by Matthew Friedman | May 4, 2022 | Essays, Politics
I can hear my mother’s voice: “You shouldn’t say things like that.” Nancy Salter, who died 16 years ago, was a brilliant writer and editor, a social worker, and an activist committed to social justice and the project of making the world a better place. She was also a...
by Matthew Friedman | May 1, 2022 | Books, Essays, Jewish Life
The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest Felix Salten, translated by Jack Zipes, with illustrations by Alenka Sottler Princeton University Press “Two leaves fell from the great oak tree at the edge of the meadow.” Thus begins the eighth chapter of Felix...
by Matthew Friedman | Apr 24, 2022 | Commentary, Jewish Life, Politics
The shabby old man was a “loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which he moved.” And he drew the boy, “a young friend of mine” he said, deeper into his clutches. He ensured that the innocent child “was seldom left alone; but was placed in...
by Matthew Friedman | Apr 15, 2022 | Essays, Features, Jewish Life
Beth Cole had not yet decided whether or not she would make a brisket for the Passover Seder this week. “I was going to bring the brisket, but I think I’m going to do a roast chicken, because I have to cook for, like, ten people,” she says. Besides, it isn’t her...
by Matthew Friedman | Mar 8, 2022 | Commentary
Did Russian boys grow up during the Cold War dreaming of someday being Blofeld? I can imagine a pubescent Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin emerging from the darkness of a 1965 screening of Thunderball at the Leningrad Odeon Theater, rubbing his hands together gleefully,...
