Elliot Resnick, a writer and editor at The Jewish Press, has just published his second volume of interviews.
Titled Movers & Shakers, Vol. 2: Sixty More Interviews on Everything From Judaism and Terrorism to Politics and Science, the book includes conversations with Charles Krauthammer, Rabbi Berel Wein, Rabbi Paysach Krohn, Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, Ben Zion Shenker, Cantor Joseph Malovany, Abie Rotenberg, Dr. Phyllis Chesler, Nancy Spielberg, Elliott Abrams, Jason Greenblatt, Moshe Feiglin, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Rafael Medoff, David Horowitz, Ben Shapiro, and Yoram Hazony.
After nearly every interview is a postscript describing what the interviewee and/or his cause has been up to since the interview first appeared in the pages of The Jewish Press. Also included are three wholly original interviews that Resnick conducted specially for this volume. These new additions feature Katie Hopkins, a highly-controversial British conservative; Leo Hohmann, author of Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest Through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad; and Rabbi Natan Slifkin, famous/notorious for his books on Torah-Science conflicts.
Movers and Shakers, Vol. 2 carries advance praise from, among others, TV host Rabbi Daniel Lapin (“human drama crackles from every page of this irresistible volume”), AFSI Executive Director Helen Freedman (“the reader is in for a renaissance-style treat”), and NYU’s Professor Lawrence Schiffman (“throws a unique light on a plethora of contemporary Jewish and general issues”).
Below are excerpts from the book’s three original interviews:
Katie Hopkin: And the fact is that we ARE afraid and we ARE cowed. People now accept terror as normal and think they’re brave for just walking across Westminster Bridge. To this we’ve been reduced – to thinking that walking across a bridge is brave.
When I’m in London now, my mum texts me to make sure I’m okay. That’s madness. I’m 42 years old. When I cross a city road with my children, I tell them, “Stand next to this lamppost; keep it between you and the traffic in case anyone mounts the curb.” That’s a mad conversation to have with children in the 21st century in Europe – equipping them for a truck attack if they’re walking down a [sidewalk]. But that’s where we are.
* * * * *
Leo Hohmann: There is no such thing as a radical Muslim. You have what I call “good Muslims” and “bad Muslims.” The “good Muslims” are the ones who go to mosque regularly and believe what the Koran says. They believe Islam should be the supreme religion of the world and that anyone who doesn’t submit to Islam – and that’s what Islam means, submission – is somehow less of a human being and must ultimately face the sword.
Those are your good Muslims. They believe what their Scripture tells them. The bad Muslims – whom we see as the good Muslims – are the ones who are not devout, not observant, and don’t believe all this nonsense.
* * * * *
Rabbi Natan Slifkin: I think it’s bizarre. You find all these skeletons of animals that died. Are you going to say God created the world with skeletons and creatures that never lived?
Why is that so farfetched?
C’mon. There’s a mitzvah of eglah arufah. You find a dead body with a knife in it. You don’t know how the murder took place, so you have this mitzvah of eglah arufah to atone for the unsolved murder. You don’t say, “How do you know there was a murder? Maybe God just created a dead body with a knife in it.”
“Movers & Shakers, Vol. 2” is available on Amazon.com, BrennBooks.com, and, soon, in select Judaica stores.