Jeff Jacoby

When a president clung fiercely to the rule of law - The Boston Globe William Howard Taft’s patriotic restraint cost him a dear friend — and his hold on the White House.

As I write in my annual #PresidentsDay column for the Boston Globe, William Howard Taft's principled view that presidents have no authority to rule by executive order ended up costing him his closest friendship, as well as the White House.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/15/o...

Massachusetts keeps losing residents. That’s a choice. - The Boston Globe When tens of thousands of people leave year after year, they’re answering a question with their feet.

The #MassExodus continues: The latest Census Bureau data show that in 2025, Massachusetts suffered a net loss of more than 33,000 residents to other states. When will policymakers reckon with why so many residents and businesses keep leaving?

My new column: www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/04/o...

Five years ago today, my father, Mark Jacoby, died of Covid in a Tel Aviv hospital. Kind, honest, humble, and faithful, he was "like a tree planted by streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season."

This was my tribute to my dad: jeffjacoby.com/25088/mark-j...

The drawing that killed my father’s family - The Boston Globe What a pristine Nazi blueprint reveals about professional complicity in genocide.

The Nazi architect who designed Auschwitz’s facilities for incinerating Jews on an industrial scale went into private practice after the war. He designed churches and received a papal honor — but never paid for his crimes.

My column in today's Boston Globe.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/25/o...

DHS Found No Evidence Detained Tufts Student Engaged in Antisemitic Activity, Supported Terror, Internal Docs Show | National Review Öztürk was detained after penning an op-ed for the student newspaper advocating divestment from Israel.

Rumeysa Öztürk may not be pro-Israel, but there's no shred of evidence that she ever posed a danger to American Jews. You know what does endanger Jews? A government that tramples the rule of law and ruthlessly persecutes people for expressing an opinion.
www.nationalreview.com/news/dhs-fou...

From two midwives in Egypt to Martin Luther King - The Boston Globe Decent people must sometimes choose between obedience and justice.

Around the corner from my home is a house where fugitive slaves were sheltered in the 1850s. Everyone involved was a lawbreaker—and a moral champion. That tradition of righteous defiance began 3,300 years ago when two humble midwives disobeyed an immoral order.
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/01/15/o...

Dallas builds highways. Boston builds gridlock. - The Boston Globe The contrast between Dallas and Boston isn’t just anecdotal. It shows up clearly in the numbers.

Texas operates on the premise that if a metro area is growing, its transportation infrastructure must grow with it. Massachusetts does the opposite. The results are what you'd expect.

I wrote about the contrast in my Arguable newsletter after a trip to Dallas.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/30/o...

On Christmas night, America’s fate hung in the balance - The Boston Globe How a desperate river crossing in 1776 revived a revolution that seemed all but lost.

On Christmas in 1776, with the Continental Army at its lowest ebb, George Washington launched a last-ditch effort to keep the American Revolution alive.

He ordered his exhausted troops across an ice-choked river — and what happened next changed everything.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/24/o...

Would Jesus be safe in a synagogue today? - The Boston Globe The golden age has been replaced by a grim new reality in which antisemitism is being normalized with terrifying speed.

What would Jesus say if he knew that Christians can walk freely into church — while Jews, even in America, need an armed guard to be safe in a synagogue?

And what would Jesus say if he knew that most Christians see this, yet say nothing?
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/23/o...

Bless Mr. Ahmed for his heroism and his humanity. And bless him for reminding all of us that *radical* Islam — not Islam itself — is the deadly menace that must be defeated.

Sign up for Arguable with Jeff Jacoby - The Boston Globe Sign up for a weekly newsletter from Globe Opinion's must-read conservative columnist, Jeff Jacoby.

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globe.com/arguable

From Mark Twain’s Mugwumps to today’s Never Trumpers - The Boston Globe How fortunate the Republican Party once was to have within its ranks a critic so unwilling to pretend that wrong was right simply because his party said so.

Mark Twain was a Republican, but when the GOP nominated a candidate notorious for his "utter lack of principle," he rebelled. Like "Never Trump" conservatives today, Twain valued character above all in political leaders.

From my latest #Arguable newsletter: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/09/o...

Citizenship by birth is America at its best - The Boston Globe A principle rooted in the Constitution and reinforced by long experience cannot be undone at a president’s whim.

Viewed through the lens of law, the case for #BirthrightCitizenship is powerful. Through the lens of practicality, it is stronger still. But seen through the lens of American identity, the case is strongest of all.

I write about all three in my new column. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/10/o...

Trump’s Ukraine peace plan makes Russia great again - The Boston Globe As Trump squeezes Ukraine to accept defeat on Putin’s terms, he makes America weaker and less respected.

Ukraine would be forced to capitulate. Russia's aggression would be legitimized and rewarded. NATO would be put on a leash. As I write in a Boston Globe column today, the “peace” plan the Trump administration is pushing is shameful — a Munich for our time.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/03/o...

On this and every #Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the 80th Infantry Division of the US Army which on 6 May 1945 liberated the Nazi death camp at #Ebensee in Austria, thereby saving the life of the teenager who would later become my father.
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The awkward Thanksgiving of O. Henry’s ‘two gentlemen’ - The Boston Globe In a classic short story, two flawed men show how generosity — even when executed badly — can enlarge the soul.

O. Henry’s classic short story, “Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen,” starts out as an anecdote about holiday charity — and ends in the hospital. As I write in a new Boston Globe column, the story it tells is ridiculous, heartbreaking — and strangely beautiful.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/26/o...

The right’s immune system is finally fighting back against antisemitism. Maybe. - The Boston Globe A backlash from conservatives against right-wing influencers is a rare sign of hope.

For too long, the MAGA right has tolerated the rise of Jew-hatred within its ranks. But last week, something encouraging happened: A chorus of leading conservatives said 'Enough'.

Here's my column in today's Boston Globe.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/09/o...

Dick Cheney’s unfashionable virtues - The Boston Globe The former vice president embodied qualities Washington no longer prizes.

The death of Dick Cheney was greeted with gleeful "rest in hell" messages from critics. But they won't get the last word.

As I write in my Boston Globe column today, Cheney was a statesman and a patriot of deep conviction and seriousness. May he rest in peace. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/04/o...

The 12-foot skeleton next door - The Boston Globe The old memento mori left people with this reminder: Life is fleeting, and character matters. When the fake gravestones and giant bones go back to the basement, what will we be left with?

I don’t begrudge anyone their shivery fun. But when did #Halloween decorations become so grisly? How did corpses in agony and dismembered skeletons become appropriate lawn displays? What kind of society finds scenes of violent death so amusing?

My latest: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/28/o...

On the Supreme Court, overturning bad precedents is part of the job - The Boston Globe Good doctors don’t cling to mistaken diagnoses; good jurists fix mistaken rulings.

Doctors revise mistaken diagnoses. Engineers correct blueprints that won’t hold. By the same token, as I write today in a new column, Supreme Court justices have always overturned precedents that were wrongly reasoned or inconsistent with the Constitution.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/26/o...

It’s time to end presidential pardons - The Boston Globe A tool meant to fix miscarriages of justice now routinely produces them.

Under Biden & Trump, the pardon power has degenerated into a partisan weapon. It is almost always used not to promote justice or healing, but to shield allies and settle scores.

As I write in a new column, presidential clemency today does more harm than good. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/22/o...

Heads Trump. Tails Trump. - The Boston Globe A planned 2026 coin with the president’s face on both sides flouts one of America’s oldest civic taboos.

Republicans once mocked the vanity of self-adoring politicians like Barack Obama. But under Donald Trump, the GOP embraces what it used to condemn. So Team MAGA is sure to cheer this latest travesty — a $1 coin with the president’s face on both sides.

My latest: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/19/o...

"THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6." As you know, Biden wasn't president on that day. Trump was. Don't you think Trump should know it? And doesn't his message, below, suggest that he is unfit for the office?

The sins we commit with words - The Boston Globe Yom Kippur teaches the importance of seeking forgiveness from those we have hurt.

#YomKippur is here. Ahead lies a day of fasting, prayer, and repentance. We all have wrongdoing to atone for — above all, perhaps, for the terribly destructive sins we commit with words. May we deserve forgiveness, and be kinder next year.

גְּמַר חֲתִימָה טוֹבָה
www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/15/o...

Erika Kirk, Yom Kippur, and the limits of forgiveness - The Boston Globe Forgiveness is too sacred to be automatic, and too serious to be presumed on behalf of others.

Erika Kirk was widely praised for declaring that she "forgives" her husband's murderer. But as a Jew heading into #YomKippur, I found her words deeply troubling. 𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 has the right to forgive someone else’s killing—not even his widow.

My new essay explains why: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/30/o...

National park to remove photo of enslaved man’s scars The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.”

There's no end to the ways the Trump administration finds to be odious.

First it insisted names linked to Confederate traitors be restored to US military bases. Yet now it insists exhibits about slavery must be 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 from national historic sites. Shameful.
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

We betrayed Russians in 1945. We’re doing it again in 2025. - The Boston Globe America is deporting dissidents straight into the Kremlin’s grasp.

The Trump administration is deporting Russian dissidents back to Putin’s control. Russian defectors who escaped to avoid the war in Ukraine were rounded up and turned over to Moscow — together w/ details of their opposition. A truly shocking betrayal.

My latest: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/14/o...

It's not a mistake; it's a deliberate deception. The term 𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘦 was coined specifically to mean hatred of Jews.

In case anyone does imagine in all sincerity that "antisemitism" includes hostility to Arabs, there is an easy way to check: Just look the word up in a dictionary.

The online ghouls who are celebrating and/or justifying the shooting of Charlie Kirk have no idea how much damage they are doing…

The rarest political comeback: repentance - The Boston Globe Most politicians treat scandal as something to be brazened through. An uncommon few choose a different path.

Most politicians treat scandal as a speed bump. For some it's a badge of honor. A rare few treat it as a turning point. As I write in my Boston Globe column today, the most uncommon kind of political comeback is remorse, humility, change — what Jews call teshuvah.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/10/o...