How appropriate it would be if it were on Halloween, 50 years ago today, that I came across Margaret Murray's The God of the Witches on a bookstore shelf and purchased it and read it through. And became completely hooked on it. Actually, it was 50 years ago this coming February. But at the … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2013
Conspiracy Theories Revisited – The Strange Case of Rabbi Jonathan Eibeschuetz (Part 1)
"By this time it is quite obvious that Shloimele was a secret disciple of Sabbatai Zevi. For even though the False Messiah was long dead, secret cults of his followers remained in many lands. They met at fairs and markets, recognized each other through secret signs and thus remained safe from the … [Read more...]
Pew Research Poll – Can Judaism Survive?
“Can Judaism survive assimilation?” proclaims the headline on the front page of this week’s The Week magazine (October 18, 2013). And, in the heading to the article itself (on page 17), “American Jews: Is intermarriage extinction?” Scary questions, at least if you’re Jewish. I remember them … [Read more...]
Conspiracy Theories and Jesse Walker – I Have Met the Conspirator and He Is Me
Review of Jesse Walker, The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory. HarperCollins, 2013. Conspiracy theories make me nervous. I've been the star attraction in too many of them. Not me personally, you understand. But as a Jew, I periodically emerge as an ex officio plotter against … [Read more...]
“Outtakes of a UFO Investigator” – The Story Concluded
“Barney Hill, the black man who joined together that which custom had strictly divided, died on February 25, 1969. He died without knowing that his harrowing experience, of helpless and terrified captivity in the dead and deathly hours of the night, had buried itself like some alien seed in the … [Read more...]