Spring 2016

Letters, Spring 2016

Reform from Within, God-Intoxicated Plenitude, A Bukh Missing in Boisk

Michael Wyschogrod and the Challenge of God’s Scandalous Love

Leora Batnitzky

The late Michael Wyschogrod may have been the boldest Jewish theologian of the 20th century.

Lost in Translation

Sarah Rindner

When Aviya Kushner encountered the Bible not in Hebrew, but in translation,  she was shocked at how different it was, both in form and in substance.

Desert Wild

Shai Secunda

Zornberg’s sessions are deeply informed by traditional Jewish sources, especially the interpretations of classic rabbinic midrash and the homilies of Hasidic masters.

Inconceivable

Erica Brown

Two new books push readers to examine the phenomenon of childlessness in the Jewish tradition and modern Jewish life.

Pour Out Your Fury

Philip Getz

When the Bavarian government confiscated thousands of books from monasteries in 1803, among them was an utterly unique haggadah.

One Nation, Two Disraelis

Abigail Green

In locating Disraeli within modern Jewish history, the late David Cesarani engages with a tradition that he traces back to Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin, who placed Disraeli’s Jewishness at the heart of his private life, his novels, his political thought, and his career as a politician.

A Mechitza, the Mufti, and the Beginnings of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Allan Arkush

In his new book, Hillel Cohen offers an analysis of the Arab-Jewish violence of 1929 that goes very much against the grain of the usual Zionist narrative and even the non-partisan historical research concerning this period.

Saving the World

Elias Sacks

There are at least two problems with the widely repeated narrative about Rosenzweig's sudden commitment to Judaism: It’s historically false and philosophically pernicious.

Jews on the Loose

Joseph Epstein

If fame is when everyone understands it is you when only your first name is mentioned, Groucho (Marx) certainly qualifies.

As Though the Power of Speech Were an Ordinary Matter

Neta Stahl

Moods provides glimpses into Yoel Hoffmann’s life in literature and his ambivalence about the project of capturing life in words.

The Quality of Rachmones

Stuart Schoffman

Howard Jacobson's Shylock Is My Name is dead serious and very funny, high criticism and low comedy.

Chaos in the Wilderness

Zack Gold

Unlike reporters who are happy to rework official government statements, Mohannad Sabry reports on the Sinai by drawing on a broad network of sources in the region.

A Fraternal Note

James Reiss

The poet James Reiss hears his older brother's voice again in a new translation of Reuven Ben-Yosef’s (born Robert Eliot Reiss) writing.

A Dissonant Moses in Berlin and Paris

Mitchell Cohen

Schoenberg’s challenging opera is re-staged in 21st-century Europe.

The Kid from the Haggadah

Nathan Alterman

A 1944 poem, translated by Dan Ben-Amos.

Halakha and State: An Exchange

David Ellenson, Netty C. Gross-Horowitz, Alexander Kaye, Kalman Neuman, Elli Fischer

In our Winter 2016 issue, Elli Fischer explained why he defies the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and argued for radical reform. Four responses and his rejoinder.

It’s Spring Again

Abraham Socher

A startling painting on the walls of the ancient synagogue at Dura Europos depicts some 2nd-century Jews who have, until recently, been dead and who look very surprised to have been reconstituted and revived.