Who Will Obtain Justice for Alberto Nisman?

Jan. 20 2015

Alberto Nisman was found dead on Sunday, possibly murdered by Iranian operatives. Ten years ago, the Argentinian government tasked Nisman with investigating Hizballah’s 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center. In the course of his investigation, still ongoing at the time of his death, he discovered that the bombing had been ordered and coordinated by Iran, and he recently accused the Argentinian government of trying to suppress evidence of that fact. David Horovitz recounts Nisman’s courage:

On his first visit to Israel seven years ago, Nisman, a non-observant Jew, told me that he had been warned off the [1994 bombing] case by Iran, and that he had received death threats, including one that he found recorded on his home answering machine which was particularly troubling because his daughter was standing next to him when he played it. . . .

As I wrote at the time, Nisman did not appear particularly fazed by the threats, saying lightly that he had no plans to visit the Islamic Republic. He also swore that he would not cease his work on the case until the perpetrators and orchestrators had been tried, convicted, and jailed.

Nisman was a man determined to follow the facts, and committed to achieving justice. . . . What seems particularly tragic about the death of Alberto Nisman in Buenos Aires this week, the death of a brave, decent seeker of justice, an honest man who would not be intimidated or deterred, is that there will be nobody of comparable caliber and guts to ensure justice for him.

Read more at Times of Israel

More about: Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, Hizballah, Iran, Politics & Current Affairs, Terrorism

Rembrandt’s Interpretation of Balaam and the Ass, and the Rabbis’

July 15 2025

As yesterday’s newsletter mentioned, Saturday’s Torah reading tells the story of the Gentile prophet Balaam. William Kolbrener, in this brief video, analyzes Rembrandt van Rijn’s painting of a scene from this story, comparing it to some of the artist’s other biblical works, noting the attention both Rembrandt and the rabbis pay to sight and blindness, and observing how Rembrandt “lets the Jewish Bible speak.” For more on the subject, see Kolbrener’s brief essay here, as well as Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s analysis of the same painting in Mosaic.

Read more at Writing on the Wall

More about: Numbers, Rembrandt