I'm an op-ed columnist at The Boston Globe, a purveyor of refreshing conservative cheer in the midst of a dusty liberal wilderness.
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Articles by Jeff Jacoby
The Patriot Post® · ‘There Were Those Who ... Tried to Sound the Alarm’
This is what I wrote in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 atrocities 25 years ago this week. It was the first of many columns in which I tried to make sense of, and learn from, that terrible experience. The way to begin, I decided, was to distinguish between those who for years had ignored or minimized the evil posed by radical Islamists, and to acknowledge those who had seen what was coming, but were ignored or condemned.
Hebrew scriptures: A libel as old as the pyramids
JEWS THE world over will gather around the Seder table this week to recount again the great narrative of their ancestors’ redemption from slavery in Egypt. In retelling the story, they will quote the passage from Exodus in which Pharaoh justified the unspeakable repression he intended to inflict on the Hebrews. “Come, let us deal wisely with them,” he exhorted his nation.
Jews Are a Fifth Column: A Libel as Old as the Pyramids
In the course of retelling the Passover story, the Haggadah quotes the passage from the first chapter of Exodus in which Pharaoh justified the unspeakable repression he intended to inflict on the Hebrews. “Come, let us deal wisely with them,” he exhorted his nation.
A libel as old as the Pyramids
American aviator Charles Lindbergh told an America First rally in 1941 that Jews were among the "most important groups" agitating for war. (This column is excerpted from an essay in Arguable, my weekly newsletter. To subscribe for free, visit globe.com/arguable.) JEWS THE world over will gather around the Seder table this week to recount again the great narrative of their ancestors' redemption from slavery in Egypt.
No, 'E Pluribus Unum' isn't a lie
The grave of U.S. Army Cpl. Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan at Arlington National Cemetery. He was killed in Iraq in 2007, giving the last full measure of devotion to the country he loved. "MUSLIMS DON'T belong in American society," Representative Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican, posted on X on Monday. "Pluralism is a lie." By Tuesday afternoon, 14.3 million people had viewed Ogles's post and more than 47,000 had clicked "like" — and the number was still climbing.
Rejoicing Over Khamenei’s Death
March 5, 2026 5 min read Iranians danced in the streets. Western journalists mourned his "easy smile." Who actually knew Khamenei better? "With his spectacles, Palestinian kaffiyeh, long robes, and silver beard, Ayatollah Khamenei cast himself as a religious scholar as well as a writer and translator of works on Islam.
Jeff Jacoby - When a tyrant dies
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. "With his spectacles, Palestinian kaffiyeh, long robes, and silver beard, Ayatollah Khamenei cast himself as a religious scholar as well as a writer and translator of works on Islam.
Why Does the Word “Zionist” Still Exist?
The writer and thinker Coleman Hughes recently posed a thoughtful question to his guest on his “Conversations with Coleman” podcast. Why, he wondered, is the word “Zionist” still in use? Hughes, a supporter of Israel, explained why the use of the word puzzles him: “The word ‘Zionist’ meant something very specific between 1880 and 1948 — it meant somebody who wanted to establish a Jewish state somewhere in historic Palestine,” he said.
The Drawing that Killed My Father's Family
Architectural drawings enabled industrialized murder at Auschwitz and its creator walked free, exposing how professional skill, ethical silence, and bureaucracy can become instruments of genocide. On Oct. 24, 1941, an Austrian architect named Walter Dejaco sat at a drafting table in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz and sketched a preliminary design for what would soon become the camp's main crematorium.
Civil Disobedience: From Midwives in Egypt to Martin Luther King
Around the corner from my home in Brookline, Mass., is the William Ingersoll Bowditch House at 9 Toxteth Street. In the 1840s and 1850s, the house was a “station” on the Underground Railroad, part of the elaborate network of secret routes and safe havens that helped 100,000 or more enslaved Black Americans in the United States escape to freedom in the decades before the Civil War.
Trump's ego isn't just unpresidential. It's un-Republican.
A replica "Trump Gold Card" on display in the Oval Office. DONALD TRUMP'S obsession with putting his name and face on things long ago passed the point of parody. So far in his second term as president, Trump has moved to affix his name or picture to public buildings and government websites, to national park passes and a savings account for babies, and to a special $1 million visa, the so-called Trump Gold Card, for rich foreigners.
The 'two-state solution' is an article of faith, not a path to peace
The pope may speak of two nations living side by side in peace. But what Palestinians and their supporters want is a single state "from the river to the sea" in which Israel — and Israelis — have no place.
The awkward Thanksgiving of O. Henry's 'two gentlemen'
Each Thanksgiving, a lonely New Yorker escorts a homeless man to a restaurant and watches with pleasure as he eats a grand feast. OF ALL the Thanksgiving stories in American literature, O. Henry's "Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen," first published in 1907, may be the most subversive. It begins as an anecdote about the warm tradition of holiday charity. It ends in the hospital.
Did World War I cause World War II?
AT THE 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent. The Great War — the "war to end all wars" — was over. But peace, it turned out, was not secured by the armistice signed in a railway carriage at Compiègne. It awaited the far more contentious negotiations that would culminate in the Treaty of Versailles. That treaty, which was negotiated by the victorious allies — Great Britain, France, Italy, and the United States — was signed on June 28, 1919.
The right's immune system is finally fighting back against antisemitism. Maybe.
Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying racist, isn't the first Jew-hater Tucker Carlson has promoted on his podcast. But his friendly interview with him on Oct. 28 triggered a backlash from leading conservatives. I NEVER expected to feel hopeful about the moral health of the American right again.
What worries me most about Mamdani
Reposted from Pundicity, which in turn reposted it from the Boston Globe ZOHRAN MAMDANI, the self-described "democratic socialist" poised to become New York's next mayor, doesn't talk much about Israel on the campaign trail. He focuses on housing, policing, and wages - the city's pressing local issues.
It's time to end presidential pardons
President Trump commuted the sentence of former congressman George Santos, who served less than three months of a seven-year prison term for fraud, identity theft, and money laundering. OVER THE past 12 months, the presidential pardon power has been abused more brazenly than at any time in American history.
Heads Trump. Tails Trump.
Drafts of a commemorative $1 coin that US Treasurer Brandon Beach says will be issued by the mint next year. THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT has announced that to mark the nation's 250th birthday next year, it plans to issue a new $1 coin bearing the likeness of President Trump on both sides. According to design drafts released by US Treasurer Brandon Beach, the front of the coin will depict Trump in profile, above the words "In God We Trust" and the dates 1776–2026.
We betrayed Russians in 1945. We're doing it again in 2025.
IT WAS May 1945, and the war in Europe was finally over. Hitler was dead, Nazi Germany had surrendered, the death camps were liberated, and millions of people across the continent set about rebuilding their lives. Yet amid the euphoria, one of the most shameful episodes in Allied history was unfolding. Soviet citizens who had fled Josef Stalin's tyranny — soldiers who had deserted, peasants who had sought freedom, émigrés who had escaped the Bolsheviks years earlier — were now in Allied custody.
'Endowed by their Creator' - or by the state?
AMONG THE most audacious philosophical assertions in Western history, one memorized by innumerable American schoolchildren, is the preamble to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." Accustomed as we are to the poetry and music of Jefferson's words, too many Americans are apt to forget — or perhaps never to have learned in the first place...
Who really suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome?
BACK IN 2003, the political commentator Charles Krauthammer — a former chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital — coined a tart phrase for the delusional hysteria he observed among then-president George W. Bush's most unhinged detractors: Bush Derangement Syndrome. He defined it as "the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency — nay, the very existence — of George W.
Jeff Jacoby - When Israel left Gaza
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. , everything got worse Israel's security cabinet voted to approve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan for a military operation in Gaza City, leading to the eventual takeover of the entire Gaza territory by Israeli forces. Gaza City remains a Hamas bastion; Israel's object is to evacuate its civilians, then lay siege to the terrorist units remaining in the city.
When Israel left Gaza, everything got worse
EARLY FRIDAY morning, Israel's security cabinet voted to approve Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan for a military operation in Gaza City, leading to the eventual takeover of the entire Gaza territory by Israeli forces. Gaza City remains a Hamas bastion; Israel's object is to evacuate its civilians, then lay siege to the terrorist units remaining in the city. "Our plan is not to occupy or annex Gaza," Netanyahu told reporters.
Banning Cellphones at Concerts
Until I read Victoria Wasylak's story in the Boston Globe about last week's Ghost concert at TD Garden in Boston, I had never heard of the Scandinavian metal band. Hard rock has never held much appeal for me, and in any case the ghoulish costumes and Satanic-oriented lyrics Ghost is known for are hardly my cup of tea.
U stvarnom svijetu, povećanje minimalne plate znači gubitak radnih mjesta
Prvi posao mog starijeg sina nakon srednje škole bio je slaganje robe na policama u jednoj apoteci u Kaliforniji, za što je bio plaćen minimalnom platom. Jednog dana, na putu do posla u prvoj sedmici rada, prišao mu je aktivista koji je prikupljao potpise za peticiju kojom bi se povećala minimalna plata. Caleb je saslušao izlaganje, a zatim se ljubazno zahvalio i odbio da potpiše. Kasnije mi je rekao da mu ironija situacije nije promakla.
NPR loses. The First Amendment wins. - The Boston Globe
I’ve always opposed government funding for NPR and PBS, so I applauded Congress’s vote last week to rescind $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity through which that funding has been channeled for almost 60 years. President Trump is expected to sign the bill this week. Many conservatives and Republicans condemn the public networks because of their political bias and left-of-center orientation, but that was never my main objection.
Trump, Greenland, and the power of the bully pulpit
The coastal town of Ilulissat in western Greenland. DONALD TRUMP'S comments about Greenland at his rambling Mar-a-Lago press conference on Jan. 7 were bizarre, menacing, and unforeseen.
More immigrants mean more prosperity
ONE OF the stated goals of the Trump administration is to grow the US economy by at least 3 percent per year. In theory that should be readily attainable — for most of American history, 3 percent growth has been the norm. But when population growth slows, so does economic growth. If America's gross domestic product (GDP) is to expand at a healthy clip, therefore, its population has to grow as well.
Why Musk flopped
Elon Musk at a Cabinet meeting on March 24. NOT EVEN the wealthiest man in the world, it turns out, can get the federal government to stop spending so much money.
Memo to Secretary Hegseth: There are no snowflakes in Annapolis
Share I have been thinking about my old friend, who died in 2013 , ever since the US Naval Academy library, apparently under orders from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, purged 381 books , most of them about race, gender, or prejudice. One of those books is “Legacy of Hate: A Short History of Ethnic, Religious, and Racial Prejudice in America,” which Perlmutter wrote after retiring in 1990.
No tariffs without representation
President Trump signed an executive order related to tariffs on March 6 — one of several invoking a statute that doesn't actually convey the authority to raise or impose import taxes. WHEN PRESIDENT Trump announced in February that he was imposing stiff new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, he said his power to do so came from the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, a law passed by Congress in 1977.
Franklin Pierce lusted for foreign territory - and squandered his presidency
Franklin Pierce, a New Hampshire Democrat, was president was 1853-1854. 'I NEVER imagined," former NATO secretary general Anders Rasmussen wrote in a Wall Street Journal column last week, that "I would hear a US president declare his intentions to 'expand our territory,' as Donald Trump did in his inaugural address." Many things about President Trump's inaugural address were unusual, but his unabashed call for enlarging the United States was indeed startling.
The growing appeal of the 'Live Free or Die' state: Plus: When politicians defy the courts
AT THE stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, New Hampshire stopped taxing interest and dividends. At that moment, the Granite State — which has never imposed a tax on wages — became a true no-income-tax state, one of only eight in America. That means that one of the best things about living in Massachusetts — its proximity to New Hampshire — is now even better. New Hampshire is not the lowest-taxing state in the union, but it has by far the lightest tax burden in the Northeast.
A woman died in agony as onlookers pressed 'Record'
A train at the platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in New York City. HER NAME was Debrina Kawam, though we didn't learn that until nine days after she was burned alive in a New York City subway station. On the morning of Dec. 22 she was murdered in public, in full view of witnesses; it took so long to establish her identity because so little of her was left by the time the flames were extinguished.
Melbourne Synagogue Fire: One of the Oldest Evils Perpetrated Against Jews
Shortly after 4 a.m. on Friday, two people in masks were spotted dousing the main entrance of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, one of Australia’s largest and busiest shuls, with gasoline. Moments later, the building was set on fire and rapidly became an inferno. At that very early hour, only a few men were in the sanctuary; they had come to study before morning prayers began two hours later.
Thank the Invisible Hand
Gratitude to the Almighty is the theme of Thanksgiving and has been ever since the Pilgrims of Plymouth brought in their first harvest.
The Missionary in the Parking Lot
I was in a busy shopping center parking lot, outside the supermarket where my wife and I had just picked up a few things. While she was organizing the grocery bags, I returned the cart to the rack. As I turned to head back to the car, a youngish woman in jeans and a "Jesus Is My Superhero" T-shirt came up to me. "Hi!" she said brightly, with a knowing glance at my kippah, a head covering (also called a yarmulke) worn by traditionally observant Jews.
Live commentary on voting issues from Harris, Trump and Mass.
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By Kimberly Atkins Stohr Verified, Renee Graham, Renée Graham Verified, Carine Hajjar Verified, Jeff Jacoby Verified
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le-verdict.fr
Is It Wrong Not to Vote? A Debate on the Politically Disengaged
Do Politically Disengaged Voters Still Have a Civic Responsibility to Vote? By Leah Murray Director, Institute of Politics & Public Service at Weber State University, and Jeff Jacoby, Op-Ed Columnist, The Boston Globe By Leah Murray – Director, Institute of Politics & Public Service at Weber State University Perhaps one of the most pervasive myths in American politics is that a voter should vote because it matters to them personally.
Why I'm not voting for president
NEXT WEEK, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will be elected president of the United States. In my view, both outcomes would be a disaster, and I love this country too much to contribute to such a fate. Trump or Harris must win, but I will not help send either one to the White House. I will cast my ballot in this year's election, but I won't vote for president. This isn't the first time I have found both major-party candidates unacceptable.
When Obama was the divider-in-chief: Plus: Gout and its peculiar myths
FORMER PRESIDENT Barack Obama, campaigning with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz at a Wisconsin rally last week, strongly urged supporters in the battleground state to take advantage of early voting and cast ballots for the Democratic ticket as soon as possible.
Antisemitism and the Power of the Big Lie
Last Oct. 7 was the deadliest day of violence against Jews since the end of the Holocaust. It was also the start of the most virulent eruption of antisemitism in the West since World War II. To mention but a single statistic, in the first three days following the ghastly Hamas pogrom, online calls for violence against Jews surged by 1,200 percent, according to the Antisemitism Cyber Security Monitoring System.
Antisemitism and the power of the big lie
Antisemites promoted falsehoods so monstrous and vicious, so audaciously and aggressively untrue, that their utter implausibility gives them the illusion of truth. It continues after October 7. Last October 7 was the deadliest day of violence against Jews since the end of the Holocaust. It was also the start of the most virulent eruption of antisemitism in the West since World War II.
Jeff Jacoby - In the Calvin Coolidge fan club with Michael Dukakis
I have long been an admirer of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States. I esteem him for many reasons: his personal integrity and common sense, his thoughtfulness, his reverence for the Declaration of Independence, his appreciation of market economics, and his respect for the American taxpayer. As a libertarian-leaning fiscal conservative, I especially prize Coolidge’s instinctive commitment to limiting government.
Jeff Jacoby - Why don't unions have to stand for reelection?
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. It was my first day on the job. In the sheaf of new-employee materials I received from HR was a form authorizing the company to deduct a certain percentage from each week's pay and send it to the union that represented the company's workers. I didn't want to be involved with the union, so I didn't sign the form. A few days later, the union sent me a letter.
Jeff Jacoby - Does Harris care about Afghanistan's women?
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. In the summer of 2019, during her first campaign for president, then-senator Kamala Harris claimed that, if elected, she could withdraw all remaining US troops from Afghanistan without jeopardizing the people left behind.
Jeff Jacoby - Most climate policies have something in common
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. In September 1945, the classical liberal scholar (and future Nobel laureate) Friedrich Hayek published "The Use of Knowledge in Society." One of the most influential articles in modern economics, it explained that far-reaching government policies often fail because policy makers invariably lack all the knowledge required to understand a problem well enough to solve it.
Jeff Jacoby - The high cost of letting passengers evade transit fares
SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. In 1990, soon after William Bratton became chief of the New York City Transit Police, he directed his officers to strictly enforce the laws against fare evaders. It was the start of what would eventually become a citywide campaign to curb serious crime by cracking down on relatively minor offenses.
Religion is America's mighty engine of charitable goodness
Mennonite volunteers came from Pennsylvania to help rebuild a house damaged by fire and flooding in Brookfield, Vt., on Aug. 13. IN A heartwarming photo essay on the Globe's front page, my colleague Stan Grossfeld wrote about the angels in long dresses and bonnets who came to Monica Hampton's ravaged home in Brookfield, Vt., bearing hope, hammers, and sheets of drywall.
Jeff Jacoby - The day Phil Donahue and I kept our clothes on
In its obituary for Phil Donahue, the "long-reigning king of daytime television" who died last week at 88, The Washington Post charted the arc of his career. "The Phil Donahue Show" began in 1967 on a TV station in Dayton, Ohio, with a controversial guest — the crusading atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair.
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