Hope, Beauty, and Bus Lanes in Tel Aviv
From the floor of Tel Aviv's City Council, Israel's future looks more promising than many would think.
Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis
Irving Kristol started off as a neo-Trotskyite and famously became the “godfather of neoconservatism.” But his idiosyncratic “neo-Orthodoxy” lasted a lifetime.
Jacob Glatstein’s Prophecy
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.
Letters, Summer 2011
Springtime for Arabia, Hailing to the Chief, Straw Men . . . and more!
Loaves in the Ark
A striking tale of pure faith, divine fiat, and free food from Rabbi Moses Hagiz's
Missed Connections
Joseph Skibell, like any good historical novelist, is a dybbuk—he animates the dead.
Railroads and Dragon’s Teeth
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.
State and Counterstate
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 Great Non-Miracle Rabbi of Prague
A new biography of Ezekiel Landau (the Noda Biyehudah) makes a controversial claim about his views on Kabbalah.
The Hasidim: An Underground History
David Assaf introduces us to Hasidic Rebbes who ride into small towns and take over. (If cowboys were Hasidim, this would be Deadwood.)