Posts
Mourning and Real Estate
When dreams of national renewal were hidden in housing codes
Letters, Summer 2026
Scribal Origins; Kaplan, Heschel, and God; and The Rav's Legacy.
The Weitzman Museum’s Thirteen-Gun Salute
When, in 1776, the Andrew Doria announced itself with a thirteen-gun salute (one for each new state), the Dutch authorities in St. Eustatius cordially responded in kind. The Weitzman Museum’s new exhibit tells the Jewish backstory.
Empire State of Mind
Zionism's goal was auto-emancipation, which didn’t mean there weren’t empires to deal with.
Rabbi to the Stars
A bitterly funny roman à clef about a Reform temple and 1930s Hollywood is more Sunset Boulevard than Wilshire Boulevard.
Rock Nazis
Nazi influence on pop music can be found here, there and everywhere.
When Juliet Became Jael
And how Othello became Ithiel, with the help of an ambivalent convert from Judaism and a founding figure of Zionism.
Khapped!
How did nineteenth-century Russian Jewish cantonists and twentieth-century Soviet Refuseniks manage to cling to their Judaism?
Kindness and Truth
How a construction worker became the tzaddik of Melbourne.
Cover Story
Where did the kippa come from?