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.
The Conversation
What makes a word Jewish? Every word is Jewish when it has a Jewish story to tell.
Special Edition | The Making of a Jewish Word
Technology inexplicably fails us often enough that we need a word for the occasion.
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.”
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”).
Jewish Word | The Hairsplitting Complexity of ‘Talmudic’
More often than not, the word “Talmudic” isn’t about the Talmud.
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.
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.
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.