F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” is known to be a uniquely American novel that reflects the social milieu of the American 1920s, also known as the “Jazz Age” or the “Roaring Twenties.” In this monumental novel, Fitzgerald laments the loss of innocence and the demise of the American pastoral dream in the age of hedonism and materialism. Readers come to realize that Gatsby was the last Romanticist who naively believed in the pure, pastoral American Dream, symbolized by the green light on t

Forget the teeth-gnashing already occasioned by a new study on Jewish identity in the U.S. by the Pew Research Religion & Public Life Project. The only thing every generation of Jews has in common is the conviction that it will be the last. What matters for the continuity of Jewish life is quality, not quantity. And in today’s America, Jewish intellectual, cultural, spiritual and religious life is flourishing. Case in point: Beth Medrash Govoha of Lakewood, New Jersey, known as BMG or simply “La

A vast scholarly literature spanning more than six decades exists on the subject of leadership. The characteristics of effective leaders have been pored over, cataloged and debated. Among them, one trait stands out as axiomatic: Effective leaders take responsibility for problems around them; they do not shift blame to others. As Winston Churchill put it, “The price of greatness is responsibility.”Indeed, studies show that taking responsibility is one of the key traits people expect from a leader

WASHINGTON ― President Obama is approaching one of those moments when a big turn in foreign policy is possible. People can debate whether it’s the equivalent of the opening to China or the end of the Cold War, but there’s no doubt that this is a time of opportunity ― and that, as the old English proverb put it, “there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip.” What was unthinkable only a few months ago with Iran and Syria now appears to be in motion. On Iran, Obama has talked directly with President Hass

PRINCETON, New Jersey ― Americans are fond of speaking in reverential tones about “the wisdom of the Founding Fathers” ― that is, the men who wrote the United States Constitution. But the manner in which the House of Representatives has been able to bring the government ― or, at least, its non-essential services ― to a halt is making the Founding Fathers look rather foolish.The fundamental cause of the fiscal crisis lies in the Founding Fathers’ belief in the doctrine of the separation of powers