Russia’s Return to the Middle East, and What It Means for Israel
As Putin tries to supplant the U.S., Jerusalem must remain realistic.
October 13, 2016
Primo Levi’s Halting Return to Judaism
In his own view, he became a Jew at Auschwitz, and a Jewish writer after writing about it.
Reviewing the recently released English-language Complete Works of Primo Levi, Alvin Rosenfeld tackles the two major questions that remain about the Holocaust survivor, author, and chemist. Was his death in 1987 a suicide, as is the opinion of most biographers and the Italian authorities, or an accident? And to what extent should this assimilated and unbelieving Italian Jew, who famously declared “at Auschwitz I became a Jew,” be considered a Jewish writer? On the first question, Rosenfeld—basing himself not only on Levi’s correspondence and the accounts of his friends, but also on the literary evidence found in his final book, the haunted and guilt-ridden The Drowned and the Saved—sides with those who believe Levi’s death to have been self-inflicted. On the second, Rosenfeld writes:
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Attacks on the U.S. Navy Must Not Go Unpunished
An act of war by Iran against the United States.
Lying about Oslo, European Edition
The New York Times knows its European readers don’t want to hear about suicide bombings.
Primo Levi’s Halting Return to Judaism
In his own view, he became a Jew at Auschwitz, and a Jewish writer after writing about it.
The Dangers of Reading Too Little, or Too Much, into the Hebrew Bible
A philosopher’s approach.