Ask The Rabbis | Should Jews at the Seder Ask God to Smite Our Enemies?
Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that know You not, and upon the families that call not on Your name; for they have devoured...
Book Review | Mapping the Bones by Jane Yolen
Although a work of fiction, Mapping the Bones has enough of a historical basis to make it read like a convincing survivor’s account, one that does the essential work of bearing witness to a tattered and bloody past.
Book Review | In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea by Michael Brenner
Brenner’s In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea chronicles the competing ambitions to preserve and nourish Jews and Judaism in safety, embraced by an array of Jewish thinkers and leaders from the late 19th century into the present. Would it be by assimilating into the dominant culture, as the Jewish German foreign minister Walther Rathenau argued?
Book Review | A History of Judaism by Martin Goodman
A History of Judaism
Martin Goodman
Princeton University Press
2018, 656 pp, $28.08
Surveys of religious literacy show that, as a group, American Jews do not know very much...
Talk of the Table | A Naturally Gluten-Free Holiday
For many Jews, Passover is about what you can’t eat. Those who observe the holiday’s dietary rules must avoid chametz: wheat, rye, spelt, barley or oats. But because these ingredients—with the exception, sometimes, of oats—also happen to be the primary sources of gluten in our food, the Passover diet and the gluten-free diet actually look a lot alike.
Opinion | Should Israel Deport African Asylum Seekers? | Yes, It Should
We need to bear witness to the Talmudic dictum, “The poor people living in your own city come first.”
Opinion Debate | Should Israel Deport African Asylum Seekers? | No, It Shouldn’t
Let’s create forward-thinking models—and ambassadors of light from Israel to the world.
See one reason why David Brooks is a fan of Steven Pinker—The Moment Magazine Great DNA Experiment
Moment tests the DNA of 15 notable American Jews—including Joshua Bell, Mayim Bialik, David Brooks, Alan Dershowitz, A.J. Jacobs, Robert Siegel and Tovah Feldshuh—to see if and how they are related. Surprise, surprise, they are! And how!
The Lioness Roars Again: Golda Meir at 120
Although she was a trailblazer, second-wave feminists in the 1960s disliked her, and she returned their ire, describing them as “crazy women who burn their bras and…hate men.” Meir resented attempts to turn her into a feminist icon.
Jewish Word | When a Knish Is More Than a Knish
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump proclaimed at a rally that Hillary Clinton “got schlonged” in the 2008 primaries. Schlong, when used as a noun, is a Yiddish word for penis—and a pretty vulgar one at that. But when used as a verb, is it even a word?
Opinion | Symbolic, But Destructive
President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and direct the State Department to begin moving the U.S. embassy there has given rise to a slew of commentary.
Opinion | Does Israel Need a Law to Make It Jewish?
What is the role of Jewish law in the life of a Jewish state? The question might seem abstract, but the Knesset has been debating it heatedly for months, often in discussions that deteriorate into shouting matches.