Review of Cary Nelson and Gabriel Noah Brahm ed., The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel (Wayne State University Press, 2015)
Peter Eisenstadt

When the leadership of the American Studies Association (ASA) rammed through a resolution in December 2013 calling for “the boycott of Israeli academic institutions” (with the question of its impact on individual Israeli scholars left murkily ambiguous) it created a furor. Many other academic organizations have faced, or will soon face, academic boycott resolutions. The tactic has been successful in calling attention to the growing BDS movement, and in shedding light on attitudes towards Israel in the academy. Often the resulting image has not been pretty. Opponents of the academic boycott have put together a remarkable, sprawling volume, The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel, edited by Cary Nelson and Gabriel Noah Brahm (Wayne State University Press, 2015), with some 25 essays over 550 pages, that cover the issue from almost every conceivable angle. Anyone remotely interested in the issue should read it. read more

Gloomy Thoughts for the Week
Peter Eisenstadt

There are (for the purposes of this post, at least) two types of war. There are wars that start suddenly and unexpectedly, seemingly with little or no warning. World War I is perhaps the best example of this. On June 27, 1914, the day before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Europeans were planning their summer vacations. By early August, in all the major European powers, they were marching to war.

The second type of war are foreshadowed for years before the actual fighting begins, and move towards actual hostilities slowly and agonizingly, with the major contenders marshalling their forces, heightening their rhetoric, and counting their grievances before blood is spilled. World War II, or if you prefer to keep Hitler out of it, the American Civil War is the best example of this type of war. Whatever other emotions people had on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, or when General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard (love that name!) commenced shelling Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, surprise was low on the list. read more

Did a Mediocre Letter of Recommendation for Martin Luther King, Jr. Change the Course of History?
By Peter Eisenstadt

Can a letter change the world? A few years ago I found some correspondence that I thought might have profoundly altered the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and thereby redirecting the course of American and world history. And what made it more interesting is that King almost certainly was unaware of what happened. I was doing some research into the life of Howard Thurman, the great mid-20^th century African American religious thinker. Thurman has never been as well-known as he should be, and if he is remembered among the general public, it is as an inspiration to Martin Luther King, Jr., which is accurate enough, but somewhat ironic given the contents of the exchange in question. read more

Thoughts on Finally Seeing Klinghoffer
Peter Eisenstadt

Over the weekend I attended the last performance of “The Death of Klinghoffer” at the Met. I tried, as best as I could, despite reading about 20 reviews of the production, to view it without preconceptions. I must say I came away astonished that anyone could see the opera as Anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, or in any way condoning Palestinian terrorism. The opera provides the strongest possible condemnation of terrorism, and the terrorists who killed Klinghoffer are depicted as monsters, with their rationalizations for the crimes the rationalizations and self-delusions of monsters. read more

SUKKOT: The Significance of Water, Land and the Agricultural Cycle
Matia Kam

The festival of Sukkot and the Eighth Day, Shmini Atzeret signify the end of the first month’s festivals in the Jewish calendar and the end of the agricultural year: “the year in Torah is an agricultural one, it begins with seeding, and the first rain.”[1] In Jewish tradition the year begins on Rosh Hashanah, yet in Torah Sukkot marks the end of the agricultural year, and the beginning of new planting cycle. Sukkot is the time of harvest in which farmers gather the crops [Exodus, 23:16]. Preparations for the new seeding of the fields awaken farmers concern about rain, not knowing if the new year would see rain, or would face drought; if there would be rains of blessing or disastrous storms. Accordingly, water rituals were performed in the Temple in Jerusalem on Sukkot, and the prayer for rain is customarily recited on the Eight day (Simhat Torah). The festival of Simhat Torah marks an end and a beginning, the end of a yearly cycle of Torah reading in the synagogue and a beginning in the reading of Genesis. read more

More on Jonah
Peter Eisenstadt

My favorite book of Tanach is Jonah; short, memorable, funny, profound, endlessly enigmatic. My favorite service of the Jewish year is Saturday afternoon Yom Kippur, when the Book of Jonah is read, when because you’re getting a bit loopy from this fasting business, the story is somehow making more and more sense––“why can’t a person spend three days in the belly of a big fish, after all, stranger things have happened.”

There are many interpretations of the Book of Jonah. Some see it as a satire, some as a stern moral lesson. Some say it is supposed to be humorous, some not. Some argue it is critique of religious parochialism. Some argue—this was a favorite of the rabbis—that if read correctly, it is a defense of religious parochialism, and the insincerity of the gentiles. Others see it as the paradigmatic story of repentance—surely that is why it is in the Yom Kippur liturgy. Or a dramatization of the tension between God’s justice and God’s mercy. Ayala offered a wonderful reading of Jonah a few days ago. Let me offer another way to look at it. read more

Jewish Women for Child Refugees (JWCR) Taking Action: a Plan to Send Lawyers to Artesia N.M.

The Crisis of Child Refugees from Central America
We all have heard about the recent crisis of children refugees from Central America seeking asylum in the United States. These children are fleeing unspeakable violence, and have risked their lives to come here, because remaining in their countries of origin is a death sentence.

A Jewish Commitment
While the question of immigration reform is a complicated and divisive issue in American politics, as Jews, we remember a time in our recent history when it was Jewish parents who put their children on trains and buses, hoping they would find safety at the end of their journey. read more