SHABBAT READING
On the Origins of Peshat Commentary: Prof. Rabbi Robert Harris, The Torah.com, June 11, 2021 — Christian scholarship in 12th century northern France experienced what is often described as an intellectual Renaissance, one that incorporated the study of ancient Roman rhetorical texts, both in their own right (for techniques and theory) as well as in applying them to the study of the Bible. During this period, northern French biblical exegetes, both Jewish and Christian, moved away from treating Scripture as only the authoritative basis of religious behavior and ideology (auctoritas) and began to read it also as a literary text (littera).[1] Thus both rabbis and churchmen developed a different set of tools to unlock the Bible’s meaning.
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CONSERVATIVE PARTY TANKS
From Courtroom to Downing Street: Keir Starmer Is On the Cusp of Power: DYNUZ, July 2, 2024 — Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, nodded sympathetically as a young mother recalled, in harrowing terms, how she had watched closed-circuit television footage of the fatal stabbing of her 21-year-old son, whose heart was pierced with a single blow.
As Europe Turns Right, Why Has a Center-Left Party Won by a Landslide in the UK?: Luke McGree, CNN, July 5, 2024 — The United Kingdom’s decision to hand the center-left Labour Party a parliamentary majority comes at the same time Europe is broadly in the grip of what some call a right-wing populist surge.
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From Israel and Its Critics to the Day of Rest, Jewish Storylines Feature in UK Election: Jacob Judah, Times of Israel, July 3, 2024
How UK’s Starmer Shook Off Predecessor Corbyn’s Far-Left Legacy — And Unpopularity: Robert Philpot, Times of Israel, July 2, 2024
The Only Question Is: How Bad Will It Be for the Jews?: Melanie Phillips, The JC, June 30, 2024
Things Can Only Get Worse: Tom Slater, Spiked, July 3, 2024
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For Further Reference:
Jewish Voting Intentions on the Eve of the 2024 UK General Election: Dr Carli Lessof and Dr Jonathan Boyd, JPR, June 25, 2024 — As the General Election approaches, national polls show the Labour Party ahead of the Conservative Party by 20 percentage points. An average of polls at the time of publication has Labour at 41.9% and Conservatives at 22.2%, with Reform UK at 15.0%, well ahead of the Liberal Democrats, Greens, Scottish National Party (SNP), Plaid Cymru and other parties. These polls do not, however, show the voting intention of Jewish people in the UK.
The Tories Have Only Themselves to Blame: Douglas Murray, The Spectator, July 6, 2024 (issue #) — I was amused the other week to read George Osborne’s Diary in this magazine. In it the man now in charge of giving away the British Museum’s collection recalled something John Major said to him in 1997. This was that the Conservative party ‘will never win while we remain in thrall to the hard right of our party’. It is news that the Conservative party ever was.
And So, Farewell Conservatism: The Last Train of the Old Life Has Finally Departed: Peter Hitchens, Unherd, July 5, 2024 — Conservatism has died, not from an assassin’s bullet, or even from old age or because it was run over by a bus. It has died because there is no call for it anymore.
This Election Is a Pale Imitation of Democracy: Brendan O’Neill, The Spectator, July 4, 2024 — Does anyone else feel like they’re living through a simulation of democracy?