Opinion // Sorry, Bibi, You’re Not Winston
The Israeli prime minister sees himself as a new Churchill, but the real lessons of statesmanship elude him.
Jewish Word // Judeans
These days, all eyes are on what many are calling the new anti-Semitism, arising from both far-right and far-left politics, radical Islam and virulent anti-Zionist ideologies. But the old anti-Semitism isn’t forgotten—a 2013 Anti-Defamation League poll showed that 26 percent of Americans believe that “Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.”
Ask the Rabbis // Special Passover Edition
Is it permitted to invite a non-Jew to your Seder? And is it a good idea?
Book Review // The UnAmericans
“Listen,” says Tomás to his daughter, Daniela. “I know what you wrote.” Tomás is an academic, a Czech, who got out of Prague before the fall of communism, along with his wife, Katka, and baby Daniela. Now, he’s teaching at a two-bit college in Maine, divorced from Katka when their little girl was only two, and nearly estranged from his grown daughter, now a playwright. As “The Quietest Man” begins, Daniela has sold her very first play—and her father, the tale’s narrator, is determined to use her good fortune to reconnect with her…
The Other Side of the Wall
Praying at the western wall first as a man, then as a woman.
Jewish Word // “Zaftig”
A Full-Bodied History
by Hilary Weissman, with additional reporting by Sala Levin
For a quick overview of the complexities of the word zaftig, take a look at...
Hanukkah Lights // Debra Ginsberg
The Only Miracle
by Debra Ginsberg
Daniel was surprisingly hungry. He’d eaten a decent lunch—a sandwich with pickles and a side of slaw—and planned only a light...
Hanukkah Lights // Anne Burt
For The Ghosts
by Anne Burt
My 13-year-old, as usual, is not eating her bowl of dry Honey Nut Cheerios. Her thumbs trawl across her iPhone even...
Hanukkah Lights // Lesley Hyatt
A Hanukkah Story (miracle, included)
By Lesley Hyatt
On the morning before Hanukkah begins, I walk outside and see Nena Sara laughing over my little brothers, Matan...
Hanukkah Lights // Andy Borowitz
The First Hanukkah
By Andy Borowitz
Illustrations by Noah Phillips
When Billy Zylberberg thought about his childhood, he realized that Hanukkah would have meant more to him if...
Talk of the Table // Latke
Growing up by the sea in Belle Harbor, New York, five decades ago, I never heard of a Hanukkah doughnut. In my Ashkenazi family, Hanukkah fare was potato latkes, served with sour cream and my mother’s freshly made applesauce, or as an accompaniment to brisket.