No one would think twice about calling the prolific, versatile, and masterful critic and essayist Joseph Epstein a Jewish writer (as opposed to a writer who happens to be Jewish), in part because of his associations with Jewish writers like Saul Bellow and the milieu of the New York intellectuals, and in part because of his associations with the explicitly Jewish magazine Commentary and with unofficially Jewish magazines (at the time he wrote for them) like Dissent and the New Republic. Yet he never wrote extensively or in great depth about Judaism and Jewish topics, although all sorts of insights about these subjects are scattered throughout his writings. Jesse Tisch, reviewing a memoir and recent collection of essays by Epstein, observes:

He wasn’t religious, and Jewish matters could seem peripheral to him. Yet he had been raised Jewish and joined Jewish cliques in high school. (“Jews on one side, Gentiles on the other,” he recalled. “This, we assumed, was the way of the world.”) Epstein’s Jewishness deepened over the years, a mixture of culture, kinship, and Jewish pride. “As for my Jewishness . . . I find it is a central strain in my character and even exult in it,” he later wrote.

A deepening engagement with Jewish writing was also apparent. He reviewed Philip Roth thoughtfully, if acidly. . . . While praising Malamud’s sensitive early stories, he ruefully dismissed the later novels. A 1982 essay, “Malamud in Decline,” began by asking, “When do we give up on a novelist?”

“I cherish the books of Isaac Bashevis Singer for their Jewish spirit,” he wrote, likening him to Tolstoy: “a man of dignity, humility, the broadest intelligence and extraordinary dedication to the act of writing.” Epstein’s father’s family, from Białystok, was little known to him, and this “Jewish historical blackout” troubled him. He credited Singer for “helping to put me in touch with my almost entirely lost historical past.” He even forgave Singer’s sex obsession. In Singer’s fiction, he said, “the pleasures of sex mix with the terrors of guilt and sin, and somewhere off in the distance you feel perhaps God is watching.”

For more than a year, the Iran-backed Houthis have been launching drones and missiles at ships traversing the Red Sea, as well as at Israeli territory, in support of Hamas. This development has drastically curtailed shipping through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, driving up trade prices. This week, the Trump administration began an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis in an effort to reopen that crucial waterway. Burcu Ozcelik highlights another benefit of this action:

The administration has a broader geopolitical agenda—one that includes countering China’s economic leverage, particularly Beijing’s reliance on Iranian oil. By targeting the Houthis, the United States is not only safeguarding vital shipping lanes but also exerting pressure on the Iran-China energy nexus, a key component of Beijing’s strategic posture in the region.

China was the primary destination for up to 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports in 2024, underscoring the deepening economic ties between Beijing and Tehran despite U.S. sanctions. By helping fill Iranian coffers, China aids Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in financing proxies like the Houthis. Since October of last year, notable U.S. Treasury announcements have revealed covert links between China and the Houthis.

Striking the Houthis could trigger broader repercussions—not least by disrupting the flow of Iranian oil to China. While difficult to confirm, it is conceivable and has been reported, that the Houthis may have received financial or other forms of compensation from China (such as Chinese-made military components) in exchange for allowing freedom of passage for China-affiliated vessels in the Red Sea.