Singing Gentile Songs: A Ladino Memoir by Sa’adi Besalel a-Levi
Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi's memoir of life in 19th-century Salonica provides a rare and intimate glimpse into a lost Ottoman Jewish world. Sa'adi was an accomplished singer and composer and a printer who helped to found modern Ladino print culture. He was also a rebel who accused the leaders of the Jewish community of being corrupt, abusive, and fanatical. In response, they excommunicated him—frequently, capriciously, and, in the end, definitively—though with imperfect success.
The Statesman
Israel's president writes a biography of that country's first prime minister.
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
A new crop of books about Jesus, by Jews and for Jews.
A Murder in Queens
The murder conviction of Marina Borukhova in 2008 shocked the Bukharan Jewish community of Forest Hills. But many questions remain unanswered.
A Tale of Two Synagogues
Frank Lloyd Wright built a dazzling temple outside Philadelphia. Too bad he didn’t look closely at the synagogue of Gwoździec, Poland, built two hundred years earlier.
Anita and the Wolf
A new Argentinian film sheds light on living with Down Syndrome.
Eco’s Elders of Zion
Umberto Eco's new novel highlights—or exemplifies—the real history of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, intertwined as it is with bad fiction.
How Goodly Are Your Tents, O Tel Aviv? A Symposium
Overshadowed by the more earth-shaking or at least highly publicized events elsewhere, the "Tent City Protests" that began in Tel Aviv last summer have been forgotten by many outside of Israel. Nonetheless, they were extraordinary both in size-on September 3 as many as 450,000 marched throughout Israel-and civility. We thought that it would be useful to listen to what some thoughtful and involved Israelis are saying about what they saw or did last summer in the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Jewish Identity and Its Discontents
Two philosophies—one analytical, the other amorous—of the modern Jewish condition.
Letters, Winter 2012
Curating Assimilation, Rav and the Butchers & the Bergson Boys.