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Jonathan Silver

Jonathan Silver is the editor of Mosaic and the Chief Programming Officer of Tikvah, where he is also the Warren R. Stern Senior Fellow of Jewish Civilization.

Watch Gary Saul Morson and Jacob Howland Discuss the Dostoevsky Problem

Two leading scholars joined Mosaic‘s editor to look at why compassionate people, like the brilliant Russian author, can so often hate the Jews.

Dec. 28 2023 12:01AM

The Best Books of 2023, Part II

Featuring fears, fates, burdens of power, memory wars, Sabbath days, Russian writers and timeless questions, years of upheaval, Japanese Jews, and more.

Dec. 21 2023 12:01AM

What Kissinger Really Thought

Interviews with Norman Podhoretz and Elliott Abrams recreate the foreign-policy debates of the cold war, and illuminate Kissinger’s attitudes toward Israel and the Jewish people.

Dec. 6 2023 12:01AM

How Israel Got Caught by Surprise in 1973 and 2023

Michael Doran, a leading analyst and author of “The Hidden Calculation Behind the Yom Kippur War,” discusses his essay and the eerie resonances between 1973 and 2023.

Oct. 26 2023 12:02AM

How the Jewish State Became So Important to the Self-Conception of the Arabs

Watch or read a discussion about the perennial power of the Nakba with Hussein Aboubakr and Ghaith al-Omari.

Oct. 18 2023 12:01AM

The Humiliation of Jews Is the Point

Grotesque images of abused Israeli hostages and violations of dead Israeli bodies should remind us of the reality of evil and the necessity of countering it.

Oct. 9 2023 1:05PM

Podcast: Rick Richman on History and Devotion

The author of And None Shall Make Them Afraid stops by to talk about his new book and how history has a role to play in forming devotion to the Jewish people.

April 21 2023 12:01AM

Watch Mosaic's Dramatic Reading of "The Dawning of the Day"

Watch our recording of the modern Israeli classic. Then stick around for the discussion with Israeli novelist Ruby Namdar and American rabbi Daniel Bouskila.

Dec. 28 2022 12:01AM

The Best Books of 2022, Chosen by Mosaic Authors

Featuring wars, peacemakers, two cultures, pogroms, plays, four ages, wild problems, caves, magic, letters, American conservatives, liberal parents, radical children, and more.

Dec. 19 2022 12:01AM

Who Is Pierre Manent?

One of the world’s greatest living political philosophers reflects on his intellectual formation, and how he sees Europe, Israel, and America today.

Dec. 15 2022 12:41AM

The Mythography of Tel Aviv

Shared myths reveal something elemental about the people who sustain them. A scholar of cultural memory describes the layers of myth that illuminate Israel’s quintessentially modern city.

Nov. 17 2022 12:01AM

Podcast: Yoav Sorek, David Weinberg, and Jonathan Silver on What Jewish Magazines Are For

A conversation about how small magazines develop and publish big Jewish ideas.

Oct. 21 2022 12:01AM

Watch Yossi Klein Halevi Discuss His Movie "Kaddish"

The Israeli writer joined us last week to talk about growing up in the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the movie made about him and his father.

Aug. 16 2022 12:01AM

Watch Our Conversation on Meir Kahane, Jacob Taubes, and the American Jewish Frustration with Boredom

Join Samuel Goldman, J.J. Kimche, and Sara Yael Hirschhorn for a discussion about Kahane, Taubes, and the enduring troubles of American Jewish liberalism.

Aug. 3 2022 12:01AM

Daniel Gordis and Asael Abelman on the Personality of the New Jew

Two top Israeli observers examine the dominant Jewish personalities in Israel today, and how they compare to the ideas of pre-state Zionist writers.

July 15 2022 12:01AM

Michael Doran and Ze'ev Maghen Think about Iran and its Revolutionary Regime

With a new nuclear deal looming, two experts met to discuss what it means, and to think more broadly about the nature of Iran’s radical leadership.

April 8 2022 12:02AM

Watch Mosaic's Dramatic Reading of Isaac Babel’s “Red Cavalry”

Watch our recording of the classic Russian Jewish stories. Then stick around for the discussion with Natan Sharansky, Ruth Wisse, and Gary Saul Morson.

Dec. 27 2021 12:02AM

The Best Books of 2021, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)

Five of our writers pick several favorites each, featuring a duke’s children, Jewish treasures, zealots and emancipators, revolts, dual allegiances, spies, and more.

Dec. 14 2021 12:25AM

Ethel Rosenberg’s Mythic Innocence

The author of “The Eternal Return of Ethel Rosenberg” joins us for a discussion about his subject’s unending—and false—air of innocence.

Oct. 28 2021 12:01AM

Ben Sasse and Rich Goldberg Discuss 9/11, Afghanistan, and Civic Amnesia

The senator joins our foreign-policy columnist to talk about America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, and how the nation’s short memory imperils its security.

Sept. 30 2021 12:01AM

Rama Burshtein and Meir Soloveichik Talk "Fill the Void"

The Israeli director and the American rabbi team up to discuss her groundbreaking film about marriage and Jewish life.

Sept. 23 2021 1:02AM

What the Future Holds for Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Conversation

A video of a discussion earlier this month with the Mosaic columnist Eli Spitzer and Sarah Rindner about the former’s attention-grabbing argument about Modern Orthodox Judaism.

Aug. 23 2021 12:01AM

Was Menachem Begin a Founder of Israel?

Israel’s sixth prime minister was a leader of consequence and achievement. But how does he relate to Israel’s origins?

July 22 2021 12:05AM

What the Current Situation Requires

We’re living in a period of disintegration in which the cultural and political bedrock is shifting beneath us. How should a magazine like Mosaic meet this moment?

June 4 2021 12:29AM

The Death and Potential Rebirth of the Liberal Self: A Discussion

Modern freedoms leave us wanting more. The author of our monthly essay joins us and a noted rabbi to talk about how conversion came to be an antidote to liberal restlessness.

June 1 2021 12:01AM

Two Views of Jews and Free Speech

Samuel Goldman and Ruth Wisse tackle Jewish attitudes toward free speech, social media, and the tendency of American Jews to support ideologies that harm the Jewish community.

April 30 2021 12:01AM

The Return of Paganism and the Desecration of Self-Government

A Jewish prayer for a great, grieving nation.

Jan. 7 2021 2:07AM

On Public Purposes of Private Schools

The Supreme Court’s ruling this week will help mend America’s frayed culture by strengthening its religious institutions. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

July 3 2020 12:15AM

Podcast: Dru Johnson, Jonathan Silver, and Robert Nicholson on the New Center for Hebraic Thought

On the opening of a new academic institution devoted to study of the Hebrew Bible for its moral and political wisdom.

Oct. 25 2019 12:01AM

The Obligations of Auschwitz

My grandfather, who survived five Nazi camps, built in their shadow a life that consisted above all of children and grandchildren. The same is demanded of us all.

Jan. 26 2017 12:01AM

The Book of Esther as a Manual for Jewish Survival

The political vision and theological insight of Esther speak compellingly to the dilemmas and opportunities of the present age.

March 22 2016 12:01AM