I usually address issues regarding culture and music, but recent events compel me to speak out regarding a particular matter. I am deeply outraged by the news that an extremist clergyman in my country plans to commemorate the September 11 attacks by burning the Holy Quran. I am offended by this both as an American [...]

CAIRO: Charged and convicted of fraud, the president of Egypt’s small Jewish community has allegedly fled the country after being handed a three-year jail sentence. Carmen Weinstein, 82, was convicted earlier this month of allegedly selling real estate property she did not own. The court fined her more than $8,000 and sentenced her to three [...]

EAST MEREDITH, NY: As Arab-Jewish ties in Israel fluctuate they mirror larger regional tensions. The raid on the Gaza flotilla may impact Israel’s external relations with Turkey but they are also likely to introduce new significant unknowns into the already complicated relations between Jews and Arabs within Israel. Overcoming discrimination, the Palestinian citizens of Israel [...]

“Only the mob and the elite can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself. The masses have to be won by propaganda.” – Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism According to Ron Rosenbaum, damning new critiques of the work of political philosopher Hannah Arendt have officially exposed her, alongside her philosophical mentor and longtime [...]

Dear friends: it has come to my attention that an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal dated October 26, 2009, entitled “Why Are Egypt’s Liberals Anti-Semitic?” has reportedly quoted me at a conference I was invited to attend in the city of Port Said shortly after my release from prison after contesting President Hosni Mubarak [...]

CAIRO: An American citizen was visiting downtown Cairo’s Jewish synagogue when the maintenance crew inside the temple attacked and assaulted the young man. According to him, he was “grabbed, pushed, hit, had a chair nearly thrown” at him and was then booted from the Rosh Hashana synagogue, which is heavily guarded by Egyptian police. The [...]