Bellow after Gaza: Rereading To Jerusalem and Back
The real Jerusalem syndrome isn’t the one your tour guide told you about. It’s what Saul Bellow experienced on his 1975 trip.
“As Long as You’re Healthy”: Paul Mendes-Flohr (1941–2024)
Paul Mendes-Flohr first encountered the teachings of Martin Buber while volunteering at a kibbutz in northern Israel. At the time, he said with characteristic self-deprecation, “I didn’t understand a word.”
Ghosts of Hooligans Past
"When a classmate told me to 'stop being Jewish with the ball,' I spat in his face."
In Memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
In the aftermath of destruction, Vasily Grossman saw redemption in a stocking maker carrying ashes back to Lodz.
Our Misfortune
A Jewish takeover of nineteenth century Berlin would have been news to German Jews, but highbrow antisemites believed it.
The Menorah, the Rebbe and the Aesthetics of Transcendence: A Response to Reviel Netz
The Lubavitcher Rebbe had great artistic taste—and that included his choice of menorah.
Straightening Out the Menorah
The long journey from Maimonides’s Medieval Drawing to the Rebbe’s Abstract Public Monuments
Scapegoats
"If the attacker broke down the door, I would throw myself on top of him and buy the others some time."
Include Me Out
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures seems to have had one goal for its exhibit about the Jews who created Hollywood: make the angry letters stop.
A Good Golus
“Well,” he said, “this is a good little golus you’ve got here.”