Don’t Expect a Saudi Ambassador to Jerusalem Any Time Soon
Nonetheless, there are signs of hope.
November 27, 2017
Hannah Arendt, Adolf Eichmann, and the Perversity of Brilliance
Norman Podhoretz and the question of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust.
In Eichmann in Jerusalem, her 1963 report on the trial of the former SS director for Jewish affairs, the German-Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt portrayed her subject as an ordinary, mindless bureaucrat rather than a genocidal monster: an example of what she famously called the “banality of evil.” Norman Podhoretz responded with a decisive critique of her thesis, which appeared in Commentary under the title “Hannah Arendt on Eichmann: A Study in the Perversity of Brilliance.” In the essay, Podhoretz also took Arendt to task for her attack on Jewish communal leaders for what she describes as their complicity in the Holocaust, and for her contempt for Zionism. Ruth Wisse discusses the essay, its legacy, and its implications for today in conversation with Eric Cohen. (Audio, 43 minutes. Options for download and streaming are available at the link below.)
November 27, 2017
Hannah Arendt, Adolf Eichmann, and the Perversity of Brilliance
Norman Podhoretz and the question of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust.
For the First Time, the State Department Holds the PA Accountable
What Rex Tillerson’s demand that the PLO close its Washington office really means.
The U.S. Has Won Its First Victory over Islamic State. What’s Next?
What we’ve gotten right, and what we’ve gotten wrong.
Hedy Lamarr: The Jewish Actress Whose Technical Wizardry Made Wi-Fi Possible
Frequency switching.