“Dalia had long believed in Einstein’s words—that “no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” For Dalia the key to coexistence lay in what she called “the three A’s”: acknowledgement of what had happened to the Palestinians in 1948, apology for it, and amends.  Acknowledgment was in part, so … Continue reading Class Notes →

When Eisenhower was elected president, he and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, took a different approach to foreign policy.  He learned from Korea the difficulty of sending troops everywhere to stop the spread of Communism.  Wanting peace, but not wanting to ever look weak, Ike used the threat of nuclear war as his … Continue reading Class Notes →

One of the major issues Adams faced for his reelection bid in 1800 was that he was not the head of his own party.  It is rare for the president to not lead his party, but the Federalists were created by Hamilton and he sat at the head of the table.  This fact bothered Adams … Continue reading Class Notes →

Book Review, Lesley Hazleton. After the Prophet: The Story of Muhammad (New York: Riverhead Books, 2013) After reading Lesley Hazleton’s book, After the Prophet, I knew I needed to read her biography of Muhammad.  Hazleton has lived in the Middle East for years and has experience with the culture and stories of the prophet.  She … Continue reading Book Review →

Eighty-one years ago this month Senator Joseph McCarthy, while speaking to a Republican dinner in West Virginia, held up a list which he claimed had a list of high ranking government officials who were communists.  McCarthy became an instant success and one of the most powerful men in the nation for a short time.  The … Continue reading Class Notes →

In the history of the Holocaust, Bulgaria stands out among other European nations.  King Boris attempted to remain neutral, but in order to remain independent, in 1941 the nation sided with the Germans and elected a fascist government.  With the new alliance, Bulgarian Jews were stripped of their rights and had many of the same … Continue reading Class Notes →

In 1948, Stalin closed the road and rail line between West Germany and West Berlin.  Having a democratic city behind the Steel Curtain was an embarrassment to the Soviets. It was now President Truman’s time to respond and to see if his foreign policy of Containment would work.  For almost an entire year American planes … Continue reading Class Notes →

The two men responsible for the creation of political parties were Jefferson and Hamilton. One of their issues was that they differed on what America should be.  Jefferson wanted to keep America an agricultural nation, where everyone owned their own farms. If everyone was self-employed then they would be free and could vote.  Jefferson’s worst … Continue reading Class Notes →

Another quote from Lesley Hazleton’s The First Muslim, “As historian James Carroll points out, the Jewish scribes who actually wrote most of the Hebrew bible during the sixth-century BC Babylonian exile conceived of “one god” less as a specific identity than as an affirmation of unity.  The personified Yahweh, the territorial god of Israel, gave … Continue reading Class Notes →