On Wisconsin, Fight, Fight, Fight

By Raphael J. Sonenshein
Published on March 15, 2011

During his 1948 presidential campaign against underdog Democrat Harry S. Truman, Republican Thomas E. Dewey was on the campaign trail. As a crowd surged toward the back of his train, an irritated Dewey told the crowd, “That’s the first lunatic I’ve had for an engineer. He probably should be shot at sunrise, but we’ll let him off this time since nobody was hurt.” Lee Tindle, the 54-year-old engineer, told a reporter, “I think about as much of Dewey as I did before, and that’s not much.” Democrats chalked “Lunatic Engineers for Truman” on train after train, and hounded the candidate with references to it until the end of Truman’s winning campaign.

Letters to the Editor: Federation, Egypt, Sonenshein, Soros

Published on February 23, 2011

Rob Eshman’s opinion piece “Just Say Yes” (Feb. 18) misrepresented a number of key points.

 1) Our Federation’s Funding Policy on Israel Programming was the result of three months’ deliberation by a diverse group of leaders. It was built upon the foundation of policies already enacted by Bay Area institutions to help navigate potentially controversial programming choices. 



2008: The contest for the Jews

By Raphael J. Sonenshein
Published on June 12, 2008

In a society that has become less and less informed about politics and government, Jews remain a deeply attentive political community. Intensely concerned about Israel and the protection of the Jewish community, but alert to so much more, Jews offer a candidate a tough audience on policy

Negotiating with Syria, still with the Rev. Wright brouhaha, Museum of Tolerance expansion

Published on June 5, 2008

". . .The Museum of Tolerance is not a Holocaust museum. It is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and its mission is to educate, using the history of the Holocaust. . . One should never forget but remember by the example of how we live our lives . . ."

Top stories for the 29 days of February, 2008

By The Web Guy
Published on March 1, 2008