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May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review Feb. 20, 2009 / 26 Shevat 5769

Nothing cowardly about good manners

By Wesley Pruden


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Some nice white folks ought to invite Eric Holder home to supper. He's feeling neglected, though it's not quite clear why he would want to nibble on Russian caviar and sip French champagne, the routine fare of white folks, with "cowards."


The new attorney general delivered an astonishing speech at the Justice Department this week to get a lot off his chest. Who knew this man, who lives in a million-dollar mansion, was so miserable?


"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot," he said, "in things racial, we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards." Americans, he said, "simply do not talk enough with each other about race."


This is breaking news for most of us. Black and white, we don't talk about anything else.


But Mr. Holder wants to homogenize us, like sweet milk. He sees the attorney general's mission as to complete the work of Abraham Lincoln: "We in this room must do more - and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example, this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must and will lead the nation to the 'new birth of freedom' so long ago promised by our greatest president."


That's pretty heavy lifting for a mere attorney general, heavy lifting regarded before now as the work of mere presidents. What does he mean? Must Michael Steele take a Klansman to lunch to avoid indictment? Does Rush Limbaugh have to join the congregation of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright?


Most of the attention given to his speech - it even merited a couple of obscure paragraphs on an inside page of The Washington Post - concentrates on Mr. Holder's vile description of Americans as "cowards," but a reading of the transcript reveals considerably more. He concedes some good things - the dismantling of segregation, the election of a black president by an overwhelmingly white electorate (he didn't mention two black Republican secretaries of state appointed by a white Southern president).


He grudgingly concedes that the typical American workplace has become one of easy camaraderie, of unforced mingling at lunchtime, where "we socialize with one another fairly well, irrespective of race." But by instinct and learned behavior Americans understand that "certain subjects are off limits and to explore them risks at best embarrassment and at worst the questioning of one's character."


What Mr. Holder imagines is cowardly is actually good manners. If two friends, one black and one white, are lunching amiably together why would either one of them want to spoil the occasion by launching into a blubbery confession or a scolding lecture on race of the sort that Mr. Holder inflicts on captive audiences at the Justice Department? Is he scolding white folks for past and present sins, or rebuking the likes of Jesse and Al for preaching intolerance of whites? He should be too busy boiling water at "the new birth of freedom" to be hectoring helpless employees to applaud in the appropriate places.


This "new birth of freedom" threatens to spoil everybody's weekends: "On Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed 50 years ago." This sounds suspiciously like the complaint that "11 o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week."


The solution, presumably, is for everybody to worship together in a way to please the attorney general. Shall we have an Episcopal service? Pentecostal? Must Baptists sprinkle, or Methodists dunk? Must Tiger Woods play a round of Sunday golf with Dick Cheney? Do I get to spend Saturday at the beach with Halle Berry?


Self-righteous calls for "a national conversation on race" are actually calls for "a national confession" of somebody else's sin. What we actually need is to move on. We've already moved far from the bad old days when color counted more than character, and anyone who wants evidence need only look around.


America had much to atone for and America has delivered. No other country in history has turned itself inside out to make amends, even dispatching the Army to Little Rock and Oxford and Tuscaloosa. Nobody deserves particular thanks for doing the right thing, just as nobody deserves thanks for being good to his mother. But the work of Americans he reviles as "cowards" is something that Mr. Holder, who says he is a student of American history, ought to know about.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.

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