Confronting Tonality: Or How I learned to Chill Out and (Mostly) Appreciate Sweetness
I came to avant-garde art music fairly early (and fairly easily), through the soundtrack album for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and my friendship with Robert Kermode. Robert had similarly obscure interests, and we played a game of trying to find the most...
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Israel’s Dirty War
After speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the telephone last week,...
The Jerusalem Cult
Flames rose from the area near the al-Aqsa Mosque on the plateau of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, a...
Elizabeth Warren is an Antisemite (Newsweek Told Me So)
I learned this week that Senator Elizabeth Warren is a “vicious” antisemite. The news was...
A Quantum of Justice?
The courtroom was silent when the jury returned from its deliberations and delivered its verdict:...
A Hope for Spring Renewal
Easter falls on the last day of Pesach this year, and the symmetry seems so perfect in my...
The Half-Million
This week began with the news that the United States had surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 deaths. It...
Ceremony of Innocence
At noon on Wednesday, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. will take the oath of office on the Capitol...
A Very American Putsch
The mob of maybe two thousand rioters, egged-on by the inflammatory rhetoric of their political...
Looking Out on the Feast of Stephen
My father and I arrived at Sam the Record Man in downtown Montreal around 10:30 am, after a late...
The War on Chanukah
The cashier smiled and wished me a “merry Christmas.” I scowled back. It was the week just after...
The White Poppy
November 11 is a day of reflection, sorrow and gratitude for me. At the eleventh hour, of the...
“Unity” and “Healing” at What Price?
“This is the time to heal in America,” Joe Biden said in his victory speech Saturday night. “I...
It’s the Morning After… And It’s Worse Than You Think
Whatever happens over the next days and weeks, as absentee and mail-in ballots are tallied, as the...
Jeremy Corbyn and the Banality of Antisemitism
I have been reading comments in social media from many of my Gentile friends, colleagues, and...
Boiling a Frog: The Death of Democracy by Degrees
On this day eighty years ago, with no possibility of escape and death in a Nazi concentration camp...
Jewish Is Not a Race: The Passing of Jessica Krug
If you know one thing about Jessica Krug, it is that she is a white woman who passed herself off...
Hunting Season
This image will surely be an indelible icon of our historical moment: A white teenager strolls...
Read This To the End: An Essay on Politics
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s selection of Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate landed in...
Our Totalitarian Moment
A right-wing extremist fired ten shots into a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Austin...
When Words Mean Violence: Nick Cannon and Antisemitic Libel
Comedian and celebrity television host Nick Cannon interviewed Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin...
The Unsinkable Donald Trump
This one is going to sink him. This broadside hit below the waterline, and Trump going down!...
“Aux Barricades!” The White Male Radical’s Melodrama of Commitment
It was sometime between the night of May 28, when the 3rd Precinct station went up in flames in...
This Policeman is not Your Friend
“Always remember,” my first-grade teacher said as she gestured to Constable Vallières, standing to...
Reflections on Police Violence
“Is this the Revolution?” I asked, half in jest, half in hope. Demonstrators protesting the murder...
No Rest For the Wicked: One Year of The Typescript
I ran a half-marathon yesterday in the early morning light, all by myself. After 13.1 miles, and...
Building a Better Biden
Now that Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the Democratic primary and endorsed Joe Biden, the...
Endless Sunday: Coronavirus and the End of Place
Every day is Sunday. The parking lot at the busiest commuter station in Mass Bay Transit...
Ecstasies of the Viral Apocalypse
“Just purchased 4 rolls of toilet paper, kinda feel like Indiana Jones.” My friend had just...
The Jew Who Came to Dinner
Elizabeth Warren has faced entrenched sexism at every turn in her personal, professional, and...
Exploiting the Holocaust For Shits n’Giggles
The opening scene of Hunters, the new series from Amazon Prime starring Al Pacino and Logan Lerman...
Politics In a Dark Place
If the war between the supporters of Democratic Party candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie...
This Year Will Be Better… Right?
Do you remember when 2016 was “the worst year ever,” and we looked forward to the possibilities...
Confronting the Star Wars Myth
I had come to a multiplex in the Boston suburbs on Christmas morning expecting to enjoy a movie...
Navigating the Festival of Lights
“And now, Matthew will come up and tell us about Chanukah,” Miss Shultz said. “It’s the Jewish...
The Unbearable Surreality of Being Jewish in America
Wednesday, December 11 – or 13 Kislev in the Jewish calendar – felt unbearably surreal. I felt as...
“He Was Hunting Us!” After December 6
I got home from work a little earlier than usual that day, but the sun had already set an hour...
matt@matthew-friedman.com