October 15, 2014 Where the Hell Are the Hell’s Angels When We Need Them? Responding to reports that members of Dutch motorcycle gangs are going to Iraq to join the Peshmerga and fight ISIS/ISIL, public prosecutor spokesman Wim de Bruin has announced that “joining a foreign armed force was previously punishable, now it’s no longer forbidden. . . . You just can’t join a fight against the Netherlands.” Head […] Blog
October 13, 2014 Understanding Migration For a masterful, though I fear too optimistic, review essay about studies of migration, immigration, and rights debates, see Roger Waldinger, “Moving Right Along,” in the “American Interest,” at http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/10/12/moving-right-along/ Blog
October 12, 2014 Who Says Atheists Don’t Believe in Anything? According to recent polls, belief in extraterrestrials varies by religion–or the lack of it: • 55 percent of Atheists • 44 percent of Muslims • 37 percent of Jews • 36 percent of Hindus • 32 percent of Christians Of course, atheists also tend to believe in the rationality and perfectibility of homo sapiens–a supreme […] Blog
October 10, 2014 Have We Moved on From Civility? And if So, What is Next? Have We Moved on from Civility? October 14, 2014LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus will deliver a public lecture at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Center for Professional and Applied Ethics on the question, “Have We Moved on From Civility? And If So, What is Next?” Read more. Blog Anti-Semitism
October 8, 2014 Triangulating Dutch Jewry’s Downfall The Hague’s Van Ostade Housing Project—once part of a traditional Jewish neighborhood—now belongs to a transformed Schilderswijk which the Dutch increasingly know as the “Sharia Triangle.” There aren’t enough Jews left to form a minyan. But Frabrice Shomberg, an artist born in England, stubbornly continues to make “kippah walks” and build a Sukkah as a […] Blog
October 3, 2014 LDB Joins Letter to College Presidents in Light of Recent Anti-Semitic Events Last week a coalition of 14 national organizations including the Brandeis Center sent a letter to the presidents of more than 2500 four-year U.S. colleges and universities, urging them to protect Jewish students in light of the alarming rise in anti-Semitism both here and around the world. The letter, authored by the Zionist Organization of […] Blog
October 2, 2014 Ebola Prevention: Sharia Leads the Way According to the (London) “Guardian,” Adel al-Faqih, Saudi health minister, said measures have been put into place to bar Muslim pilgrims from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea to enter Saudi Arabia. In contrast, the Obama Administration is doing nothing to heighten screening measures at airports. A CDC administrator on CNN could not decide whether the […] Blog
September 30, 2014 The LDB urges Congress to end or mend Middle East Studies Funding The Brandeis Center recently issued a public policy White Paper on “The Morass of Middle East Studies: Title VI of the Higher Education Act and Federally Funded Area Studies” to address shortcomings in Title VI of the Higher Education Act. The LDB is particularly concerned about biased, politicized, anti-Israel and anti-American programming at Title VI […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
September 26, 2014 Heads Off as Heads Up The spate of Islamist beheadings—of hundreds of indigenous Christians and Muslims in Iraq and Syria and a handful of Westerners in those places plus London, Algeria, and now Oklahoma—has been called “do-it-yourself jihadism.” Whereas the 9/11 attacks required pilots’ licenses, these beheadings require only rudimentary butchering credentials. Of course, the impact has been electric, exceeding […] Blog
September 26, 2014 Who Still Loves the Muslim Brotherhood? The Muslim Brotherhood was unceremoniously booted from power by Egypt’s no sissy General Sissi. Yet its love affair with the West’s elites continues. No less than President Obama in his recent UN Speech touted cleric Sheikh Abdallah Bin Bayyah as a moderate voice for peace despite abundant evidence that Bin Bayh helps lead a Brotherhood […] Blog