The customs officers were taking apart my radio – apparently looking for diamonds. Four hours had passed. The inspection was nearing its end. My freedom was drawing nearer. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Fiction: A Piece of Art Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Jewish FictionMy desire to help him he perceived as a plot against his freedom, against his personality, against his human dignity. My acquaintance was offended that I was messing with her head. [Alex Gordon]
My Matchmaking Disaster Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Lifestyles, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USANachum was an awkward provincial boy with a gentle soul. He was drawn to beauty and was fascinated by the art of music and by my aunt’s appearance. He idolized her and fell under her power. At that time, she was a beautiful young woman, ambitious, bossy, capricious, and everything worked out for her: she was successful in her career and in winning men’s hearts. However, she was at the mercy of national tradition and married a Jew, Nachum, without loving him. [Alex Gordon]
Musicians in the Family Led Lives of Disharmony Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined ContributorsAfter my repatriation to Israel, I traveled to France frequently for research work in physics. There I met a French physics professor, a Jew who knew my stepfather and claimed that I could obtain French citizenship because I had French historical roots. I loved the language and culture of France, but I preferred to be an Israeli, if only because of my thoughts on “Where is France going?” [Alex Gordon]
Why I Didn’t Become French Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Israel, Jewish History, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors“The delegation was met by soldiers and officers, […] with what is called a hostility: ‘Half the city (Kiev), all the Jews must be slaughtered. […] All three million Jews must be kicked out of Ukraine.’ Shocked by such sentiments of the Ukrainian troops, the delegation appealed to Petliura to prevent pogroms and bloodbaths in Kiev. Petliura replied that ‘he could not guarantee anything; the soldiers’ sentiments are known to him, but he sees here a thirst for revenge, and not antisemitism… [Alex Gordon]
OpEd: Honoring Ukraine’s Mass Murderer Simon Petliura is an Obscenity Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined ContributorsSelf-criticism is inherent in a tolerant society that respects the human being as such and reflects on its mistakes and imperfections. Self-criticism is alien to an authoritarian society. Nations that are satisfied with themselves and look to other nations for faults and blame for their failures are stagnant. Jews are dissatisfied, hence they develop. [Alex Gordon]
A Serious Essay about European Jewish Humor Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Israel, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Trivia, Humor & Satire
The silencing of his Jewishness has characterized his entire tenure as president. Mentioning his Jewishness became taboo. Benjamin Disraeli, a baptized Jew, was Prime Minister of Great Britain and openly discussed Jewish issues and wrote novels with Jewish characters. Léon Blum was Prime Minister of France and spoke freely about his Jewishness. Bruno Kraisky was Chancellor of Austria and made no secret of his Jewishness. Walter Rathenau was Foreign Minister of Germany and spoke proudly of his Jewish ancestry. None of them were ashamed of their Jewishness as Zelensky was. [Alex Gordon]
OpEd: Zelensky Keeps a Distance from His Jewishness and from Israel Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Israel, Jewish History, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Pasternak’s feelings about Jews and Jewry in the first 22 years of his life are ̶ negative: humiliation, oppression, pogroms. A different vision of the Jewish problem was revealed to him in Marburg. Pasternak encountered Jewish thinking for the first time in his life: Cohen’s teachings were based on the ethics of Judaism. Plagued by Jewish complexes in Russia, he was apparently shocked by the position of the Jewish thinker and rejected Cohen’s offer to continue his philosophical studies. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Boris Pasternak Avoided, Denied, His Jewishness Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined ContributorsWhy didn’t I become a socialist? Soviet socialism destroyed my family and I could not love it. But it turned out that I disliked socialism for the same reason I did not become a musician: my aunt’s piano also left Kiev. Instead of using my absolute musical ear for music, I had to use it to listen to the atonal music of wailing, to the unmelodic moans and gloomy chords of the lamentations of the Soviet Jews. [Alex Gordon]
OpEd: The ‘Music’ of Socialism Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, International, Israel, Jewish History, Lifestyles, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Opinion, Staff and Bylined Contributors
In 1908, Mühsam moved to Munich. Augustin Sawhi, a Spanish anarchist, recalls: “Within a few years, he became well known in the artistic world of Munich for his carefree, witty lifestyle. […] Mühsam was considered the leader of Munich’s bohemians.” [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Erich Kurt Mühsam, Murdered Bohemian Poet Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors
His books probe which type of Jew serves the nation more faithfully – the court Jew Joseph Süss Oppenheimer from Jew Süss; Yehuda ibn Ezra, the favorite of King Alfonso VIII from The Spanish Ballad; the assimilated and estranged historian and writer, the collaborationist Joseph Flavius in The Jewish War trilogy; Jephthah, the leader and fighter for the national interest in Jephthah and His Daughter; or the revolutionary leader Thomas Wendt (Ernst Toller) in The Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighteen? [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Lion Feuchtwanger, the Cosmopolite Read More »
Alex Gordon, Antisemitism, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA
There is no missionary in Judaism, which sharply limits the mobilization potential of this religion. Therefore, in the Khazar Khaganate, in which only a part of the elite accepted Judaism, there could not be an intensive violent spread of religion, similar to what took place in Christianity and Islam. Therefore, the Jews were so few among the Khazars that they could not by themselves be a source of intensive spread of the Jewish religion. [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Arthur Kösztler and the 13th Jewish Tribe Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Jewish History, Staff and Bylined ContributorsHe published the book The Raged Reporter in Russia: – Czars. Popes. Bolsheviks (1927). In 1928-1929, the communist Kisch traveled to the United States under an assumed name and wrote the book American Paradise (1930). [Alex Gordon]
Jewish Biography: Egon Erwin Kisch, The Raged Reporter Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Jewish History, News Media, Staff and Bylined ContributorsLenard and Stark were a member of a group of 30 physicists who put forward the concept of “German physics.” They rejected the new quantum physics and the theory of relativity as dogmatic theories irrelevant to reality. They argued that the correct approach to explaining physical phenomena should be based on classical physics, which was being crowded out by the “false” theory of relativity and quantum mechanics invented by the Jews. [Alex Gordon]
One Hundred Years of ‘Jewish Physics’ Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA