By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The images and colors of childhood sometimes determine later pictures of life. In my childhood, during the big Soviet holidays, an airship hovered over the city with four portraits on its huge body. One of the men portrayed in the portraits surpassed the other three in the amount of […]
On the Way to Israel Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Opinion
By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The narrow corridor of the Physics Department of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, was strewn with doors all bearing plaques with the names of professors in Hebrew. I walked down the corridor, seeing “Professor …” everywhere. When I reached the very end, I noticed a
One Handshake Away From Albert Einstein Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Israel, Science, Medicine, & Education
By Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — Johann Sebastian Bach composed six French Suites that began to be performed decades after the death of their author. In 2004, the non-musical French Suite, a novel about World War II, was published by the publishing house Denoel, translated into 38 languages. The book won France’s second most prestigious
80 Years On, Remembering ‘French Suite’ Author and Holocaust Victim Irène Némirovsky Read More »
Alex Gordon, Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Holocaust, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — In postwar Germany, the humiliating burden of enormous contributions created an enormous economic crisis, hyperinflation, and impoverishment. Everything was devalued and the demand for antisemitism grew. During the Weimar Republic, articles accusing Jews of pushing the country into war and losing it were increasing in number. In 1922, the
The Murder of An ‘Elder of Zion’ Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The Red Army liberated Kiev from German forces on November 6, 1943. My father was not conscripted because of a congenital heart condition. Because of his illness, he was always breathing heavily. His breathing became even heavier when he and my mother, returned to Kiev after two and a
The Return to Kiev Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — In 1919, the 1918 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to German scientist Fritz Haber “for the synthesis of ammonia from its constituent elements.” Ekstrand, president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, said that Haber’s discoveries were extremely important for agriculture and the prosperity of mankind. Scientists of
The Complex Legacy of German Chemist Fritz Haber Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — The German historian and political scientist Otto-Ernst Schüddekopf wrote, “Walter Rathenau (the future German Foreign Minister, assassinated by the Nationalists in 1922 as one of the ‘ Elders of Zion’ – A.G.), who visited Radek in a Berlin prison in 1919 as an authority and read him his elegant
The Bitter Laughter and Tragic Fate of the First Writer of Anti-Soviet Jokes Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — “Kleptomania” in Greek is a morbid craving for theft, “kleptocracy” is the power of thieves, “kleptopatria” is the theft of the homeland, the taking away of the country from people born and raised in it, whose ancestors have lived in it for generations, people brought up on its culture,
Burden of High Expectations, or Kleptopatria: That Was in Kiev Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, Jewish HistoryBy Alex Gordon HAIFA, Israel — Russia is often in the news, since it is not only at home, but also in many places around the globe. However, antisemitism in the Russian Federation has long been unheard of. To understand where it has disappeared to and what the prospects of its appearance are, we need
Unforgettable Antisemitism Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon, Ph.D HAIFA, Israel — The Jews came out of Egypt long ago, they came out of the Soviet Union, but they did not go out of fashion at all: at every stage of history someone was bound to seek to throw them into the sea. The Jews, however, had already been to
Democracy from the Perspective of a Native of a Totalitarian State: From Kiev to Israel Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon, Ph.D HAIFA, Israel — Many years ago, I was in the German city of Cologne and went to a station restaurant for lunch. I was surprised when I saw “Chicken Kiev-style” on the menu. I was surprised because I was born and raised in Kiev, and I knew nothing about Chicken Kiev-style.
Confessions of a Foreign Intelligence Agent’s Son Read More »
Alex Gordon, Holocaust, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon, Ph.D HAIFA, Israel — During the Russia-Ukraine war a history is made, which is important in itself, but which cannot undo the history of the relationship between Ukrainians and Jews. Ukraine is bleeding, but this misfortune does not blot out the rivers of blood shed by Jews in Ukraine throughout its history.
The Jewish Outcome of the Slavic War Read More »
Alex Gordon, Holocaust, International, Middle East, OpinionBy Alex Gordon, Ph.D HAIFA, Israel — The view of Ukraine as part of Russia, captured in the etymology of the Russian word “Ukraine,” is at the heart of the aggression: the “periphery,” the “border region” of the Moscow state, the “edge,” the “vassal” revolted against the “suzerain.” And the “suzerain” brings down on the
Putin’s ‘Secondary Antisemitism’ Read More »
Alex Gordon, International, OpinionBy Alex Gordon, Ph.D HAIFA, Israel — When I was a university student, I had to take an exam on the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The students were afraid of not only the exam but also the lecturer administering the test — a student-hater, and a tough, unpleasant man who
The World Revolution Read More »
Alex Gordon, International