Leonard Fein
By Leonard Fein
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Opinion Unemployment Is an ‘Ongoing Traumatic Stress Disorder’
On a flight back from Israel several weeks ago, I had a brief conversation with my seatmate, an automotive parts salesman from London. We talked a bit about life in David Cameron’s England and then switched to Israel. That is when he startled me. I’d been describing how, within one 24-hour period, I’d heard the…
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Opinion Treating J Street With a Little Respect
What happens when candor collides with civility? These days, discussions of contentious subjects routinely begin with a caution: We should be civil in our disagreements. But if we are to be courteous and respectful toward those with whom we disagree, how do we avoid lapsing into the anemia of political correctness? Respect? I am happy…
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Opinion Is it 1948 or 1967?
One way to understand the Israel/Palestine impasse: Either it is 1947/8, or it is 1967. If it is 1947/48, the argument is about narratives and refugees; if it is 1967, the argument is about borders and an end to the conflict. In 1947, the United Nations endorsed a two-state solution to the Palestine question. In…
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Opinion The Twin Traumas of Gaza and Sderot
“You cannot begin to imagine the fear that infects everyone here. Even before Cast Lead, we felt it. But then, when the bombing began, it was devastating. And no one can know whether at any moment it will resume.” Those are the words of Dr. Eyad Sarraj, the senior psychiatrist in Gaza, a man widely…
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Opinion Three Mountains, Different Views
Jerusalem’s Har HaZikaron, or the Mount of Rememberance, where Yad Vashem, Israel’s principal Holocaust museum, is situated, is the venue for the annual formal state ceremony that marks the beginning of Yom HaShoah V’Hagvurah — Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. Holocaust survivors, families of Righteous Gentiles; some thousands of soldiers, and diverse groups of citizens,…
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Opinion A Spring Visit to Israel
A journalist friend tells me I am wrong to talk of “a Tel Aviv bubble,” a common expression that refers to the quite distinctive café society of Israel’s megalopolis and also implies, dismissively, that Tel Aviv separates itself from the Israeli hinterland, is more open, more casual, sexier, more — well, more Mediterranean. But my…
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Opinion Refusing To Let Go of Tomorrow
With my eyes closed, just listening to the singing, it is hard to imagine that I am not, in fact, at a Kabbalat Shabbat service at B’nai Jeshurun, the Upper West Side’s deservedly fabled synagogue. But on opening my eyes and glancing out the open door, the illusion is revealed. I am in fact in…
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Opinion The Real and the Virtual
For those who are still skeptical of the power of the “virtual” world — and not just its power to mobilize people, but its power to change how we see and think, who we are — there’s this. For the more than 2,000 participants in this audacious experience, the line between the virtual and the…
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