Mosaic Magazine

1 week ago | mosaicmagazine.com | Michael Doran

President Trump and his team came into the White House determined to reverse the course of American foreign policy. Most every president does. It’s what President Obama wished to do vis-à-vis President Bush, President Trump vis-à-vis President Obama, and President Biden vis-à-vis President Trump. Where Biden was for, Trump would be against; where Biden was left, Trump would be right; where Biden was blue; Trump would be red.

2 weeks ago | mosaicmagazine.com | Ruth Wisse

While the Trump administration has frozen over $2 billion in federal aid to Harvard, and is now threatening to revoke the school’s tax-exempt status, Ruth R. Wisse is skeptical that much will change. Wisse, who taught at Harvard for over two decades, notes that on October 12, 2023, the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine declared that it sees itself as “PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement”—the movement in question being Hamas.

3 weeks ago | mosaicmagazine.com | Seth Mandel

Last week, the New York Times reported, based on unnamed sources within the Trump administration, that the president had asked Israel not to carry out a planned strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. That is, somebody deliberately gave this information to the press, which later tried to confirm it by speaking with other officials.

1 month ago | mosaicmagazine.com | Elliott Abrams

On Saturday, initial talk between Washington and Tehran took place in Oman on the subject of the Iranian nuclear program. The two sides agreed to continue negotiations this coming weekend. Elliott Abrams believes that, so far, Iran has come out ahead:First, the United States demanded direct negotiations while Iran wanted indirect talks. The talks in Oman were indirect, with the Omani foreign minister as go-between.

1 month ago | mosaicmagazine.com | Dara Horn

Later this week Jewish families all over the world will sit down at the seder table and, guided by the text of the Haggadah, recapitulate in a highly ornate and ritualized form the Israelite redemption from oppression in Egypt. The text of the Haggadah itself is fascinating, not only because of its sources and composition and what it emphasizes and how, but also because it references itself. There are discussions of previous seders within the seder.