Letters, Summer 2021
Mitzvot and the Modern Dilemma; Tzuris Spoiled?; Hill 24’s Answer; Vilna Gaon, Zionist?
Memory Palace
“Dust comes from something. It shows something has happened, shows what has been disturbed or changed in the world. It marks time,” Edmund de Waal writes to the long-dead Moïse de Camondo.
Of Synagogues and Seinfeld
It's an interesting time to open a museum that argues for the interconnectedness of the Jewish world since it is virtually impossible for non-Israelis to enter the country.
Time and Ink: The Minimalist Devotions of Jacob El Hanani
The idea of a scribe who, like El Hanani, sets to work every day but never produces the same text twice—or never produces a legible text at all—would have appealed to Franz Kafka.
The Essence of Dignity
On Shabbos Nachamu in 1935, shortly before the Nuremberg Laws were promulgated, Rabbi Leo Baeck sent out a message of comfort to all Jewish communities and regional organizations throughout Germany,…
Friendship?
Margot takes in the whats and wherefores of Judaism but is never quite able to grasp the why: why someone would wish to be Modern Orthodox and live a life according to the strictures of traditional Jewish law.
Jerusalem in Albion
The inclusion of Hebrew manuscripts was a priority for Thomas Bodley in 1598, when he began turning the university’s library into the institution of international and historic renown that would bear his name.
Lilith and the Knight
Demons, dragons, and a “Tel Aviv hipster in King Arthur’s Court.”
A Murder in Miropol
Lower simply shows us what she saw and lets us feel the weight of it; it's almost too much to bear.
WeShtick
Neumann’s kibbutz identity was part of his personal brand to such an extent that when puzzled onlookers spotted him walking barefoot on a Manhattan street, raising questions about his mental health, one of his publicists explained, “He is a kibbutznik.”