The Holocaust, the Fiction of International Law, and the Necessity of a Self-Reliant Israel
“A moral code upheld by a narrow elite whose sense of self seems unaffected by half a million dead Syrians.”
November 29, 2018
Theodor Herzl’s “The Menorah” and the Connection between Jewish Nationalism and Jewish Faith
For Herzl, Zionism was not merely about providing an escape from anti-Semitism.
In a short story published in December 1897—a few months after the First Zionist Congress—Theodor Herzl described a European Jew who, after going through adulthood indifferent to his people and to the religion of his ancestors, decides to “to return to Judaism.” He therefore, for the first time in many years, lights Hanukkah candles with his family and reflects on the holiday’s meaning. Analyzing this very short piece of fiction, titled “The Menorah,” Daniel Polisar explains that for Herzl Zionism was not only about providing an escape from anti-Semitism, but about making possible a renewal of Jewishness itself. Nor was Herzl the strict secularist he is sometimes imagined to be, but someone deeply invested in the Jewish religion, albeit in an idiosyncratic way. (Interview by Alan Rubenstein. Audio, 48 minutes. Options for download and streaming are available at the link below.)
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Login or SubscribeNovember 29, 2018
Hizballah Is Trying to Take Over the Lebanese Economy
The next step in turning Lebanon into Hizballah and Hizballah into Lebanon.
The Vulgar Marxism of Middle East Analysts
Man does not live on bread alone.
The American Press’s Predictable Indifference to the Anti-Semitic Attack in Los Angeles
Some attacks on Jews are not like others.
Theodor Herzl’s “The Menorah” and the Connection between Jewish Nationalism and Jewish Faith
For Herzl, Zionism was not merely about providing an escape from anti-Semitism.