The Blog of Dr. Matthew Weinberg, PhD

There is a strange thing that happens when modern medicine sees a child before the child is born. The child becomes data. Not entirely, of course. Not to the mother. Not to the father. Not to the grandparents waiting with names, blankets, arguments over middle names, and the dangerous optimism of people who have already fallen in love with someone they have not yet met. But somewhere in the machinery of prenatal care, the child can become a scan, a probability, a possible syn

There is a peculiar kind of ignorance that does not arrive by accident. It is inherited. It is handed down like a family heirloom, polished by slogans, wrapped in politics, and presented to the next generation as moral clarity. Antisemitism has always worked this way. It rarely walks into the room wearing its original uniform. That would be too obvious. Instead, it changes costumes. In medieval Europe, it came dressed as theology. In Nazi Germany, it came dressed as racial sc

Gloria C. MacKenzie was born in northern Maine. She grew up understanding something that people who did not grow up in rural Maine often miss. That the gap between what a community has and what it needs is not always visible from the outside. That the school with the failing heating system and the fire department with outdated equipment and the library that has not updated its collection in a decade are not failing because nobody cares. They are failing because the resources

Executive summary Across 2016–2026, antisemitism has risen in reported incidents, perceived prevalence, and measurable online exposure—especially in the United States and Europe—punctuated by sharp surges following major political flashpoints and especially Middle East war triggers. In the U.S., ADL’s long-running Audit shows a steep escalation in “incidents” (a broader category than criminal hate crimes) culminating in 9,354 incidents in 2024, the highest level in the Audit’

Choose strength. Choose responsibility. Choose to be the one who holds it together when others can’t—or won’t. Choose litigation from nineteen to forty like it’s a long apprenticeship in endurance. Choose to carry family, students, employees, institutions, histories, expectations. Choose to smile while doing it, because people tell you that leaders smile—and because sometimes smiling feels like the least disruptive thing you can do for everyone else. Choose silence. Because c

How a Jewish immigrant’s faith and fortune helped bankroll the American Revolution — and why his name nearly vanished from history. “Freedom is never won solely by the sword, but also by the ledger, the letter, and the leap of faith.” The Banker Behind the Barricades By 1776, the fledgling Continental Congress had dreams of liberty but a treasury emptier than a pewter cup after a tavern toast. Into this fiscal void stepped Haym Salomon — a man of faith and figures. Trained in

This summer’s upcoming Superman: Legacy film will make history with the casting of David Corenswet – the first Jewish actor ever to portray Superman on the big screen. The importance of this milestone cannot be overstated. Superman may be an icon of “truth, justice, and the American way,” but his origin is profoundly Jewish: the character was created in 1938 by two young Jewish cartoonists, at a time when Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler was rising in power and spewing hatred. In

The film A Real Pain captured the haunting legacy of European Jewry with piercing clarity. Inspired by that film and grounded in personal experience, this reflection follows a journey across Europe—a pilgrimage through the remnants of Jewish life, memory, and survival. Echoes of a Lost World: The Destruction of European Jewry I arrived in Europe carrying the weight of absence. Before World War II, vibrant Jewish communities thrived in almost every city and village of Central

When I sat down with Senator Arlen Specter at the gym in 2007, I expected a typical conversation about fitness, medicine and health. Instead, what unfolded was a deeply philosophical discussion about political identities, generational shifts in ideology, and the shared history of our families. Our conversation covered three critical issues that shaped the evolution of Jewish political identity in America: the influence of early Marxism and unionism on Jewish-Americans, the id

"Trust me, Thaddeus, when I tell you that I understand how difficult it is to be burdened with a disability. But you, sir, have shown us that a disability is no obstacle to greatness."—Attributed to Abraham Lincoln, speaking to Thaddeus Stevens, a man who lived with a clubbed foot and became one of the most influential figures in American history. Thaddeus Stevens, an ardent abolitionist and architect of American Reconstruction, lived his entire life with a physical disabilit