The Contrition and Confusion of Ari Shavit
How should we view the complicated history of Lydda and what it means for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?
On the Road with Benjamin of Tudela
Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela roamed widely across the medieval world, from Narbonne to Cairo, meeting Rabbanites and Karaites along the way.
Spinoza, the Modern-Day Radical
You probably already know that 17th-century Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza was radical for his time—from his notorious excommunication from the Amsterdam Jewish community at age...
Herod the Great?
Norman Gelb is the author of many works of history, including The Berlin Wall, Less Than Glory, Desperate Venture, and Kings of the Jews. His...
Glenn Frankel on “The Searchers”
Glenn Frankel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who spent many years as a Washington Post reporter and editor, now serves as director of the School of...
The Bond Between Greenberg and Robinson
With the timely release of the new DVD of my film The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg upon the heels of the Jackie Robinson...
Maxwell House Hagaddah: Good to the Last Page
In 1923, when Maxwell House Coffee signed on with the Joseph Jacobs Advertising agency in New York, it was already a legend. Theodore Roosevelt supposedly...
Debate of the Moment: Holocaust Insurance Claims
Stuart Eizenstat and Samuel Dubbin have very different points of view about how to handle Holocaust insurance claims.
Travel in Jewish circles these days and you...
The Most Notorious Anti-Jewish Official in American History
Kaskel’s Chutzpah
By Gary Stein
“Your people must leave all the villages,” the government official barked. “The district must be emptied. I have an order here!” With...
Book Review // The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
Pillars of Sand
The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland
Shlomo Sand
Verso Books
2012, $26.95, pp. 304
Shlomo Sand’s latest critique of Jewish identity...
Book Review // City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York
The Big (Jewish) Apple
City of Promises:
A History of the Jews of New York
Edited by Deborah Dash Moore
NYU Press
2012, $99.00, pp. 1108 (3 volumes)
Brownsville, where I...