Power in Academia

I wrote a piece on power in academia for the Jewish Journal as a response to the Avital Ronell scandal (and the equally offensive defense of her actions by celebrity scholars like Judith Butler and others). The original piece was 800 words over the length limit, and I still was not finished saying what needed to be said. But brevity rules in the world of soundbite journalism. At any rate, you can read my piece here.

Coincidentally, my original draft contained personal anecdotes, including a story from 2008 about a film professor named Lance Duerfahrd. Just days after I published my piece at the Jewish Journal, I happened to read this story about a student from Purdue University who is suing him and accusing him of sexual assault. There were multiple complaints of this nature against this man (who was also, I should add, a very poor scholar with a heavily padded CV) as early as 2008, but the English Department chose not to treat them seriously. I wonder what they think of those complaints now? I hope those who were complicit in burying them will have to answer for what they have done.

There Are Still Jews in Russia?

I recently read and reviewed Maxim Shrayer's new book, With or Without You: The Prospect for Jews in Today's Russia, for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. You can read it here. It's a really interesting study, particularly because ever since the success of the Free Soviet Jewry movement of the 1960-1980s, we have heard less and less about the situation of Jews remaining in Russia.

I think we sometimes forget that not everyone left.

I used to live in the Russian Jewish area of West Hollywood, and certainly living there made it feel like all of Russia's Jews had moved to LA at some point. And then there's all of the amazing new fiction being written by Russian Jews like Boris Fishman, Lara Vapnyar, Anya Ulinich, and David Bezmozgis (some of whose works are reproduced in part in a book I co-edited with two of my favorite colleagues). The works of these writers comprise some of the best and newest American/Canadian immigrant fiction, and we hear more of these stories than those of the ones who did not, for one reason or another, leave Russia for a so-called better place. At any rate, I really enjoyed Shrayer's study because it raises some questions I hadn't thought to ask, let alone answer.

Last Laugh: Looking to Comedy as a Salve and Savior

The Last Laugh is a new film that deals with the question of whether one can or should laugh at jokes about the Holocaust. It's a fantastic film, and as part of this piece I wrote for the Jewish Journal, I got to sit down with our friend and comic Jeffrey Ross to get his thoughts on all things comedy and tragedy. Read it here!