Podcast: Matti Friedman on Whether Israel Is Too Dependent on Technology
The writer joins Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver to talk about the tradeoffs that Israel’s advanced defense technology brings.
Podcast: Matti Friedman on China’s New Haifa Port
The Israeli journalist joins us to talk about how a Chinese propaganda mission led by a man known as “Chinese Itzik” has dazzled Israeli citizens.
Podcast: Matti Friedman on How Americans Project Their Own Problems onto Israel
The Israeli journalist joins us to talk about his recent Atlantic essay on how when Americans look at Israelis they see a reflection of themselves.
The Best Books of 2020, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)
Five of our regular writers pick several favorites each, featuring Turkish denial, Jesus’s wife, coffeehouse culture, angst, WEIRDness, and Judaism straight up.
What Israel Gained from Its Russian Citizens
If victory in the Six-Day War was a mixed blessing, the Russian aliyah was just a blessing.
Podcast: Matti Friedman on the Russian Aliyah—Thirty Years Later
The Israeli journalist and author of our November essay joins us to talk about the lives featured in his work.
Israel’s Russian Wave, Thirty Years Later
Three decades ago, a million emigres from Eastern Europe arrived in Israel, increasing its population by 20 percent almost overnight and changing its culture forever. What’s their story?
Medieval Jewish Society Wasn't so Law-Abiding and Chaste After All
A new book rescues the period from the jail of nostalgia and didactic parables about righteous men, turning it into something like The World of Our Fathers meets The Wire.
The Perfect Timing—and Perfect Vision—of Meir Shalev’s "My Wild Garden"
The Israeli garden, like Israel, is tamer than its immediate surroundings, but wilder in spirit than places that are actually tame.
Podcast: Matti Friedman on the Last Gasp of the Israeli Left
Israel’s Labor Party—the political organization that erected the governing structures of the country—has now been reduced to a mere three seats in the Knesset. What happened?
The Best Books of 2019, Chosen by Mosaic Authors (Part I)
Seven of our regular writers pick several favorites each, featuring sieges, spies, cultural revolutions, family papers, useful enemies, new fields of inquiry, and more.
Netflix's "The Spy" Manages to Convey the Ethnic Irony at the Heart of Eli Cohen's Life
In 1960s Israel, Arabic-speaking Jews were invaluable as spies for their new country. In normal life, they were marginalized.
Podcast: Matti Friedman on How Jews from Arab Lands Have Shaped Israel
The journalist and author joins us to talk about Israel as a Mizraḥi nation.
What Really Happened at Masada?
The desert fortress has become a powerful symbol of Jewish resistance. A new book examines the evidence to see how much of the story, including the famous mass suicide, is true.
Podcast: Matti Friedman on Israel’s First Spies
The author of Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel joins us in the studio.
Playing Defense in Lebanon
A new book explores the changing tactics, and essential continuities, in Israel’s decades-long but mostly undeclared war against Hizballah.
Israel and the Moral Striptease
Self-flagellation, if performed at the behest of someone else, with money from somewhere else, is no longer just self-flagellation. Israelis would do well to remember this.
The Latest "Breaking the Silence" Report Isn't Journalism. It's Propaganda.
The Israeli NGO won international attention last week for claiming to expose IDF malfeasance in Gaza. It exposed something else.
From Mosul to Jerusalem
By winning wars and becoming sovereign, the Jews of the Middle East have inverted the regional order of things, and been spared the fate of other native minorities.
Mizrahi Nation
Long shut out of the country’s story, Middle Eastern Jews now make up half of Israel’s population, influencing its culture in surprising ways. Who are they?