Jay Jochnowitz

Sep 29, 2024 | timesunion.com | Jay Jochnowitz

I am a Jew, a fact often impressed on me by my father, whose 69th Infantry Division liberated Leipzig-Thekla, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, on April 19, 1945. The Fighting 69th discovered the camp, according the U.S. Holocaust Museum, a day after the Nazi SS guards soaked a barracks with oil, drove in 325 male prisoners who were too weak or ill to work anymore, and set fire to it. Those who tried to escape were shot.

Aug 25, 2024 | timesunion.com | Jay Jochnowitz

Not to sound like a scold, but shame on you, America. Shame on you if you reflexively thank people for their military service, but joined in the partisan feeding frenzy over one or the other of the vice presidential candidates' service records. That goes for liking, loving, sharing or otherwise giving your approval to entirely false claims about them on social media.

Jul 28, 2024 | timesunion.com | Jay Jochnowitz

The last place I expected to find myself on a vacation was in a quilt exhibit. A quilt exhibit’s main purpose, as far as I knew, was to test a man’s willingness to show a woman the depth of his devotion. “Why, yes, dear, I would be happy to go with you to a quilt exhibit!” said no man, convincingly, ever. Turns out I was wrong. No, I didn’t come away with needlework tips, but with a better sense of how we might have more thoughtful debates on the unsavory side of American history.

Jun 30, 2024 | timesunion.com | Jay Jochnowitz

There’s no small touch of irony in the fact that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments just a few weeks before the Fourth of July. Nothing like heralding a theocracy as the nation prepares to celebrate its revolution against the oppression of a monarchy. Don’t get me wrong; I am not anti-religion. In fact, back in the early 1980s, I was known in my circle of friends as something of an authority on religion.

May 26, 2024 | timesunion.com | Jay Jochnowitz

In 2016, Donald Trump was so afraid that revelations about his affairs with a Playboy model and a porn actress would tank his presidency chances that he paid the women off. In 2024, Trump is doubtless afraid of being convicted of a felony for cooking his business records to cover up those payoffs, or of being found guilty in any or all of the other three federal and state criminal cases against him. And he has good reason to worry.