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July 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The hallmark of a person

Abe Novick: Up, up, and aliya

July 1, 2009

Rabbi Avi Shafran: The Road Taken

The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta: Get into the holiday spirit with these Star-Spangled desserts

June 30, 2009

Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg: What makes a great parent?

Caroline B. Glick: Ideologue-in-Chief

June 29, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Beware of 'Caveat Emptor'

Steven Emerson: ACLU pushing for more money for Hamas

June 26, 2009

Rabbi Yoni Posnick: Learn the secret to a healthy marriage from a scriptural villain

Caroline B. Glick: Barack Obama vs. International Law

June 25, 2009

Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf: The Absurd Power of Truth

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 24, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Advancement of technology is a wake-up call for humanity

The Kosher Gourmet by Andrea Weigl: Summer on a stick: Making frozen treats can be easy, creative and fun

June 23, 2009

Martin M. Bodek: 'On Surnames': And so, We Begin

Caroline B. Glick: The Obama Effect

June 22, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Working for a corrupt firm

N. Richard Greenfield : Where are American Jews?

June 19, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Emotion v. intellect

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's rare opportunity

June 18, 2009

Jonathan Rosenblum: Sometimes it is more essential to define the nature of evil than good

Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkle's strip: Everything's Relative

June 17, 2009

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Language of Confusion

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: Nothing pleases Dad more than a thick, juicy onion-smothered steak. Add home-Baked Potato Chips and …

June 16, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Career v. Careersism

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's losing streak and Israel

Richard Z. Chesnoff: ‘Palestinians’: Never Missing an Opportunity …

June 15, 2009

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu: How Judea and Samaria can become 'Palestine'

Daniel Pipes: Where Netanyahu's speech failed

June 12, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Some big thoughts about not acting so big

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's High Commissioner

June 11, 2009

Victor Davis Hanson: Our historically challenged President

Mitch Albom: Beware the True Believers

Lewis Grossberger: What we learn from the new Hitler photos

June 10, 2009

Mort Zuckerman: What Obama and his advisors won't -- or refuse to -- grasp about Israel and the Muslim world

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky Lotsa pasta: Tips, techniques and (amazing) taste

June 9, 2009

Anne Bayefsky: Obama's stunning offense to Israel and the Jewish people

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: America's first Muslim president?

June 8, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Merchant must take responsibility for careless shopper?

Mark Steyn: A superpower that feeds on mediocrity cannot survive for long on leftovers from the past

Richard Z. Chesnoff: How do you say 'kumbaya' in Arabic?

June 5, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: In quest of spirituality

Caroline B. Glick: Obama's Arabian dreams

Charles Krauthammer: The Settlements Myth

June 4, 2009

Paul Greenberg: The War Comes to Little Rock

The Kosher Gourmet by Judy Hevrdejs: Splash it on! Tap your inner jazz musician and improvise when stirring up a vinaigrette

June 3, 2009

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Should terrible teacher be exposed?

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Israel Lobby: Missing in Action

June 2, 2009

Dennis Prager: The Speech President Obama Won't Dare Give in Egypt

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Pressure on Israel raises war risk

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review July 11, 2008 / 8 Tamuz 5768

Obama rockin' to JFK tune

By Diana West


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | I think it was the American Thinker blog that first went public with the suggestion that we may see post-convention "mass events" for Barack Obama "at least slightly reminiscent of the stagecraft of Leni Reifenstahl in 1934 Germany."


1934 Germany, of course, was Hitler's Germany. And Reifenstahl was Hitler's adoring documentarian. Her film "Triumph of the Will," which captured the well-rehearsed, "mad orator" thrilling the German masses at a Munich rally, remains a milestone in both film and propaganda.


I first read about this startling, but quite plausible, notion on a conservative blog, but I first heard the Reifenstahl comparison made by a liberal columnist last week. In reacting to Obama's plan to accept the Democratic Party nomination for president — not at the indoor site of the Democratic convention in Denver that seats 20,000, but at the Broncos football stadium that seats 75,000 — the liberal columnist said to me: What's the first thing you think of in connection with Obama standing before those cheering masses?


"Triumph of the Will," he answered. Not a good image, he concluded.


This, obviously, is not to suggest Obama has a Hitler complex. If anything, he may have too little historical awareness of the nightmarish resonance of Hitlerian stagecraft for the masses, which, as Paul Johnson wrote in "Modern Times," (Harper Perennial, 2001) was the first "to appreciate the power of amplification and the devilry of the searchlight." This description has always made me think of the latter-day rock concert. And it is that rock-concert effect — surely a pop-cultural triumph of the emotions, if not the will — that Obama is after. In the end, it is a political high that could take him over the top.


Yes, John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic presidential nomination at LA's Memorial Coliseum in 1960 — largely a pre-rock-concert era, incidentally. And yes, the Obama campaign has emphasized this precedent as further evidence of the link they make with JFK, even as history remembers the 35th president as a supply-sider and Cold Warrior (and womanizer). Of course, such right-wing positions are suddenly within Obama's reach as the presumptive nominee continues "lurching right when it suits him," as lefty New York Times columnist Bob Herbert put it. And now, with Obama's planned July globetrot through Europe — Obama: The 2008 World Tour? — the rock star-Kennedy connection is a lock.


Why? Because one of Obama's gigs, I mean, campaign stops, is Berlin, site of President Kennedy's memorable 1963 declaration: "Ich bin ein Berliner!" Turns out the senator from Illinois wants to make a major speech there, too, and he wants to make it from the world-famous Brandenburg Gate.


"The senator was criticized in the primaries for showing insufficient interest in Europe," an unnamed adviser told Der Spiegel magazine. "This visit is an answer to this criticism."


Please. Showing up isn't "interest" — it's tourism. But where the Obama campaign is concerned, it's also a pilgrimage. As the Obama adviser rather weirdly added: "The memories of John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech are still very fresh."


Historic, to be sure. But "very fresh"? Probably only to Team Obama fanners of the Kennedy flame, who, conveniently, in their careful advance work fail to flag Ronald Reagan's more recent address at the Brandenburg Gate. In describing Berlin to the German magazine as "the bridge between East and West," they practically seem to have missed the end of the Cold War, not to mention German reunification — exactly what Ronald Reagan was fighting for, when in 1987 he forcibly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall." That was the same Berlin Wall, come to think of it, that in 1961 JFK allowed to go up and stay up.


Of course, the Obama campaign isn't seeking historical parallels, but perfect props — a telegenic and world-famous backdrop, an increasingly mystical, if apolitical Kennedy connection, an ever-emotional crowd. And with a whopping 72 percent of Germans backing Obama in a recent poll, they'll surely get the crowd. It should be a great concert, I mean, event.


Not that it really matters, but what will he say? It's impossible to predict, but the London Times Online, based on an "insider tip," has reported that Obama (just like JFK, natch) will address the masses in the local lingo: "Ich kann zuhoeren!"


This may sound great in German. But it simply means, "I can listen!" Not the most stirring political message, perhaps, but surely music, of a kind, to the roaring crowd.

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