Summer 2011

Letters, Summer 2011

Springtime for Arabia, Hailing to the Chief, Straw Men . . . and more!

The Martyr of Reason

Jerome E. Copulsky

On Saturday evening, December 31, 1785, the eminent Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn left his house to deliver a manuscript. He had finished it on Friday afternoon but, as an observant Jew, Mendelssohn waited until the Sabbath concluded to bring it to his publisher. He died a few days later on January 4, 1786, at the age of 56.

State and Counterstate

Allan Arkush

Debates about Zion and its relation to the diaspora aren't new. David Myers and Noam Pianko have retrieved the forgotten ideas of several interesting figures, foremost among them Simon Rawidowicz. Do they speak to us now?

The Hasidim: An Underground History

Shaul Magid

David Assaf introduces us to Hasidic Rebbes who ride into small towns and take over. (If cowboys were Hasidim, this would be Deadwood.)

The Rise of Hank Greenberg

Eitan Kensky

On Rosh Hashana, Greenberg went to shul, then the ballpark and hit two home runs. "Hank’s Homers are strictly Kosher," said the Detroit Free Press.

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

Meir Soloveichik

Irving Kristol started off as a neo-Trotskyite and famously became the “godfather of neoconservatism.” But his idiosyncratic “neo-Orthodoxy” lasted a lifetime.

Brother Daniel, Sister Ulitskaya

Nadia Kalman

Ludmila Ulitskaya's fictionalized version of the Brother Daniel case asks us all to turn the other cheek.

Railroads and Dragon’s Teeth

Jordan Chandler Hirsch

During World War I, the Kaiser Germany sought to foment an Ottoman jihad by building a massive railroad—but he wasn't the only one with the scheme.

Missed Connections

Anne Trubek

Joseph Skibell, like any good historical novelist, is a dybbuk—he animates the dead.

Words, Words, Words

Shoshana Olidort

The super sad truth about Gary Shteyngart's new novel.

Jacob Glatstein’s Prophecy

Dara Horn

Literary masterpieces that double as works of prophecy have been rare since the death of Isaiah. But the Yiddish poet Jacob Glatstein wrote two novellas that foreshadowed the future of Jewish Europe.

The Poet Goes to War

Margot Lurie

Poet Eliaz Cohen is a Religious Zionist who lives with his family on a kibbutz in the southern West Bank. And thereby hangs a tale.

The Great Non-Miracle Rabbi of Prague

Allan Nadler

A new biography of Ezekiel Landau (the Noda Biyehudah) makes a controversial claim about his views on Kabbalah.

Yehuda Amichai: At Play in the Fields of Verse

Robert Alter

Yehuda Amichai was an exuberant person with a lively, impish sense of humor. He was, at the same time, a melancholy man. Both traits are present in his poetry.

Loaves in the Ark

Matt Goldish, Moshe Hagiz

A striking tale of pure faith, divine fiat, and free food from Rabbi Moses Hagiz's

Hope, Beauty, and Bus Lanes in Tel Aviv

Noah Efron

From the floor of Tel Aviv's City Council, Israel's future looks more promising than many would think.