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Sundown: The 2 Percent Rule

Plus the problem with intervening in Syria, Wallenberg’s 100th, and more

by
Marc Tracy
January 17, 2012

• According to two new censuses, there are between 6.4 and 6.6 million Jews in the United States, making up a little less than 2 percent of the population. [Forward]

• At the conference in March, President Shimon Peres will win AIPAC’s lifetime achievement award. Which does make you wonder who else could possibly have ever qualified for the honor. [Arutz Sheva/ Vos Iz Neias?]

• Marc Lynch argues against Western military intervention in Syria, in part explaining what makes it (very) different from Libya of several months ago. [FP]

• On the centennial of his birth, Secretary Clinton and Sweden’s foreign minister celebrate Raoul Wallenberg. [NYT]

• James Kirchick and other TNR-ers have uncovered yet more conspiracy-mongering from the Ron Paul newsletters. [TNR]

• One of the four men who accused former Syracuse assistant basketball coach (and Jewish Coaches Association founder) Bernie Fine of sexual assault now says he was lying. [ESPN]

Go to the 28-minute mark of this episode of Radiolab for a great, moving profile of Fritz Haber, the German-Jewish inventor of ammonia, which (as fertilizer) saved Europe from famine. He was also Fritz Stern’s godfather; he invented, also, Zyklon A.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.