was the large library of Holocaust-anti-German-hatenazi- Literature on sale in the Entrance Hall.

One could get the feeling that every survivor has written at least three books. The propaganda is enormous, on the photo only one half of the books being offered can be seen. Revisionists are NOT keeping up with this flood. The suspect, identified as James Wennecke Brunn, is a long time white supremacist and anti-Semite who often uses the name James von Brunn. Brunn worked in advertising and other professions until he retired. He now lives in Maryland and describes himself as an "artist" and "writer;" however, his magnum opus is a self-published anti-Semitic book, Tob Shebbe Goyim Harog "Kill the Best Gentiles".

He has written many anti-Semitic essays as well. In , Brunn, then living in New Hampshire, was arrested at the headquarters of the Federal Reserve Board after he tried to use a sawed-off shotgun to take board members hostage. Like many anti-Semites, Brunn believed that Jews control the nation's banking system.

He was convicted of attempted armed kidnapping, second-degree burglary, assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a pistol without a license and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon. He was sentenced to four to eleven years in prison in and served over six. In Obama's rhetorical universe of mist and fog, divided between gray and deeper gray, he drew one vivid line.

Holocaust denial, he said, is "baseless," "ignorant" and "hateful. Obama's intensity and clarity on this issue were unexpected -- and needed. Holocaust denial has long been a staple of Middle Eastern anti-Semitism. But it has grown more pervasive since the s -- not merely due to the manias of Ahmadinejad but in service to a broader strategy. Over the years Revisionists have asked me to write about my effort in to place the Board of Governors, Federal Reserve System FED , under legal, non-violent citizens-arrest. The subject resides in my memory like old road-kill. What could have been a slam-bang victory turned into ignoble failure.

Recalling all of this presents an onerous task. I am getting near the end of the diving board. I've already covered the FED in my Ms. However, because there may be lessons in my story for young Americans, I have decided to give it a whirl. The Constitution states that Congress alone shall issue and control America's currency; Congress may not delegate those functions.

Nevertheless a corrupt and ignorant U. Congress enacted the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Act Few Congressmen since have dared suggest it is unconstitutional -- fearing for their livelihood and their lives. The word "Federal" is a sham. It has no more relevance than "Federal" Tire Co. It is not an agency of the United States Government. It is one of many parasitical Rothschild Central Banks infesting the world stage. Its power ascends over every U. Every dollar in your wallet is a note issued by the FED.

Government redeems that note principal and interest with your taxes. Through its enormous resources and power the FED controls the machinery of the U. Through manipulation, bribery, slander, assassination, and control of the mass media, JEWS contrived to pit nation against nation, race against race, financing all sides in the resultant wars; then at exorbitant interest rates financing reconstruction of the devastated countries.

Rothschild's modus operandi has kept Western Civilization in a continuous state of war and eternally in debt. Followed by control of America's main sources of information. Early on, during the war-torn 20th Century, the only broadcast networks: Bit by bit Liberalism ascended. Bit by bit the Constitution was re-interpreted. Never before in World history has a Nation so completely been conquered with absolutely NO physical resistance. America is a Third-World racial garbage-dump -- stupid, ignorant, dead-broke, and terminal. Prepare to die, Whitey.

USNR, receiving a Commendation and four battle stars. For twenty years he was an advertising executive and film-producer in New York City. He is a member of Mensa, the high-IQ society. In von Brunn attempted to place the treasonous Federal Reserve Board of Governors under legal, non-violent, citizens arrest. He was tried in a Washington, D. He is now an artist and author and lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore. How could that be? How could such an amazing deed go unremarked by the journals and books that deal with monetary systems and how we are controlled by them?

After speaking with James, I must conclude many who were in a position to shine light on the situation were afraid to do so. James Von Brunn endured having his house burned down in retaliation for publishing books that the jews viewed as hostile to their financial interests. James endured jail and personal sorrows as a consequence of his refusal to submit to tyranny. My nomination for White Racialist Treasure: Please feel free to add your nominations for White Racialist Treasures to this thread. Let's wait and see who it was who did this first. But I can't help myself: Asked if he had spoken to the President, Wright said: I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office.

I can't quite bring myself to issue such a condemnation. Yes, I've studied young Blumenthal's videos, and yes, he wields his camera as a weapon against Jews he doesn't like, but here's the thing: He didn't force these young adults not "kids," as a couple of letter-writers would have it in Jerusalem to say the things they said. They did that all by themselves. Several e-mailers complained that the subjects of Blumenthal's film were drunk, and therefore not accountable for the ugliness that came out of their mouths. No one I know believes that Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic only when drunk.

The fools in Jerusalem had these thoughts in their heads; alcohol cannot plant ideas that aren't there. And yes, they are not represenative of anything much, and yes, Blumenthal would be a journalist, rather than a propagandist, if he had noted that American Jews voted for Barack Obama in overwhelming numbers. I understand all the arguments, and I of course understand the argument, as I'm sure Blumenthal does too, that anti-Semitism in the Arab world is expressed by religious leaders while sober.

Max Blumenthal gets famous by highlighting the behavior of idiotic Jews. It's not a profession I would choose, but it's hard to blame him for the racism of other people. As of this writing, eleven people are dead, including two foreigners. The Pearl in Peshawar was really a lovely hotel, with an excellent Chinese buffet and quiet spaces in a tumultuous city.

It was civilized, which is why the Taliban hates it. It is edited by Alana Newhouse, who is very smart, and it has all sorts of very smart writers contributing to it, and looks to be all around very smart, and a great alternative to the general mediocrity of Jewish publications, print and on-line. I haven't yet combed through it, but will later, but in the meantime, you should.

By the way, I'm supposed to contribute to it as well. I don't know if that's an advertisement for or against, but there you go. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.

I swear by Allah this is crazy. I asked him four questions about the just-past Lebanese election, and the upcoming Iranian election, and the possibility of renewed war between Iran's proxies and Israel. Here is our exchange: When it comes to Iran's nuclear program, does it matter who the country's president is, or is the nuclear program in other hands?

Iran's Leader -- or as he insists on being called, "Supreme Leader" -- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the one who has both the constitutional authority and the power in practice to call the shots on foreign and security policy. Iran's presidents are more cheerleader-in-chief than commander-in-chief Khamenei controls the armed forces, among his many other powers.

The nuclear issue is firmly in his hands. That said, the choice of president is important. Not because the president has much authority on the issues we care most about, but because the choice says much about the Leader's intentions. When the Leader is confident that the Islamic Republic can ignore the West, he sanctions the elections of a hardliner like Mahmood Ahmadinejad.

When the Leader is persuaded that Iran has to sound more conciliatory - to blow smoke in our eyes instead of spitting in them - he allows a reformer" to win. Will Hezbollah's semi-defeat in the Lebanese election make it more conciliatory, or will it send it back to its jihadist roots? Unhappy that it and its allies lost the recent Lebanese elections, Hezbollah may well take up arms to insist that it retains its powerful role in Lebanon's government - a good example of how the principal victims of Iran's proxies are Arabs rather than Israelis.

Even before the election, Hezbollah was claiming that no matter what the election results, Hezbollah was still entitled to enough cabinet seats - a "blocking third" - to prevent the cabinet from taking positions of which it disapproved. Hezbollah had sent its militia to occupy all of Beirut, including the Christian-majority East Beirut, to demand this "blocking third.

So the friends of Lebanon are likely to soon to confront the question: When do you expect the next eruption in violence between Iran's proxies and Israel? Just as Hezbollah is more of a threat to Lebanese democracy than it is to Israel, Hamas in Gaza has killed more Fatah supporters than Israelis. Similarly, the various insurgent and militia groups that Iran helps in Iraq kill many more Iraqis than Americans. Iran's proxies have not done well fighting Israel. Hamas' standing in Gaza has not been helped by its poor showing in last winter's fighting against Israel nor from the continuing suffering since then.

And for all its bravado during the war against Israel, Hezbollah is no more popular in Lebanon today than it was before that war. It is seen by many Lebanese as a tool of Iran, one reason it and its allies did poorly in the recent elections. So, with any luck, Iran's proxies will exercise considerable caution before they take on Israel again. There are clearly large numbers of people in Iran, the urban elites and the young most particularly, who seem unhappy with their government's priorities.

Do you think we could be on the cusp of something new and different, and, from the Western perspective, better? The majority of Iranians are profoundly unhappy with the government of the Islamic Republic, but that does not necessarily mean that change is imminent. What keeps the regime in power is its support from a dedicated minority of true believers, which is at least ten percent if not twenty percent of the population.

The regime can count on its fanatical backers to use force - deadly force, if need be - to stop protests and keep the public in check. Those unhappy with the current system have overwhelmingly dropped out of politics, convinced that real change is not possible. But Iran's Supreme Leader is worried about the vulnerability of the regime. The main focus of his public speeches is about the danger of "soft overthrow" from "Western cultural invasion.

He is so terrified that the Islamic Republic could be quickly swept away that he has the security forces lock up journalists like NPR reporter Roxanne Saberi , civil society activists promoting people-to-people exchanges like the Wilson Center's Haleh Esfandiari , and physicians active in scientific exchange. Presumably Khamenei knows something about his own country, and he worries that the regime is vulnerable. Let us hope he is correct. It hasn't felt that way in recent years. On the other question, of whether Thomas was correct in saying that "we were the good guys in , it felt that way," Nexis tells a slightly different story about whether Thomas himself felt "that way" in the mids.

Then with Time Magazine, he wrote the following in January, It is difficult to imagine, for example, how he can spend more for defense, refuse to raise taxes or cut Social Security, and still chop the annual deficit in half. He almost certainly cannot expect the Soviets to reduce their arsenal of heavy land-based missiles while the U. Reagan seems so dreamily unconcerned with these realities that even some of his own backers fear he may lose control of future policy struggles.

Incredibly, only two months after Reagan won back the White House by a landslide, and before he had even been sworn in for a second term, many in Washington regard him as little more than a lame duck Some of the "techniques of persuasion" are benign: Others are decidedly brutal: If it were, the Administration would likely be waving it as proof of its thesis about the sources of insidious world terrorism. In fact, however, it is a publication of the CIA, written for Nicaraguan contras seeking to overthrow the Sandinista regime.

Its disclosure last week came as a political embarrassment to the Administration and a major moral one for the U. It stirred memories of CIA abuses that were supposedly outlawed a decade ago and gave Democrats a potentially hot new campaign issue. The rhetoric level will increase this week as both Shevardnadze and Shultz give major speeches to the U. General Assembly at the opening of its 40th session. The Soviets continue to build up the summit as a "window of opportunity" for a major breakthrough in arms control that may not arise again "for a very, very long time.

The Administration is trying to keep the Allies in line by dangling lucrative defense contracts for SDI research. Last week the U. If you read the Foreign Policy article to the end, it's OK: Does that mean he has rejected Christianity then? Because that's quite a radical departure. No, no, no he hasn't rejected Christianity.

He has always been a Christian. He just decided to become a Jew. He wants to follow the two religions. They can have him. But don't get me started on the academy, whose prejudice against the United States and failure to recognize Philip Roth is beyond scandalous. A further prize, for proving the creative fecundity of late life, should be accorded Roth. The whole thing is nuts. On another level, I'm not sure Cohen is reading deeply the later Roth. The young Roth treated his Judaism as comedy; the older Roth has explored, seriously and at length, the marginal nature of Jewish existence.

Not something that seems to preoccupy Cohen. For the duration of their next term in power, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's cabinet and majority leader Saad Hariri's coalition will be dependent on Hezbollah's goodwill.

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With last summer's violent showdown, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made absolutely clear who is in charge. Most of them make the case, at best, in semi-literate fashion when anti-Semites write properly, or even use spell-check, I'm going to start worrying , and a surprising number of them make their arguments through the use of lists, which is to say, they provide me lists of prominent Jews as proof that Where it gets highly amusing is when these lists contain the names of people who are quite obviously not Jewish.

These days, the lists are dominated by one name: I've received dozens of e-mails claiming that Geithner is Jewish, and in the sway of nefarious Wall Street Talmudists. Here is an excerpt from one such letter: This is the plan from the beginning with the jew bernanke and obama who is suported by the jew emanel. This is not to say that some of his best friends aren't Jewish, but the man quite obviously doesn't show up on my Jewdar for any number of reasons, including that crucial "Franz. Personally, I'd be happy to claim Geithner for the tribe I'm happy to claim nearly everyone, except Charles Taylor , but I think the secretary is quite permanently seated on the Christian side of the aisle.

In other words, please stop writing, anti-Semites e-mailers. Or at least come up with someone new. No Buchenwald commentary today, just the Marx Brothers: But the only trials I've ever been on have been real sleep-inducers. So I'm glad I was ultimately rejected.

Rachael Brown was rejected as well. But that's because she's a hooligan. I base this mostly on intuition. Of course, the Obama Administration would never claim to be interfering in the internal politics of another country, but it seems obvious that Netanyahu's narrow coalition won't survive sustained American pressure on the settlements question.

Netanyahu is in a terrible spot: He must preserve, at all costs, Israel's strategic relationship with Washington; on the other hand, he has right-wing coalition partners who are myopically obsessed with the status of the Neve Manyak outposts. Something is bound to break, and when it does, the Netanyahu government collapses.

Which doesn't mean that Netanyahu is out of power. It means that he then shares power with Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima Party. If I were an American policymaker, that's the Israeli coalition I would hope for: On the one hand, Blumenthal is an exploiter who doesn't seem to like Israel very much; on the other hand, the things these pathetic kids say are repulsive and the yeshivas that sent them to Israel are due for a serious soul-search this Yom Kippur. Their children are an embarrassment to Judaism: The aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.

The aspiration is rooted in deep, enduring roots in the Land of Israel, which the Islamic world has lately taken to denying. Claims that the Temple never really stood in Israel, or that the Jewish connection to the land is a later fabrication, are also malevolent and ignorant denials of history. Jews do not claim Israel because we were slaughtered; that merely proved the necessity of a refuge.

We claim Israel because it is our ancient homeland. That the world proved incapable of living in peace for centuries proved not our entitlement, but its urgency of fulfillment. And he might have mentioned that much suffering was a product of the Islamic world; while many historians argue that Islam was more tolerant than Christianity an argument I believe has a great deal of merit nonetheless the catalogue of Jewish suffering under Islam is considerable and should have been noted.

And in Israel's recent elections, Livni and her Kadima party won more votes than anyone else. The whole thing reminds me of the old Jewish joke about the unattended baby on the beach who wanders into the ocean, only to be miraculously saved by an attentive lifeguard. When the mother returns, she looks the lifeguard dead in the eye and says, "well, you know, he had a hat!

Obama's Islam success depends on Israel": Breyer was one of several on the court who suggested during oral argument that he was untroubled by the search. Justice Breyer said that when he was that age, boys stripped down to their underwear in the locker room and "people did stick things in my underwear," a comment that produced hearty laughter from Justice Thomas. The crux of the problem for the administration is that because the president is in the pocket of the Israel-First lobby of U.

Rachael Brown was picked first -- first, of hundreds of people -- for jury selection, so she left me. I think she was picked because she was putting her feet on the furniture and behaving in that generally rowdy way one associates with Atlantic editors. It was a great speech but you're projecting, as is Andrew Sullivan in quoting your post on his blog.

Unfortunately, the ideas in your phrase "a nation of their own in their ancestral homeland" were conspicuously absent. Also, it would have been a great moment for Obama to have talked about the dangerous illusion in the Muslim world that a so-called "right of return" must be made literal. He could have dealt with that illusion in his discussion of Muslims privately accepting that Israel will continue to exist. The Israeli officials said that no Bush administration official had ever publicly insisted that Israel was obliged to stop all building in the areas it captured in They said it was important to know that major oral understandings reached between an Israeli prime minister and an American president would not simply be tossed aside when a new administration came into the White House.

But it's worth pointing out that Netanyahu isn't keeping the promises made by his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, in particular the promise to support the creation of a Palestinian state. The narrative he presented and the vision drawn from it were admirable. It was a fine articulation of an Enlightened goal for humanity. Sadly, it's a rare politician who ever takes the time even to try to make such an encompassing articulation, much less set it up as a beacon to guide the formulation of policy.

He deserves credit for trying. His determination to "tell truth" was also admirable: What was there not to agree with? It's a great idea, so great that I am pleased to announce that the Atlantic is appointing Harriet Beecher Stowe as its first guest-editor. A former editor of this magazine once said that an issue of the Atlantic with Abraham Lincoln on the cover is our version of a swimsuit issue.

One hundred and fifty D. Rachael just got yelled at by a Superior Court apparatchik for putting her foot on a chair.

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Rachel is an outlaw like that. They're not so nice, actually. Jeffery, I read your Atlantic Voices column nearly every day. I listened to your "Fox News" comments. Your words make you sound like a cynical, bitter Republican white-guy victim. Probably your words resonate with a certain Fox demographic. They deserve better than your cynical words.

From what I've seen, he established his strong belief that Israel should be a Jewish-majority democracy; he argued that the Palestinian use of violence has been counterproductive and immoral, and he didn't shift away from the traditional American understanding of Hamas; and he argued that the American idea and the Islamic idea can coexist, which is good, because it pisses off Osama Bin-Laden. One worry grows from what he didn't say in this passage: For more than 60 years they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead.

They endure the daily humiliations - large and small - that come with occupation America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own. But it is also undeniably true that the Palestinians deserve the dignity of their own state, and that state, by the way, is a key to Israel's salvation.

More later, once I watch a recap of the World Series, which was one of the greatest ever and a lot more uplifting than the Middle East. I'll come back to that nonsense later, but for now, read this, from the lede, about Jerusalem's Old City at Easter, which he describes as "livid and chaotic," whatever that means: Every face on Earth seems to float through the streets during Easter, every possible combination of eye and hair and skin color, every costume and style of dress, from blue-black African Christians in eye-popping dashikis to pale Finnish Christians dressed as Jesus with a bloody crown of thorns to American Christians in sneakers and "I [heart] Israel" caps, clearly stoked for the battle of Armageddon.

Clearly stoked for the battle of Armageddon? How does he know this? Belt's prejudices show through a little bit too obviously, no? Not all American Christians who love Israel love it because they dream of Armageddon. Belt, any Christian who expresses support for Israel is "clearly stoked" for the apocalypse. National Geographic is carefully-edited; how does a sentence like this one get through?

Just ask this rabbi, or this rabbi. In reference to a recent conversation with Ta-Nehisi, see for yourselves what happens when blacks and Jews really get together: Rahm Emanuel actually handed it to Brooks, who was seated in front of Emanuel, which is as it should be, vis-a-vis journalistic privilege. I'm sorry I missed Ta-Nehisi smacking him down. This is from my interview with him a year ago on this very subject: I am absolutely convinced of that, and some of the tensions that might arise between me and some of the more hawkish elements in the Jewish community in the United States might stem from the fact that I'm not going to blindly adhere to whatever the most hawkish position is just because that's the safest ground politically.

I want to solve the problem, and so my job in being a friend to Israel is partly to hold up a mirror and tell the truth and say if Israel is building settlements without any regard to the effects that this has on the peace process, then we're going to be stuck in the same status quo that we've been stuck in for decades now, and that won't lift that existential dread. NPR news update today included word of the fatal shooting of one soldier and the wounding of another outside an army recruiting station in Arkansas.

The news reader, Nora Raum, outlined the incident and stated that the shooting appeared to have "religious motivations. In other words, it could have been a radical Unitarian who gunned down the soldiers, or possibly a violent Presbyterian. Why not tell people what is actually happening in the world? We saw this a couple of weeks ago, when the press only gingerly acknowledged that the malevolent though incompetent suspects in the synagogue bombing-conspiracy case in New York were converts to Islam.

How is the public served by this kind of silence? The extremist Christian beliefs of George Tiller's alleged murderer are certainly relevant to that case, and no one in my profession is hesitant to discuss them. Why the hesitancy to talk about the motivations of the man who allegedly killed Pvt. In this piece, I am accused of being a "soft-bitten" journalist, for sharing, in a sort of limited way, some of my financial woes and worries in this Atlantic cover story.

The writer of the article, a person named Sam Schulman, has a theory, that journalists were once "worldly-wise, tough-minded and cynical.

They could turn on the idealism for a family audience until deadline -- and then turn it off when they put on their fedoras or fixed their faces and went off for a few quick ones that would restore their sangfroid for another day. Today's reporters are unreluctant confessors of how they've been conned.

Goldberg happily admits that he believed his portfolio would show double-digit growth forever. Goldberg seems to have trusted a random financial adviser at Merrill Lynch, believed that ordinary stockbrokers possess privileged information that they share with small-portfolio clients, that the 'brokers and wealth managers and cable-television oracles who make up the financial-services industry' are primarily interested in growing the nest egg of people like Mr. Goldberg and never worry about how they themselves might make a buck.

No doubt many people share such beliefs. Goldberg has spent years covering the Middle East. He has lived among terrorists and murderers, seeing the worst of human nature. Yet he also believed that, armed with a subscription to a single financial magazine, he could put together a stock portfolio that would outperform index funds and mutual funds alike.

Because I have shown myself to be hard-bitten and cynical about the intentions of Hezbollah, I should have also been hard-bitten and cynical about the intentions of Merrill Lynch and Smart Money Magazine. I mean, I suppose it's possible to see his point. It is a radical Shi'ite terrorist group, sponsored by Iran, that conducts suicide bombings and has murdered many dozens of children. It is also responsible for the killing of two hundred and forty-one United States Marines. It seeks to impose radical shari'a rule on Lebanon, and use it as a base to export its radical brand of Islam to the rest of the world.

Now, take Smart Money Magazine. It is a monthly service magazine published by law-abiding Americans that provides advice, often erroneous, on how to increase the worth of one's portfolio. It also has a strong service journalism component. Seriously, this is Mr. Schulman's argument, that a person who mistrusts Hezbollah and Hamas should also mistrust Smart Money and Merrill Lynch.

Really, not much of an argument on which to hang an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. So these settlements should probably be allowed natural growth. But only if the settlements beyond the security barrier, the settlements in the heart of the Arab West Bank that everyone and his rabbi knows will soon dissapear, are frozen in place, and only if Israel acknowledges that the security fence marks the de facto border of the state of Palestine. This was specifically laid out in the Bush-Sharon letters of Sharon's letter to Bush clearly stated Israel's obligation to "limitations on the growth of settlements" and Israel's commitment that "The fence is a security rather than political barrier, temporary rather than permanent, and therefore will not prejudice any final status issues including final borders.

In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of , and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities. The issue Obama is raising with Netanyahu is that he is violating these agreements.

There are two options for Israel today in order to keep its commitments to the United States: For a variety of reasons, I believe that the latter is not a good option either for Israel or for the PA. That leaves us back with a total settlement freeze, as stated by Secretary Clinton. The demand to prevent natural growth in settlements is unreasonable and is akin to Pharaoh's demand that all firstborn sons be thrown into the Nile River," said Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz ahead of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.

That the children will move to Petah Tikva?