From The Editor | May/June 2018
On my way to the gleaming airport named after him, I wondered what David Ben-Gurion and his fellow pioneers—Israel’s greatest generation—would think of their country today. ...
Jewish World
Soundtrack of the Shoah
When Moshe Ha Elion sings, his clear, strong voice intones the rise and fall of a life lost too soon. ...
Why I’m Inviting an Asylum Seeker to My Seder
At every Passover seder of my childhood, my father Gershon Glausiusz would break the middle matzah, as the Haggadah instructed, place one half in an embroidered bag, and fling the bag over his shoulder, saying, “This is how we carried our possessions when we went...
Benjamin Franklin’s Midrash
Like fanfic authors today, Franklin extended a beloved text in a direction that fulfilled his vision of it, that satisfied his questions and fired his imagination. In other words, he wrote midrash....
The Epic Battle In Hollywood Over The Holy Land
In The City Where Myths Are Made, The Israeli And Palestinian Storyline Is Always In Rewrite....
#MeToo, Said the Shulamite
The central figure of Song of Songs is an unnamed young woman, referred to variously including as “the Shulamite,” who asserts her sexual and emotional agency while others attempt to control her....
Opinion | Gagging History, Un-Gagging Hate
The debate over Poland’s new ‘Holocaust law’ stokes rising anti-Semitism. ...
What Israeli School Children Learn About American Jewish Life
The year 2017 was another rocky one in the relationship between Israel and many American Jews, punctuated by conflict over matters once considered common ground. Some controversies—including a backlash over comments about American Jews’ military service by Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely—suggest a level...
Photo Essay | Eli’s Town
I decided to to seek out and capture images of the place in Eastern Europe where my Jewish grandfather and namesake Eli (pronounced “Ellie”) had come from....
The Island Within an Island: Cuba’s Jewish History
Today, the Jews of Cuba, once called a remnant of the 15,000-strong community, demonstrate a phenomenon of rebirth and reinvention. ...