Jewish Word | Diaspora: Blessing or Curse?
Born in polemic, the meaning of the word ‘diaspora’ has fluctuated.
Jewish Word | Chaver: Friend or Lover?
“What are we, exactly?”
Jewish Word | The Mizrahi Mosaic
For so many Jews, in Israel and around the globe, the word Mizrahi, much like the words Ashkenazi and Sephardi, is more than just a label.
Jewish Word | The Jewfro Grows Up and Out
The stereotype of “Jewish” hair is rooted in a history of racial pseudoscience, radical self-empowerment and comic self-deprecation.
Jewish Word | ‘Momala’ of the Year
At a brunch during the DNC in Chicago, California assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan was wearing a hat with two Stars of David flanking the slogan “Jews for Momala.”
Jewish Word | Verklempt: The Yiddish Word that Wasn’t
Borrowed from Yiddish and launched into the cultural stratosphere by a Canadian comedian and his Jewish mother-in-law, "verklempt" keeps evolving.
Jewish Word | Doikayt: The Jewish Left Is Here
Embraced by 1940s Bundists opposed to Zionism, the Yiddish word for “hereness” is being popularized by progressive American Jews.
Jewish Word | The Twisted Path of the Word ‘Genocide’
Since October 7 and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war, the word genocide has been used liberally by parties on both sides of the conflict.
Jewish Word | Not That Kind of Rabbi
In 1970 The New York Times ran an article about the secret language of New York City police officers.
Jewish Word | Beware the Fires of Moloch
In 2012, days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six adults, historian Garry Wills wrote an impassioned essay in The New York Review of Books.
Jewish Word | Israel: What’s in a Name?
Israel was not considered as a name for the new Jewish state until late in the deliberations.
Jewish Word | ‘Almah’ Grows Up
After working for seven years at a Jewish parenting website, Molly Tolsky wanted to create a space for an audience she herself identified with: young Jewish women focusing on careers and their place in the world who weren’t necessarily thinking about marriage or children.