Ben Cohen
Assange’s anti-Semitism revisited
When the fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange first holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London seven years ago, “Brexit” was an unknown word, Donald Trump was still hosting “The Apprentice,” and the Iran...
In South Africa, one step forward, two steps back
“Not as much as we had hoped, but we have advanced nonetheless!” With these words, the “” of South Africa last week greeted the news that the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) top decision-making...
Sarah Halimi’s anti-Semitic murderer disappears behind a smokescreen
During the prosecution of Jared Lee Loughner—the shooter sentenced to life imprisonment for the January 2011 murder of six people and the wounding of 13, including his intended target Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, at a...
25 Years after the AMIA bombing, justice is again denied
This July, Argentina’s Jewish community will mark the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, in which 85 people were murdered and hundreds more were seriously wounded. It...
‘What must be said:’ An enduring anti-Semitic trope
When the late German writer Günter Grass decided, seven years ago, to publicly denounce Israel as the greatest threat to the planet’s existence, he chose the medium of poetry to do so. Starting from...
Silent majority needs encouragement in fight against anti-Semitism
For anyone unaware of Europe’s anti-Semitism problem, CNN’s “Anti-Semitism in Europe Poll 2018,” released this week, would have made for grim reading on many levels.
Polling 7,000 respondents in seven European countries, the survey revealed that one...
Putin plays with the Holocaust
Back in January, the unlikely figure of Paddington Bear—the cuddly, bright-eyed cub much adored by young children down the years—ran afoul of the Russian government. As part of its policy of limiting the influence...
‘Anti-Semitism upholds white supremacy’
On a sunny afternoon last Tuesday in Pittsburgh, about 200 demonstrators gathered outside the JCC in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, a short distance from the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in Pittsburgh where, on...
The connection between WWI armistice and WWII Kristallnacht
Two grimly sobering anniversaries fall in November. On the 9th and 10th, we will mark the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht—the orgy of murder and violence that devastated Jewish communities across Nazi Germany in 1938....
Yahya Sinwar explains how Hamas hasn’t changed
In the weeks since footage emerged of British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn insinuating that native-born British Jews have a feeble grasp of English irony, lo and behold, I’ve been spotting ironies everywhere.
This week,...