Jewish Word // Gentile
In the early 20th century, Jews continued to use “goy” when speaking among themselves, but “gentile” became the word of choice in public discourse.
Talk of the Table // Ethiopian Food
Ethiopian food, famous for its spicy stews and the spongy flatbread called injera, burst onto the international food scene—especially in the United States—in the 1970s and 1980s, when thousands of Ethiopians fled political turmoil in their home country.
Putin’s Jews
Mina Yuditskaya Berliner, a retired teacher of German, could be forgiven for feeling surprised when one of her former students invited her for tea after almost half a century. Berliner, now 94, hadn’t seen him since she made aliyah to Israel from the USSR in 1973. But in 2005, the former student came to Israel to visit—an official visit, no less, the first ever made by a Soviet or Russian leader.
From the Editor | January/February 2015
Moment Magazine is 40 years old. Even though I knew our 40th year would soon be upon us, just reading it gives me a thrill! The number 40 has special significance in Judaism. The Jews wandered in the wilderness of the Sinai desert for 40 years before they were deemed worthy to enter Israel…
A Cappella Graduates with Honors
by Rachel E. Gross
It was 2006 when Rabbi Sue Silberberg of the Indiana University Hillel got the call. Our nation had an urgent request:...
Unrecognized Genius
Moment remembers DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin, economist Anna Schwartz & comedy writer Lucille Kallen—three of the many women who did not receive the accolades they deserved in their lifetimes.
Book Review // Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food
Knish:
In Search of the Jewish Soul Food
Laura Silver
Brandeis University Press
2014, pp. 275, $24.95
by Gloria Levitas
Reader alert: I am not now nor have I ever been a knish...
Jewish Word // “NJB”
Maybe you know one. Maybe you want one. Maybe you are one. Go to JDate.com, and you’re guaranteed to find one: “Message me if you are looking for a nice Jewish boy who values family, respect and loyalty.”
Ask the Rabbis // Sin
“In contrast with other views, we are not born sinners, but by virtue of the human condition and our free will, we are bound to act sinfully from time to time.”
Our Man in Warsaw: Konstanty Gebert
Born in 1953 when Poland was under communist rule,Konstanty Gebert viewed his Jewish lineage as a “biographical accident” until he was 15.
2014 Spotlight on Poland
PREVIEW OF THE CORE EXHIBITION OF THE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF POLISH JEWS
My personal journey to Jewish identity has taken place by way of the past. Like many immigrants from Eastern Europe, my grandparents and great-grandparents rarely spoke of the Old Country, leaving me to spend years trying to piece together the clues. This longing to know more about my family’s origins led me to genealogical research and DNA testing, to towns and shtetls in Ukraine, and to Moment.
Opinion // Max Steinberg: A Real American Hero
Not so long ago, American Jewish children learned from their parents to love the State of Israel. Even secular, assimilated American Jews gave their kids charity boxes to collect nickels and dimes to plant trees there, as the parents do in Woody Allen’s 1987 film Radio Days. But that was a time when Jews remembered the tragedy of the ship St. Louis, with its hundreds of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazis and not a single country willing to take them in.