Literature
The figure of the great fairy king in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is descended from Judah Maccabee.
Seven of our regular writers pick several favorites each, featuring sieges, spies, cultural revolutions, family papers, useful enemies, new fields of inquiry, and more.
And his longtime collaborator, Hyman Hurwitz.
A great Yiddish writer reflects on what, exactly, the novel is for.
The Jewish writer who became America’s most decorated novelist spent his early years prodding the nation’s soul. Then, sensing danger to it, he took up the role of guardian.
Why a BDS activist shouldn’t get a prize named for Nelly Sachs.
Guy Gavriel Kay created Devin Bar Garin, but couldn’t mention Ben-Gurion.
In The Smoke, the latest from the British writer Simon Ings, “Bundists” turn into grotesque shape-shifters. The implications are at once unclear and unsettling.
“Being Jewish, Sefton Goldberg . . . ”
The (fictional) Jewish prisoner who brought about Solzhenitsyn’s conversion.
Albert Cohen: Zionist, novelist, and lawyer.
A letter from recently opened archives of the great writer makes clear how seriously he took the language, and by extension a possible move to Palestine.
Pankaj Mishra takes on Primo Levi.
“In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.”