Words For the Wise

Words For the Wise

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Right and wrong ways to fight antisemitism.
Gaza and antisemitism become issues in a small Hudson Valley village.
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Michael Balter
1
On the road in England: Corsham, a historic market town in Wiltshire, at the edge of the Cotswalds.
Second stop on our post-pandemic UK tour.
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Michael Balter
3
Utagawa Hiroshige at the British Museum.
"Artist of the open road."
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Michael Balter
2
The senior rabbi at my local temple speaks out about Israel's actions in Gaza.
I had not been to temple for sixty years. The time was right to return.
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Michael Balter
The many sides of Diane Arbus, at New York's Park Avenue Armory.
No one captured people on the margins of society like Arbus, and that is what she is best known for. But her focus was wide-ranging and deeply human.
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Michael Balter
Washington Post publishes names of many of the 18,500 children killed in Gaza.
Experts say the data is reliable and probably an undercount of the true death toll.
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Michael Balter
3
Jayne Mansfield and me.
I met her when I was about ten years old. It was an unforgettable moment, but not for the reasons you might think.
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Michael Balter
"So Long, Mom (I’m off to drop the bomb)" [Updated August 4]
Tom Lehrer is gone. Many members of younger generations may not even know who he was, but for boomers he was one of the first to challenge Cold War…
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Michael Balter
4
Jews Cry Out: Monday evening at the Israeli Consulate in New York City.
Jews have always been in the forefront of the fight against war crimes and other injustices, no matter who is committing them. This is what Judaic…
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Michael Balter
Israeli leaders say clearly that they are committing genocide in Gaza. We should take them at their word.
Israel is committing the sin of chillul hashem, the desecration of God's name.
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Michael Balter
4
Even the right-wing press knows genocide when it sees it. So should we all.
Those who use the Holocaust to throw smoke over a genocide deserve condemnation.
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Michael Balter
On the Revolutionary Road: Our local archaeology chapter takes a field trip to Fort Montgomery on the Hudson.
The American revolutionaries lost this battle of October 6, 1777 badly, but the writing was already on the wall for the British colonial army.
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Michael Balter
Words For the Wise
Words For the Wise
Politics, science, academia, #MeToo, investigations
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