History & Ideas
It’s long been the greatest question about the war: why Israel waited to be attacked. But what if it was convinced to wait by its closest ally, the United States?
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 author took a recent journey to a Soviet mass gravesite where his great-grandfather is buried, and speaks about how it helped him understand Jewish and Soviet history.
What might the great scholar have been intending with a recently discovered list he made of seemingly random words from random European languages?
The author talks about the world’s fascination with dead Jews and its indifference to living ones.
The rabbi and podcast host stops by to talk about his new book, Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship.
A misunderstanding about mirrors, with far-reaching, metaphysical consequences.
A reader’s question prompts Philologos to turn up a crucial link between the three.
An Israeli philosopher joins the podcast to talk about what keeps nations together, even when their populations are so deeply divided.
The cultural chaos of the current era seems to map perfectly onto the anxieties of the 19th century. The same goes for today’s flavor of anti-Semitism.
How many rabbis first translated the Hebrew Bible, and how many different translations did they produce?
The author of Self-Made stops by to talk about how the modern self came to be, and how it differs from older, traditional modes of living.
Insects may be welcome on European plates, but not kosher meat.
European hypocrisy on animal rights and ritual slaughter comes straight from an ancient Christian heresy.