the definite article 52
Vampires and worse
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/sinners-film-review
I love it when a movie or book review is so good that you can’t wait to see the movie. It is possible that the movie will disappoint - but the review didn’t! I mean, is this a movie about black poverty in the south in the 1930’s, or transparent white racism, or how music can transcend racism, or…VAMPIRES????? You will have to take off your reality glasses and put on your interpretive glasses to see this one. I’m looking forward to it.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/belief/articles/613-love-languages-tractate-makkot
The thing about learning Talmud is this: you are learning a text that doesn’t even really try to make what it’s talking about connect to real life and in doing so, connects the most seemingly irrelevant issues to absolute real life. Dovid Bashevkin does a great job here in bringing the Talmud to life - your life, mine, everything.
I have two Douglas Murray articles in this TDA, so I’ll just give a short introduction here. First of all, this is a Peter Berkowitz article and although I part ways with Dr. Berkowitz here and there, he is still an excellent writer and he has his head screwed on tight. In these days, that seems almost a superpower. He doesn’t have to make up crazy stuff, he just points out the hypocritical double standards that make one want to scream at least twice a week. Does it do any good to scream? You tell me, when has a full blown honest to God hypocritical ever changed his mind? Still, choosing not to notice is even worse.
https://sapirjournal.org/activism/2025/jewish-masterpiece-a-guide-for-the-bedevilled/
Ben Hecht. Ever heard that name? Hands, anyone? OK, Gone With the Wind? He wrote the screen play. Also for Scarface and His Girl Friday. But more importantly , he was a warrior for Jewish causes when it mattered. Not originally inclined to get involved in Jewish causes, the news from Eastern Europe motivated him to do, and his doing created a name and presence for himself in America the many found irresistible. Almost single-handedly, he publicized the Shoah in America, well before Sophie’s Choice or any other made-to-squeeze-your-conscience prime time movie. “In a place where there are no men, strive to be Ben Hecht.”
We are talking here about a time in the not-so-distant past when it was actually cool to be Jewish, because Jews were simply rocking it, from top to bottom. And doing it as Jews, unashamed and unabashed. Of the four Jews portrayed here, well, how can any Jew of the last hundred years still alive compare to Mel Brooks? A screening of Blazing Saddles nowadays would cause a serous riot, I am sure. Back when I saw it for the first time in a cinema in Kentucky, you could tell how many Jews were in the theater by listening who got the jokes and laughed. But overall, this is the kind of book review which is a piece of artwork itself, a joy to read.
Eliot Malin takes upon himself the tiring but absolutely necessary task of unmasking those law fare fascists who prostitute themselves using the cross of law fare to crucify Jews. Most sickening is when these attacks come from Jews themselves; travelers on their way to moral humiliation.
Andrew Fox on the murders in DC
Sheri has put together a really indispensable 4 part series on post-Oslo alternative peace plans. Particularly light of the talk given by Nir Barkat recently, suggesting that there are Arab local councils Yehudah and Shomron who are edging towards joining the Avraham Accords. Read them all and don’t forget to support Sheri in her work!
Eve Barlow on the border in DC
https://newcriterion.com/article/the-profundity-of-evil/
Very soon after the beginning of the Hamas War, after if became apparent that Hamas is playing the role of Hitler is normalizing violent antisemitism for countries and societies once characterized as civilized, I expressed the need for someone to stand up to the decrepitude of the West with a clear moral voice. Douglas Murray (and there are others, among them David Volodzko) has been that voice, and if this talk he picks up the gage against whitewashing the profundity of the moral disorientation of the West with phrases like “the banality of evil.”
shavua tov!
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-855139
it was funny - it was there on friday morning early, then it disappeared during the day. I want to reread it to see if any information has changed in the meantime.
Thanks for the call-out re my series on post-Oslo alternatives. There is a fifth in the series on tap.
Do you have a link to the Nir Barkat talk you refer to?