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May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

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 August 29, 2006 / 5 Elul, 5766

Dr. Bill Cosby: Master teacher

By Nat Hentoff


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When I was growing up, national black leaders were also educators for us all: Roy Wilkins (NAACP), Whitney Young (National Urban League) and A. Philip Randolph (labor organizer and compelling integrationist). Today, however, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are not of that leadership quality — functioning more and more as self-promoters than educators.


But Dr. Bill Cosby (Ph.D. in education, University of Massachusetts) has become a major, forthright spokesman for what can and must be done to carry forward the work of earlier generations of black leaders in what A. Philip Randolph called "America's unfinished (civil rights) revolution."


Cosby's spirit and energizing candor courses through an important new book — Juan Williams's "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America — and What We Can Do About It" (Crown Publishers).


Williams of National Public Radio is also an independent political analyst for the Fox News Channel, and wrote "Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary" and "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965."


Williams's rallying cry, "Enough," would have gladdened the heart of my friend, the late Bayard Rustin, a key strategist for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Like Cosby, the prizes for Bayard were education that works, upwardly mobile jobs and a culture of self-respect based on achievement.


"Black politics (now)," writes Williams, "is still defined by events that took place 40 years ago ... As a result, black politics is paralyzed. Late 20th-century black politics grew out of a youthful, vibrant civil rights movement ... (while) today national black politics is dry and dusty with age."


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What has stirred up a lot of that dust, and continues to, was Cosby's speech on the 50th anniversary of the 1954 Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling that segregated public schools are unconstitutional. (In 2006, there are more largely segregated public-school systems than there were in 1954.)


Cosby has since refused to stop focusing on — as Clarence Page noted in the Aug. 12 JWR — "the crime, violence, school dropouts, out-of-wedlock births ... among black youths left behind by civil rights reforms."


A corollary blight, Williams emphasizes in speaking about his book, is the popular culture of "too many of our young black people. It tells our young minds, searching for a strong and proud racial identity, that real blackness comes with hard, cynical 'gangsta' attitudes and dressing like a convict with your pants hanging down. It offers images of women ... getting their sense of self-worth from dressing like oversexed toys for boys."


But Cosby, as Williams points out in "Enough," is urging "people to invest in their neighborhoods by not putting up with crime, even if it is committed by their own children or the boy next door, (and) he called for poor people to get guns out of their community ...


"He told neighbors to watch out for all the children in the community and not to be 'scared' to tell the parents and the police when children are running wild." This amounts, Williams emphasizes, to picking up "on the black American tradition of self-determination and self-empowerment."


Those were the roots of the civil-rights movement — the courageous sit-ins at southern lunch counters; Marshall's drive toward Brown v. Board of Education; the marches on Washington by A. Philip Randolph that inspired King and Rustin. But this reinvigoration of self-determination has led to the reviling of Cosby by such black critics as University of Pennsylvania humanities professor Michael Eric Dyson, who accuses Cosby of "blaming the poor" for the current political and economic forces that are widening the gulf between the poor and the rest of this country.


Dyson chooses to ignore that Cosby is trying to move black people to restore the energy, the momentum of the civil-rights movement to deal with those institutional and political breeders of inequality.


What is missing, however, from "Enough" is another book — or a documentary series on National Public Radio written and hosted by Williams — to show what is actually happening now, across the country, by black community leaders, teachers, young organizers, parents, preachers, politicians not beholden to party lines, who go beyond slogans and memories to bring back alive not just the words and the tune of "We Shall Overcome," but the true grit of those who made a difference then — but knew there was so much more to do.


In 1937, a former slave told what it was like in 1865 (during the Emancipation): "Hallelujah broke out ... Everybody went wild. We all felt like heroes, and nobody had made us that way but ourselves."

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.


Nat Hentoff is a nationally renowned authority on the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights and author of several books, including his current work, "The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance". Comment by clicking here.

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