Uganda’s Abayudaya Jews Dream of Aliyah
A community of observant Orthodox Jews in Uganda, with no genetic link to Israel, wants to make Aliyah.
15
Aug
15
Aug
The Wisdom Project | Aribert Munzner
Nothing dampens the spirit of artist Aribert (Ari) Munzner, not even the 1,000 gallons of water that Minneapolis firefighters employed to extinguish the blaze that wrecked his art studio.
15
Aug
Moment Memoir | My Mother’s ‘Knippel’
Long story short: my father, Jack, controlled the money in my parents’ marriage. All of it.
08
Aug
Book Review | Israel’s Star Turn
When the state of Israel turned 30 in 1978, its supporters in Hollywood threw a star-studded party. What changed?
04
Aug
Sex, Love and Judaism Intertwine in ‘Love Me Kosher’ Exhibit
“Love Me Kosher,” currently on exhibition at the Jewish Museum Vienna, seeks to contend that love, sex and relationships are central to and inseparable from Judaism.
28
Oct
Jewish Word // Dybbuk
A Ghost from Our Past
by Sala Levin
Fans of the film-making, Minnesota-bred brothers Joel and Ethan Coen were transported back to the old country in the opening scene of the 2009 film A Serious Man. A couple—clad in full shtetl garb—is visited by a man believed to be dead. The woman declares him a dybbuk, a figure unfamiliar to most 21st-century filmgoers, but one quite at home in the horror movies it predates.
The word dybbuk is a Yiddishized adaptation of the Hebrew root davek, meaning to cling or to cleave, and the basis of the contemporary Hebrew word for glue. The term first appears in Genesis, where it’s written that a man will “leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be as one flesh.” Dvekut, in kabbalistic thought, is “a kind of ecstatic state...
18
Oct
Searching for Normal in Hebron
IT’S NOON ON A BLISTERING BRIGHT August day in the northern part of the West Bank city of Hebron. I’ve joined a crowd of some 200 Palestinians crammed into the lobby of a renovated two-story building on Ain Khairadeen Street for the grand opening of the Plaza Shopping Center. There are silver, blue and yellow balloons, a host of local dignitaries and gift bags with digital clocks for each guest. There’s a clown and a man in a brown animal suit of indeterminate species and dozens of smiling children in baseball caps and T-shirts, none of whom would look out of place at the Mall of America.
First there’s a guided tour of the Bravo Supermarket—wide aisles, spotless floors, fruit and vegetable displays, bakery and butcher counters, and plastic shopping bags in Arabic and English pledging...
10
Jul
The Tradition of Respecting the Dead
Through plagues, pandemics and wars, Jewish communities have found ways to adapt their traditional practices to the events of the time. Today, with the spread of COVID-19, many Jewish traditions have had to change.
10
Jul
Death in the Jewish Tradition
Throughout the ages, the Jewish people have developed customs, rituals and observances to guide us and provide comfort when a loved one dies. Moment Senior Editor Francie Weinman Schwartz, coauthor of The Jewish Moral Virtues with Eugene B. Borowitz, has prepared this compendium to help you make decisions in advance and know what to do when the time comes. Due to safety concerns brought about by the current public health crisis, we’ve also included new traditions to consider.
09
Jul
The Year Everything Changed—Continued
When we interviewed a group of thinkers on the years that altered human history, we were floored by their thoughtful responses. While we had to condense their answers for the print issue, we have curated additional selections from their interviews, which we are so pleased to publish here.