A Feisty Old Jew Goes Fringe
by Deborah Altman
Longtime playwright/performer and San Francisco native Charlie Varon jumps onto the stage. One second he's Varon, the next he's Bernie--an instantaneous transformation from...
A Visit to Tantura
by Stephen Stern
Harsh legacies and uncertain memories of 1948 entangle two families at the heart of The Admission, a new work by Israeli playwright Motti...
The Fate of Fruit Trees
by Ilana Sumka
Looking over the rolling hills of the West Bank, the Palestinian man speaking to our Jewish group said: “In our culture, we have...
Jewish Routes // Arizona
Defying stereotypes, early Jewish pioneers in Arizona were not just storeowners and bankers, but cowboys, lawmen, ranchers and entertainers. The first known Jewish settler was the German-born Nathan Benjamin Appel, who headed west in 1856 from New York to St. Louis, then followed the Santa Fe Trail to the territory’s new capital, Tucson. Appel went on to lead a colorful life in the Wild West: He married a Catholic woman (there were no Jewish women in the territory), had ten children, and was a sheriff, saloon owner, wagon train leader and merchant. Loyal to his heritage, upon his death in 1901, Appel had a Jewish funeral led by a rabbi.
Shalom: At Home in Berlin
Germany’s multicultural capital is becoming a center for Jewish life and culture. With thousands of young Israelis choosing to settle in Berlin, Jewish culture is once again flourishing in the city’s majestic synagogues and vibrant community gatherings, enriching its art scene and turning it into a popular destination for the Jewish traveler.
Ask the Rabbis // Addiction
INDEPENDENT: Addiction is highlighted in the Torah’s account of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, where the One Who Spoke and the World Came into Being instructed us not to get so caught up in our subjective assumptions about God that we would carve out and worship an image reflecting those assumptions.
Can Religious Pluralism and an Official Rabbinate Coexist in Israel?
Moment asks a wide range of scholars, activists and religious leaders to suggest if and how religious pluralism and the chief rabbinate can coexist
Meaning and the Two-State Solution
by Susan Pashman
As I set out to see for myself what was happening on Israel’s West Bank, I was also hungrily devouring Ari Shavit’s magnificent...
York and the Jews
by Alberta Weinberg
York is described in travel guides as a beautiful medieval city with Roman walls and a magnificent cathedral. My husband, Ken, and I...
Cycling Through Jewish Europe
by Michael Lyon
On an overcast late summer day, we were cycling north of Prague along the Elbe River, on the way to Hamburg, when we...
My Last Soviet Summer
by Maxim D. Shrayer
By summer of 1986, my parents and I had been refuseniks for 8 years. A 19-year-old university student, I took part in...
Aaron David Miller on the Middle East’s “Angry, Dysfunctional” Future
by Wesley G. Pippert
Aaron David Miller, an adviser on the Middle East for six secretaries of state, believes that the next few years in the...