How generations of Arab thinkers and leaders tried to turn the humiliation of their losses to Israel into a springboard to launch their nations into an enchanted new age.
The great Yiddish writer envisioned an unbroken transmission of Jewishness through the generations, from biblical prophets to talmudic sages to literary giants like Heine—and himself.
Over the coming years, Israel’s most famous law will become an object of political gamesmanship and a potential tool for demographic engineering—no matter who will be in power.
How America’s far right found its anti-Semitic voice and figured out its true identity.
Fifteen years before Herzl’s The Jewish State, a doctor named Leon Pinsker called for the Jews to reassert their honor by freeing themselves from the debasement of the diaspora.
Countries across Europe are cracking down on ritual slaughter, making the position of observant Jews and Muslims there more tenuous. Is concern for animals really the motivating factor?
Israel’s court is abnormally powerful and has caused half the nation to lose faith in its government. Reform will help, as long as it doesn’t cause the other half to do the same.
Jewish teachings have shaped Western civilization from the beginning. How can Jews build schools that encourage the rising generation to take this responsibility seriously?
Hollywood is full of Jews. So why is it so insistent on universalizing the story of the Jewish state?
The novelist and rabbi Haim Sabato infuses tradition into fiction as well as any of the Yiddish greats. The difference? His work is unencumbered by modern angst.
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.
The nation is fighting about religion more than ever. The reason why has as much to do with a change in the nature of the government as it does with a change in the culture.
Much has been made about the Jewish state’s growing ties with China. But those ties are loosening, and if a new cold war is in the offing, Jerusalem won’t be on Beijing’s side.
What was 50 years ago a small band of religious farmer-soldiers has grown into a varied network of nearly half a million. Who are Israel’s settlers and what do they really believe?