Her Own Creation and Pure Luck
The fraught project of becoming an American pulses through Susan Rubine Suleiman’s memoir, along with the similarly fraught project of becoming an adult.
Between Antisemites and Zionists: The Path of Alfred Wiener
Alfred Wiener had a good nose for racial hatred and an impressive capacity to size up the German organizations that were spewing it out after World War I.
Kaddish for the Maestro
Maestro doesn't quite succeed at capturing the extraordinary life and genius of Leonard Bernstein, but it is an opportunity to recall an era in both American Jewish and musical history that will never be repeated.
Enlightenment and Conspiracy
What is surprising about the new anti-Zionist documentary Israelism, is not its historical distortions or its polemical tricks but the spiritual myth it constructs of its protagonists’ journey to enlightenment.
Od Tireh, Od Tireh . . .
The Hebrew Teacher is the first of Maya Arad’s acclaimed fictions to appear in English. It’s also surprisingly timely.
Ten Plagues, Three Acronyms, Seven Opinions
The story behind everyone's favorite Pesach mnemonic.
Homage to Orwell
George Orwell is best known for his antitotalitarian novels, but his true genius lay in the incomparably clear and urgent morality of his journalism. We could use some of that now.
Total Eclipse of the Brakha
Do we make a blessing on a solar eclipse? Well, that depends if eclipses are evil or not.
At the Anti-Israel Carnival
Students at Rutgers University protest Israel like they're attending a carnival. A professor explores the troubling scenes she's witnessed—and rereads Mikhail Bakhtin.
Israel’s TikTok Problem
Why has TikTok become a hotbed of anti-Israel and antisemitic content, and what does it tell us about brewing global conflicts.