The Karajan Problem, or Denazifying my Musical Life
I was sitting on my couch some years ago, listening with my eyes closed to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The stereo was turned up just a bit too loud for the neighbours, I think, but I could feel the low strings and the tympani resonate through my body like a...
Commentary
Essays
Jewish Life
Music
Behind the Lines
Reviews
Short Stories
Photo Essays
Remembering the Queen of Canada
I recall a college history professor once saying that Richard Coeur de Lion is remembered as one...
Shooting the Moon
Artemis 1 sits waiting on the pad at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39B, shackled to earth by...
John Fetterman is a Slob, and That Matters
John Fetterman is a slob. The Democratic Senate candidate for Pennsylvania has been turning up at...
Graven Images and Grim Realities
“Il ne faut pas toucher aux idoles,” Gustave Flaubert wrote in Madame Bovary, “la dorure en reste...
Standing Up to History
I am not an optimist by inclination. I was raised Jewish in the 1960s and 1970s, and learned about...
America is Special: A Reflection on Mass Violence
At this point, I really don’t have much to say or add about the mass shooting in Uvalde, and all I...
A Canvas Sewn With Pearls: Recovering the Voice of Salomea Perl
The Canvas and Other StoriesSalomea Perl, translated by Ruth MurphyBen Yehuda Press There is...
What’s In a Label? History, Meaning and the Power of Words
What’s in a label? That question has been on my mind since Audie Wood’s most recent column first...
Welcome to the United States of Christ
I can hear my mother’s voice: “You shouldn’t say things like that.” Nancy Salter, who died 16...
The Shadow of the Gun: Felix Salten’s Dark Warning in a New Translation of Bambi
“Two leaves fell from the great oak tree at the edge of the meadow.” Thus begins…
“Grooming” is the Blood Libel All Dressed Up for 2022
The shabby old man was a “loathsome reptile, engendered in the slime and darkness through which he...
“Why is This Night Different:” The Antisemitic Violence of the Christian Seder
Beth Cole had not yet decided whether or not she would make a brisket for the Passover Seder this...
Vladimir Putin Is a Bond Villain, and Not Even One of the Good Ones
Did Russian boys grow up during the Cold War dreaming of someday being Blofeld? I can imagine a...
A BDS for Russia
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is sending negotiators to meet with a Russian delegation at...
Monster Trucks! Canada’s MAGA Moment
They came in their thousands – by the tens of thousands, if you believe them – belching diesel...
Maus, Memory, and Resistance
I spent much of the day rereading Art Spiegelman’s brilliant graphic novel Maus. It felt like the...
It Is Not Enough to Condemn Antisemitism – We Must Confront It at the Source
President Biden was absolutely clear in his comments following the hostage-taking incident at the...
The Absurd Horsemen of Our Apocalypse
On 2 January 2016, a band of armed anti-government extremists occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge...
Max Tannenbaum and the Gift of the Three Wisemans
Daylight had already begun to fade in Bailey’s Falls as Mina Fuchs arrived home from her school...
Image of Madiba: Remembering Nelson Mandela
I wept when my mother died in the winter of 2006, and when my father died in the spring of 2012....
Illuminating Chanukah, Part II: Lighting the Lights
Beyond the heroic myth of the Maccabees, a deeper understanding the history of Chanukah, and of the context from which it emerged can offer clues to our diversity and a way to make it ever more relevant to the 21st century…
Illuminating Chanukah, Part I: The Legend of the Maccabees
While the traditional story has provided us with comfort and a sense of unity for generations, it vastly simplifies and elides the complexity of our history…
Tomorrow Belongs to Them
There’s a scene about halfway through the 1972 film musical Cabaret that never fails to give me...
Joe Biden’s Democrats Hate the Left… Of Course
Writing in the Washington Post this week, Olivier Knox left no doubt that the left wing of the...
The Watershed Moment of Occupy Wall Street
The man with the megaphone was getting a response. Standing in front of the Wells Fargo Bank at...
White Terrorism is “Just One of Those Things”
A white man wearing a Stars and Stripes bandana threw a Molotov cocktail into the Travis County...
Orange Shirt Day: It Is Not My Shirt to Wear
I am not wearing an orange shirt today, like some kind of grinning Canadian politician, hoping...
AOC, the Dress… And Desire
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Met Gala dress blew-up the Internet last week. For a brief moment, the...
Out of a Clear Blue Sky: The Legacy of 9/11
My first memory of that day is of the sky. It was clear and bright, and as I walked along de...
The Ecumenism of Hate
I am enraged. The decision by the Supreme Court of the United States last week declining to hear...
So, Nu? The Cultural Politics of Yiddish in the 21st Century
YidLife Crisis, an award-winning online comedy series featuring fast-talking Montreal funnymen...
Narrating the Fall of Kabul
The scenes from Kabul are uncanny; specters from the past which are simultaneously shocking and...
Ghosts of Olympics Past
I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of elation on 24 September 1988 as I watched Ben Johnson...
I’m Rubber, You’re Glue: Semiotic Nihilism and the American Right
The crowd demonstrating outside the Massachusetts Department of Education offices on Pleasant...
“Putting the Public Good in the Trust of Capitalism:” Lila Corwin Berman Explodes Jewish Philanthropic Myths
Tzedakah, the obligation to provide for the less-fortunate of the community, is one of the signal ethical values of Jewish life…
“Off the Radar:” White, Christian America’s Unremarkable Bigotry
On Saturday, a 28-year-old man crashed a stolen truck into a house in Winthrop, MA, and shot and...
matt@matthew-friedman.com