Last June, Jane Eisner participated in a private roundtable discussion at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem about Israel’s Jewish identity. What came out of the talks was the sense that Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora face a similar challenge — how to be a modern people in a modern world while holding…
In what would become an iconic display of mournful resolve after the twin towers fell, members of Congress who had gathered on the steps of the Capitol for a press conference on the evening of September 11, 2001, burst into a spontaneous chorus of “God Bless America.” Like many Americans watching that night, I was…
From its creation in 1918 to its unofficial adoption as anthem for the fallen of 9/11, “God Bless America” has had quite a history. Here are some of the highlights. August 19, 1918 Cut from the finale of “Yip, Yip, Yaphank,” which opened at New York’s Century Theatre. November 10, 1938 Radio premiere, on “The Kate Smith…
In her recent piece “The ‘Unaffiliated’ Danger Within,” the Forward’s editor, Jane Eisner, cites the growing numbers of Jews who do not engage personally with Jewish communal life. Eisner raises the troubling question of how these numbers will affect the future of American Jewry, implying that the answer is intra-Jewish outreach. Eisner says, “Many non-Orthodox…
As online titans compete to deliver instant maps to smartphones, the Library of Congress in Washington is focusing attention on an antique “cosmology” printed in 1507 that serves as America’s birth certificate. The black-and-white map created by Martin Waldseemuller, a French cleric, was the first time the name America had appeared on any map. Waldseemuller…
The American director of an overseas study program was stabbed outside the gates of the United States embassy in Cairo on Thursday. Chris Stone, head of the Center for Arabic Study Abroad, was set upon by an attacker and seriously wounded. The injuries were later said to be not life-threatening. “We are all devastated by…
Israeli citizens will not mourn the absence of former defense minister Ehud Barak from their recently installed government, based on his domestic unpopularity. But the same may not be true in Washington, Barak’s real power base. In the often tense relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama, it is Barak who, more…
Anyone wishing to understand the shifting realities of American Jewish life has reason to celebrate this month. After a four-year hiatus, the American Jewish Year Book is back in print. This is no small thing. Begun in 1899, the annual volume was for 108 years the essential source of facts and figures on Jewish community…
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