Talk of the Table | Why Feminists Should Eat Dairy on Hanukkah
Hanukkah is associated with the bravery of the Maccabees, the group of heroic Jews who rebelled against the Greek-Syrian empire, defeated it against all odds...
On Being a Jewish American Writer in 2018
On November 12, Erika Dreifus presented the Creative Keynote Address at the 24th Annual Jewish American and Holocaust Literature Symposium in Miami.
Is This Mysterious Language Hebrew?
The Voynich manuscript is not written in any known language, and its 35 or so unique symbols have never been seen elsewhere.
Jewish Word | Shamash
n the 1946 film The Big Sleep, based on the Raymond Chandler mystery of the same name, Carmen—the promiscuous, drug-addicted younger sister of Lauren Bacall’s character—sizes up Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart, and asks him, “What are you, a prizefighter?” Bogart responds, “No, I’m a shamus.” “What’s a shamus?” she inquires. “It’s a private detective,” he answers. Yes, Bogart is using the Yiddish version—more popularly spelled “shammes”—of the Hebrew word, “shamash.”
Carl Lutz: Gently Shaking the World
While Jews honor heroes like Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg, the name of Carl Lutz is virtually unknown.
Book Review | Beirut Rules
Reading Beirut Rules takes us back to the unhappy 1980s when American diplomats, spies, and the military would be assigned to the Middle East—a complex and dangerous region that very few of them understood—and became sitting ducks for increasingly sophisticated terrorists who were financed and directed by Iran.
Illustrated Book Review | Belonging by Nora Krug
Belonging:
A German Reckons with History and Home
Nora Krug
Scribner
2018, 288 pp., $30
All drawings by and photos courtesy of Amy Kurzweil, inspired by Nora Krug
Book Review | Hitler’s American Friends By Bradley W. Hart
Hitler’s American Friends:
The Third Reich’s Supporters in the United States
By Bradley W. Hart
St. Martin’s/Thomas Dunne Books
2018, 304 pp, $28.99
Four days after Pearl Harbor and the...
Debate | ‘The traditional’ family was a relatively late invention’
Is the traditional family the foundation of democracy?
It depends what kind of traditional family you’re talking about. Throughout most of European and American history,...
Debate | ‘We’ve lost touch with what gives our lives shape and significance’
Is the traditional family the foundation of democracy?
It’s the foundation of many things—happiness, social order, identity—and it’s essential to the good working of democracy too....
Visual Moment | The Beguiling Language of Dress
Ribbed moiré silk from Greece, tulle and silver-tinsel embroidery from Egypt, silk satin from Ottoman Palestine, indigo-dyed goat hair from Iraqi Kurdistan, brocaded silk ikat...
Should a Jewish Actor Play Batwoman?
In August, the CW announced that Australian actor Ruby Rose had been cast to play Batwoman in a new series based on the comic books. But some have criticized the casting choice on the basis that Rose is not Jewish.