Articles written by Norman Berdichevsky
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When will Jews ever learn to abandon their compulsive affection for the Democrats?
The 78 percent figure frequently referred to by Democrat apologists as if it were The Holy Grail, is based on entry or exit polls whereas many Jews are reluctant to identify themselves as conservatives and risk peer pressure. In many synagogues, ther...
When an 'unruly' crowd defied the Nazi boycott
Shortly after the Nazis assumed power, discussions within the German Ministry of the Interior led to proposals of a new citizenship law that would distinguish between formal "state citizenship" and a...
Viewpoint: The Jewish vote is not carved in stone
The 75 or 78 percent figures frequently referred to by Democrat apologists as if they were the Holy Grail, are based entirely on entry or exit polls but many Jews are reluctant to identify themselves as conservatives and risk peer pressure. During th...
Czech-Israeli solidarity
Although "The Moldau" (Czech Vltava), is immediately recognized by most lovers of classical music as the work of composer Bedrich Smetana evoking the flow of the Vltava River from the forests of...
Fake news then and now
More than a generation ago, the passion to be the first to report the news led to the Chicago Tribune's banner headline of Nov. 3, 1948: "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN!" President Truman delighted in posing...
The Jews then and the Muslims today in Denmark
Eliza Grey, writing in TIME magazine in October 2015 and commenting on the democratic primary debate between Senators Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders had this to say. “There is no question about who came out strongest in the debate, Denmark!” Bot...
'Submission'-A book that is shaking public opinion in Europe
Few books in the last decade have aroused the controversy and public debate, at least in Europe, as Michel Houellebecq's "Submission." Still at the top of the charts in France, the novel,...
The Sephardim-Part II Three sources of Hispanic civilization
The arts, sciences, technology, literature, architecture, navigation, mapmaking, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy and art that flourished in Medieval Spain are often credited to Islam but this is a...
The Sephardim-Part I Their Heritage
Many American Jews, who are at least 95 percent Ashkenazi by origin, also find it hard to relate to those Jews in Israel whose cultural background is so different. By origin, approximately 50 percent...
Minorities and the IDF-The IDF Sword Battalion
Two non-Jewish minority communities in Israel, the Druze (a deviant Shi’a Muslim group) and Circassians (Sunni Muslims whose ancestors were exiled to Palestine from the Caucasus), are subject to mandatory conscription to the IDF. Additionally, m...
Pastor Kaj Munk: Martyr of the Danish Resistance
Kaj Munk, a Danish cleric, identified as a rightwing political and cultural figure in the Denmark of the 1930s, became the center of moral and intellectual resistance to the Nazi occupation. He was...
A tale of two kings: The yellow star legend that refuses to die
Lost amid the absurd denial of the Holocaust and a result of any ideological current, is a widely believed unintentional myth due largely to Hollywood, Leon Uris (author of the best-selling novel...
The 'Jewish West Indies'
The Virgin islands is a favorite tourist spot for Caribbean cruises. For Jewish tourists, there is an extra added attraction in the historic synagogues, cemeteries and active Jewish communities. The former Danish West Indies sold to the United...
The black-Jewish alliance in support of Israel in the 1940s
For at least four decades, black-Jewish relations have soured and whatever platitudes may be uttered by recognized leaders of both groups, the rank and file among both groups often hold aggressive...
Portugal's attempts at Jewish reparations and the modern Dreyfus
Over the past 100 years, Portugal has made sudden, somewhat fitful, unplanned, and as it turned out, cynical proposals accompanied by dramatic announcements of its intention to carry out “historic justice” and make reparations to the descendants of...
Who was the greatest Portuguese? (and why?)
When Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal's authoritarian ruler since 1932, finally was unable to rule effectively and his regime subsequently deposed by a military coup in 1974 (The Carnation...
The great Hebrew-Yiddish rivalry
Dr. Norman Berdichevsky will be speaking on the topic of Hebrew vs. Yiddish on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation at 6:30 p.m., and at Temple Israel in Winter Springs on...
The development of modern Hebrew slang
Excerpt from “Modern Hebrew, The Past and Future of a Revitalized Language,” McFarland Publishing, July 2014. As in other cultures and their respective languages, the favorite topics of Hebrew slang are differences in behavior between the sexes, dat...
The Sephardim and "Edot ha-Mizrach"
A central tenet of Zionism is that Jews share a common heritage and destiny. Nevertheless, the reality of Jewish society in the state of Israel is marked by four prominent social and geo-cultural divisions: Orthodox observant vs. secular, veteran...
