Jewish Word | Why We Say ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’
Seders all over the world this Passover will end with the words L’Shanah Ha Ba’ah b’Yerushalayim—“Next year in Jerusalem.”
04
Apr
19
Jan
Jewish Word | Shmita: A Sabbath for the Land—and Ourselves
Flapping proudly in fallow fields, large green and yellow banners in rural Israel proclaim: Kan Shomrim Shmita (“Here We Keep Shmita”).
23
Nov
Jewish Word | The Hairsplitting Complexity of ‘Talmudic’
More often than not, the word “Talmudic” isn’t about the Talmud.
14
Jun
Jewish Word | What a Schlep!
In 2008, a group of Jewish Democratic political operatives had an idea: If young Jewish voters traveled to Florida, they could convince their hesitant grandparents to vote for Barack Obama, thus ensuring a win in the vital swing state.
08
Mar
Jewish Word | What Is Cancel Culture—and What Does Judaism Say About It?
Comedian Kevin Hart was bumped from hosting the 2019 Oscars for years-old homophobic tweets.
12
Jan
Jewish Word | Pikuach Nefesh
In Chaim Potok’s 1969 novel The Promise, sequel to the better-known The Chosen, there’s a scene that piercingly illustrates the Jewish legal emphasis on saving a life.
11
Nov
Dispatch from Crown Heights: Two Universes, One Neighborhood
As Devorah Halberstam, a prominent local activist, drives through Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood in her white 2017 Acura, she grows increasingly animated.
20
Mar
Jewish Word | Israeli Elections Slogans Get Personal
As Israeli elections near, Moment looks at the history of political slogans in the country’s elections. From Mapai to Rabin, Netanyahu and Benny Gantz.
15
Nov
Jewish Word | Shamash
n the 1946 film The Big Sleep, based on the Raymond Chandler mystery of the same name, Carmen—the promiscuous, drug-addicted younger sister of Lauren Bacall’s character—sizes up Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart, and asks him, “What are you, a prizefighter?” Bogart responds, “No, I’m a shamus.” “What’s a shamus?” she inquires. “It’s a private detective,” he answers. Yes, Bogart is using the Yiddish version—more popularly spelled “shammes”—of the Hebrew word, “shamash.”
02
Aug
Jewish Word | Fake Jews
This past spring, Trayon White Sr., a Washington, DC city councilmember, sparked an outcry by blaming a late season snowfall on the Rothschilds, the famous Jewish banking dynasty, who, he explained, control “the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities.”