Our Winter Issue

Mark Anderson’s striking cover of a majestic old elm in winter illustrates two very different features. The first is Barbara Burstin’s moving retelling of the history of Pittsburgh Jewry through the 154-year history of the Tree of Life synagogue. The founders of the congregation called it that because the Torah is called a “tree of life,” after the verse in Proverbs, which brings us to our second feature on Robert Alter’s now-complete translation of the Tanakh. We asked Adele Berlin, David Bentley Hart, Shai Held, Ronald Hendel, Adam Kirsch, and Aviya Kushner to give us close readings of key passages, which they did—brilliantly.

Plus articles by

Dara Horn

Gary Saul Morson

Steven Nadler

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein

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