Response ·
The Man Who Inspired American Jews to Embrace Zionism and Americans to Fight Hitler
By Rick RichmanAbraham Cahan's still-relevant vision of America's place in the world, and the Jews' place in America.
Rick Richman
Rick Richman is the author of Racing Against History: The 1940 Campaign for a Jewish Army to Fight Hitler and And None Shall Make Them Afraid: Eight Stories of the Modern State of Israel, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in Biography.
Latest Content
Response ·
The Whys and Wherefores of Hollywood’s Israel Distortions
By Rick RichmanSure, it's unrealistic to expect complete historical accuracy from the movies. But the inaccuracies all bespeak a more fundamental, and worrying, concern.
Monthly Essay ·
Israel Through Hollywood’s Lens
By Rick RichmanHollywood is full of Jews. So why is it so insistent on universalizing the story of the Jewish state?
Response ·
Jabotinsky’s Novels, and How They Relate to His Politics
By Rick RichmanJabotinsky was the rare political leader who devoted as much time to artistic pursuits as to his political activities. What can be learned from them?
Observation ·
The Triumph and Tragedy of Abba Eban
By Rick RichmanSeventy-three years ago this week, Israel appointed a thirty-three-year-old former professor as its UN representative. The rest is history—and bears a lesson for today.
Response ·
The Mystery of the So-Called “New Moses” Endures
By Rick RichmanWe should appreciate Theodor Herzl's lightning-storm emergence, even if we'll never really know what caused it.
Monthly Essay ·
The Mystery of Theodor Herzl
By Rick RichmanA young secular Viennese writer had an experience 125 years ago that would lead him to change Jewish history forever. He could never explain it. Can anyone else?
Observation ·
What the First Senate Hearing for a Supreme Court Nominee Shows about Today’s Confirmation Process
By Rick RichmanThe possibility of another contentious confirmation hearing recalls the first the Senate ever held, which just happened to be for the first Jewish justice to sit on the court.
Observation ·
The Hollywood Legend Who Mobilized the English Language on Behalf of the Jews of Europe and Israel
By Rick RichmanBen Hecht invented the gangster movie. He also prodded Roosevelt into saving thousands of Jews from the Nazis, and marshaled reluctant American Jews into becoming Zionists.
Observation ·
One Who Fought Back: Herschel Grynszpan and the Holocaust
By Rick RichmanA new book gives reason to reflect on the little-known story of the Jewish teenager who assassinated a German diplomat in 1938, an act that served as the pretext for Kristallnacht.
Observation ·
Could Jewish and Zionist Leaders Have Done More to Rescue the Jews of Poland?
By Rick RichmanThat is the question a new history of Polish Jewry in the 1930s asks and—with one large exception—answers well.
Observation ·
When American Jews Fought over the Balfour Declaration
By Rick RichmanDespite everything that has changed, today's internal Jewish divisions eerily echo those from exactly a century ago.
Observation ·
David Ben-Gurion’s 1940 Mission to Rouse the Fighting Spirit of American Jews
By Rick RichmanAs millions of Jews fell under the Nazi yoke, Zionism's foremost leader came to America with one goal. He didn't achieve it.
Observation ·
The 80th Anniversary of the Two-State Solution
By Rick RichmanIn 1937, an official British report first proposed the partition of Mandate Palestine. The story behind it helps to explain why the Arab-Jewish conflict remains unresolved.
Observation ·
The Story of Obama’s Ransom Payment to Iran Gets Worse
By Rick RichmanAmerica paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash—funds that by law were not to be released unless and until Iran paid what it owed to American victims of its terrorism.
Observation ·
What Would Brandeis Do?
By Rick RichmanConsidering the achievement of the American Jewish legal giant, a new biography also asks what he would make of Citizens United and other contemporary issues.
