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...
From the Editor
Is satire educational or does it lead to a shallow understanding of current affairs? Does it weaken the power of news or replace it?
Has the state of American politics become so dire that we can only laugh (despairingly) about it?
Letty Cottin Pogrebin: Does Birth Control Trump Israel?
Republicans have made Israel their wedge issue. Democrats should make women’s rights theirs.
Amy E. Schwartz: Turkey: Where Doth Erdogan Lead?
Turkish Jews—like everyone else—ponder Islam’s growing presence in a secular country.
Marshall Breger: Surprise, Politics and Religion Don’t Mix
Americans are tired of politicians who wear their religion on their sleeves.
David K. Shipler: America Before Religious Freedom
Until the separation of church and state, the colonies were a hotbed of persecution.
Record Store Blues
Telegraph Avenue
Michael Chabon
Harper
2012, $27.99, pp. 465
The most perilous pitfall for a tour de force is that the tour can come off as forced.
Alas, Telegraph Avenue,...
The Jewish Presidential Candidate You Don’t Know
You won’t see her in the debates, but the Green Party’s Jill Stein has a lot to say
The New Normal
Swift acceptance of gays by the Israeli Defense Forces in 1993 helped transform Israel into one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world. Moment looks at the history—and the future—of the gay rights movement in Israel, from the rainbow flag-strewn streets of Tel Aviv to the more traditional enclave of Jerusalem.
Symposium / Is Democracy a Jewish Idea?
For centuries, political philosophers have thought of democracy as a Greek idea, but it turns out there are a myriad of ways to attribute democratic ideas to the Jewish people. Noah Feldman, Jodi Kantor, Ruth Wisse, Ed Koch, Shlomo Avineri and others weigh in.
Natan Sharansky: Act III, Scene I
Soviet Jewry’s leading man has had a career of many acts: dissident, politician and now, head of Israel’s Jewish Agency. Through them all, he has...
The Secret Life of Jewish Genes
The question of who is a Jew has become a knot of complexities. I once heard Benjamin Netanyahu say in jest at a lunch at The...