A Tragic Epilogue
Matti Friedman reflects on the life and sacrifice of a fallen soldier.
Letters, Winter 2025
Life and Capital; Picking Up the Tablets; and Work Conquers All
Look Ma, No Hands!
Everyone’s a critic, but especially Joseph Epstein.
Scattered Seeds: The Origins of Diaspora
Who invented the diaspora, and what did ancient Jews think about it . . . in the diaspora?
Who Accuses?
Émile Zola’s J’accuse...! might be modern journalism’s most famous headline. But whose idea was it?
Dusting Off the Old Stories
What does the Jewish experience in the Revolutionary War say about America?
Boy Meets Girl Meets Apocalypse
American Jewish novelists have been writing about Israel for decades, but the surprising impulse to destroy it is relatively new.
“I’m Eighty-Five Years Old, Bubba’leh”
"Feel free to also call me ‘Rabbi’ or ‘Professor.’ Neither offends me. No, not ‘Motti.’ Never ‘Motti.’ If you want to call someone Motti, why don’t you go downstairs and talk to the guy at the corner store?" An excerpt from The Ghost Editor.
The Big Schlep
Theodor Adorno said there could be no poetry after Auschwitz, but he didn’t say anything about buddy movies.
A Need for Roots
Simone Weil was obsessed with communal roots but rejected Jewish solidarity in the midst of World War II—and became a saint to many Catholic intellectuals.