by Matthew Friedman | Jan 19, 2023 | Commentary, Essays, Jewish Life
There is a note of tragic foreboding in the twelfth chapter of the first Book of Kings. This is where “Israel rebelled against the house of David” and the Kingdom of Israel, united under Saul, David, and Solomon, is split asunder as Jeroboam, a head man of the tribe...
by Matthew Friedman | Jan 5, 2023 | Commentary, Jewish Life
Amnesia is perhaps the only blessing of the rapid-fire news cycle. These are, after all, dark and trying times, and, as one headline horror falls upon the last, they each wash away prior outrages rather than piling up to be faintly recalled in year-end news roundups…...
by Matthew Friedman | Oct 23, 2022 | Books, Jewish Life, Reviews
Aaron Samuel TamaresA Passionate Pacifist: Essential Writings of Aaron Samuel TamaresBen Yehuda Press At some point in 1877 or 1878, Aaron Samuel Tamares, then a young Cheder student in Grodno District of the Russian Empire, would to “stand glued for hours” before a...
by Matthew Friedman | Oct 12, 2022 | Commentary, Essays, Jewish Life
It stopped me dead in my tracks as I was walking down Newark Ave. in Jersey City one morning in the winter of 2016, on my way to the Grove Street Path station: Someone had painted a large black swastika, surrounded by repeated instances of the doppelte Siegrune icon...
by Matthew Friedman | May 27, 2022 | Essays, Jewish Life
I am not an optimist by inclination. I was raised Jewish in the 1960s and 1970s, and learned about the full enormity of the Shoah from people who experienced it. There were Nella Lacks, and Mr. Preisler at summer camp, who had the numbers on their arms; so did Mr....
by Matthew Friedman | May 22, 2022 | Books, Jewish Life, Reviews
The Canvas and Other StoriesSalomea Perl, translated by Ruth MurphyBen Yehuda Press There is always great pleasure in the discovery of a new author – the rush of jouissance upon hearing a new literary voice for the first time, the delicious anticipation of hearing it...