Allan Arkush is the senior contributing editor of the Jewish Review of Books and professor of Judaic studies and history at Binghamton University.
The war and the danger to European Jewry brought with them a fervor that Jewish activists could only wish for these days.
Shocked by World War I, American Jews turned to Zionism as a way to save their European brethren. Their support came at just the right moment to affect the course of Jewish history.
In 1897, the great Zionist writer Aḥad Ha’am argued that Jewish culture, not politics, was the best avenue to bring about a new Jewish state. This week’s podcast revisits his important ideas.
A full English translation of the minutes of the first Zionist Congress is finally available, allowing an engrossing reconstruction of the momentous scene.
These days, many say no—but a functioning Jewish People’s Council would prove them wrong. And that’s reason enough to support it.
Meet Lewis (not Levi, and not Leo) Strauss, the now-forgotten American Jew who helped German Jews escape the Nazis, played a key role in developing nuclear weapons, and more.
Some of them viewed things in a more inspiring light than that of political and material interests.
In a new lecture series, a master teacher shows the enduring relevance of the great 19th-century novelist’s Daniel Deronda.
He would likely share more with young men sporting knitted kippot and young women in long skirts than with any other sizable group on the Israeli scene.
The most polished writing and
sharpest analysis in the Jewish world.