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.
Fifty Years Later, the Battle That Never Ended
The core idea behind that operation, and many others to follow, was the belief that we Israelis can solve our dispute with the Palestinians by first vanquishing them in the battlefield. If only we’ll be stronger militarily—if not morally—the problem will somehow solve itself. Of course, it never did.
#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.
Politics, Propaganda and the Olympics Games
Politics and propaganda are inseparable from the Olympic spectacle—though perhaps never more patently than in Berlin in 1936.
Julius Rosenwald: Building Schools in the Jim Crow South
When Rosenwald decided to give away hundreds of thousands of dollars to mark his fiftieth birthday, Booker T. Washington encouraged him to donate a portion of the money to build schools for African American children in the segregated south.
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.
After 20 Years, Translation of the Zohar Is Finished
When Berkeley professor Daniel Matt was approached to translate the Zohar, he was more than a little hesitant.
Opinion | Remembering the Real Yitzhak Rabin
I was at that peace rally in Tel Aviv, 22 years ago, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. And for most years since, I have marked that date by attending memorial rallies in that same square. But this year, I won’t go to the annual rally in the square.
Interpreting the Peculiar Tenth Commandment
The Ten Commandments are appropriately easy to understand, except for Number Ten.
In Hania, Crete—a Town With No Jewish Presence—a Synagogue Thrives
During the mid 19th century, the island’s Jewish population reached 900, but after much emigration, by World War II only around 300 Jews were left, all in Hania.
How Two Jewish Baseball Players Processed the 1972 Munich Massacre
They weren’t just Jews but Jewish athletes, going about their professional lives in a strange city, as the Israelis had been doing a day earlier.