Letters, Spring 2015
Stubborn Soul, Animal or Vegetable?, Life and Literature, David and Goliath
Lincoln and the Jews
Lincoln encountered a surprising number of Jews in his life. Throughout, he seems to have treated them with the benevolence and absence of prejudice one would expect from the Great Emancipator.
Live Wire
Bellow’s not so innocent knock in The Adventures of Augie March is generally taken as the moment when Jews barged into American literature without apology.
Love in the Shadow of Death
This is a sad story, one that begins with Sarah Wildman’s discovery among the papers of her grandfather, a physician in Massachusetts, of a file of letters dating back to 1939–1942.
The Abrams Case and Justice Holmes’ Philo-Semitism
In 1919 Oliver Wendell Holmes changed his mind and in so doing transformed the law of free speech.
The Fifth Question
Whatever kind of Passover Seder one attends, there is a fifth question, usually whispered, that arises some time after the first four are asked . . .
Unsettling Days
Assaf Gavron’s The Hilltop is a refreshing reminder that traditional realism is still an effective vehicle of insight into contemporary society and politics.
A View from Reservoir Hill
A shul that never left the Old Jewish Neighborhood lives, volunteers, and prays through the recent crisis in Baltimore.
An Al Schwimmer Production
When the ancient Spartans sought to aid a friendly state in distress, they did not send troops or arms or money.
Desk Pounding and Jewish Leadership
The trouble between Wise and Silver came to a head at the end of 1944, when Silver, over the Roosevelt administration’s objections, pressed for a congressional resolution endorsing Zionist aims—while Wise was quietly assuring the White House that he would do nothing for the resolution against the president’s wishes.