Fall 2024

Letters, Fall 2024

Statement on Anti-Israelism and Academic Jewish Studies; Invisible Truth; Union Seders; and Notes on Camp

Unsettling Ideology

Michael Walzer

A militant pseudo-academic ideology seeks to erase Israel's legitimacy—and existence.

World of Their Children

Allan Arkush

Joshua Leifer’s much-anticipated new book made an even larger splash than originally expected when a Brooklyn bookstore employee cancelled a scheduled event. Can his book explain why that happened?

The Jewess Mystique

Julia Kornberg

An early feminist novel about a North African Jewish damsel in (Jewish) distress.

Atlas Schlepped

Gary Saul Morson

Ayn Rand imagined that her romantic prose soared, but it barely schlepped along.

Like a Surgeon with a Scalpel, an Archaeologist with a Spade

Shai Secunda

David Weiss Halivni once rescued a scrap from a page of the Shulchan Arukh from the sandwich paper of a Nazi guard. His whole life turned out to be about rescuing texts.

Desire and Power: Adam and Eve in Genesis 1–3

Roslyn Weiss

What did Eve really want and what did Adam need?

Tread Lightly Lest My People’s Bones Protest: Litvinoff, Eliot, and English Antisemitism

Jack Omer-Jackaman

The London crowd was delighted to hear that the young poet would be reading an ode to T. S. Eliot; then, as if on cue, the great man entered the hall. “Eminence becomes you,” began Litvinoff. But then, oh dear . . .

Religious Liberty on Royce Quad

Michael Avi Helfand

A UCLA student went for a walk through the quad when he was stopped at a barricade. If he had been willing to denounce Israel, he would have been able to pass. . . . The other First Amendment issue on campus.

October 7: The Return of History

Daniel Gordis

If we knew anything at all about Jewish—and even recent Israeli—history, why were we so surprised on October 7?

October 7: Trials of Zion, Memories of Diaspora

Cecile E. Kuznitz

The instinctive return to diaspora history reflects the profound trauma of October 7, but what does it miss and what does it get right?

Of Torahs and Children

Harvey E. Goldberg

The deep reason we dance with both Torahs and children on Simchat Torah.

Yehuda Amichai and the Jerusalem of the Middle

Amichai Chasson

Yehuda Amichai's poetry brought angels and garbage collectors together on the streets of Jerusalem.

Lion of Judah

Akiva Schick

Twenty years ago, Matisyahu rocked the musical world with hit reggae songs that sometimes broke into Hasidic niggunim. He’s still rocking but it's not the same.

Include Me Out

Emil Stern

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures seems to have had one goal for its exhibit about the Jews who created Hollywood: make the angry letters stop.

A Good Golus

Abraham Socher

“Well,” he said, “this is a good little golus you’ve got here.”