Letters

Features

A Stone for His Slingshot

In 1948 screenwriter Ben Hecht lectured “a thousand bookies, ex-prize fighters, gamblers, jockeys, touts,” and gangsters on the burdens and responsibilities of Jewish history. The night at Slapsy Maxie’s was a big success, but the speech was lost, until now.

Reviews

Our Master, May He Live

Rashi's commentary on the Chumash isn't just about textual puzzles, it's about God's love for the Jewish people. So argues Avraham Grossman in a new biography.

Eden in a Distant Land

A new biography of Abraham Cahan unpacks how a young immigrant from Lithuania created the Forward and changed American Jewry.

Original Sins

John Judis book about Truman's Middle East policy isn't a rant, but it's not exactly history either.

Politics and Prophecy

Ari Shavit, the Israeli prophet-journalist, offers both rebuke of the past and warnings for the future, but unlike prophets of old, he has no solutions for the way forward.

Nation and Narrative

The sons of Israel, from the kibbutz to the hesder yeshiva, came together to liberate Jerusalem in 1967. Yossi Klein Halevi portrays Israel by tracing their diverging paths in the years since.

Life with S’chug

Einat Admony, who was raised by an Iraqi mother and a Persian father in Bnei Brak and now runs gourmet Middle Eastern fusion restaurants, is a new wave balaboosta.

History, Memory, and the Fallen Jew

Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi predicted a day when the historian would give his task over to the poet. A retrospective look at his writings show his own struggle between the claims of academic history and Jewish memory.

The Anti-Jewish Problem

In the competition that took place between Judaism and nascent Christianity, only one could be correct.  Thus, anti-Judaism became central to the Western tradition.

The Arts

The Good, The Bad, and The Unending

Have (more or less) real historians ever been as central to a Hollywood blockbuster as they are to George Clooney’s The Monuments Men? Our reviewer, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld has something to say about the history. Also Cate Blanchett.

Readings

Lost & Found

Last Word

Past Issues