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Stuart Schoffman

Stuart Schoffman

NCIS Tel Aviv?

Every morning, at my kitchen counter, I leaf through two Israeli dailies, both of them in English. The Hebrew papers I read in cafés, not every day. I watch the TV news at 8 pm, on Channel 2.

Opinion: Running off the rails

On the 4th day of Adar, on the front page of Haaretz, there appeared a most curious story. Its headline read: “Israel Railways planning to build 475-kilometer rail network in West Bank.”

Jews, Christmas and Chinese food

I got a cute e-mail the other day, with a photo of a hand-lettered sign: “The Chinese Rest. Assoc. of the United States would like to extend our thanks to The Jewish People/ we do not completely understand your dietary customs . . ./ But we are proud and grateful that your GOD insist you eat our food on Christmas.” Followed on the bottom, left to right, by a yin/yang symbol, the words Happy Holidays!, and a Star of David.

Nation might not be safest but it’s the most interesting

Not too far from my home there\’s a street named for the German poet Heinrich Heine, a baptized Jew and metaphorical Marrano. Sometimes on Shabbat afternoons, I take a long Jerusalem walk with my son, soon to be a soldier, and Lizzie, our German shepherd, a breed of dog that in my wildest Diaspora dreams I could never imagine owning.

A Matter of Mindset

For an Israeli who lives in Jerusalem, it\’s strange being the only Jew in the room. Yet that\’s how it was on Jan. 10 as I gave a talk on the current political situation to an international conference of Catholic bishops at the elegant Knights Palace Hotel in the Old City.

Fervid Moderation

The horrifying images on Israel\’s Channel 10 were probably the most graphic I had ever seen on television. A suicide bomber, a Muslim religious teacher from Hebron — himself the father of young children, had blown up a Jerusalem bus filled with ultra-Orthodox men, women and children on their way home from worship at the Western Wall. Twenty-one innocent people were murdered, scores were wounded and maimed, many of them — so many of them — children. The following morning, the mass-circulation Yediot newspaper ran front-page photos of some of the victims, a heart-breaking picture of a 5-month-old baby girl in intensive care and the opening paragraphs of four Op-Ed pieces, including one by Israel\’s most famous author, Amos Oz.

Looking at

We live in an age of anxiety — to put it extremely mildly.
By the time you read these words, Iraq might be in flames, Saddam Hussein (or
at least one or two of his doubles) may be history — or on the other hand,
maybe not.

A Homeland Paves the Way for Lieberman

Is America a great country, or what? By the time Joe Lieberman (Yale \’64, Yale Law \’67) had propelled himself upward by means of first-class education, the country had changed dramatically. Kennedy had succeeded where his Roman Catholic predecessor, Al Smith, had failed.

Peace and Processing

On a recent Tuesday even-ing, 24 hours before the arrival of Yom HaShoah, I attended a symposium in Jerusalem on a subject both intriguing and urgent: "To Acknowledge the Suffering of the \’Other\’: Religious Obligation, Psychological Challenge."

Draining the Swamps

It is a truth nearly universally acknowledged in Israel and the United States that we offered the Palestinians peace, and they chose bloodshed. More Jews and Arabs are killed almost daily. Clearly this situation is untenable. How to end it?

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