Posts
Wandering Jews
Jews have been travelers since God told Abraham to get up and go. How deeply has this constant motion been imprinted on the Jewish psyche?
Love, Counter-Historical Style
Love letters to Israel, Judaism, and each other from Rachel and David Biale.
Inside-Out
The boundaries between the biblical canon and the Apocrypha have seemed firm for a long time. But what if the walls aren’t that solid?
Hardware, Software—or Love?
Maimonides’s Abraham was a natural philosopher who discovered God through reason, but the biblical Abraham did nothing at all to earn God’s election.
Wishful Republic
What lessons can be learned from the city of Haifa, and what does its culture suggest about the likelihood and limitations of a binational state?
Letters, Summer 2022
Orthodox Lens; Kafka's Gimel; True Crime or Conspiracy Theory?; Of Censorship and Naughty Boys, and more
Secret Chord
When the Yom Kippur War started, Leonard Cohen left the Greek island of Hydra and headed for Tel Aviv. He was coming in solidarity but he was also looking for a way to sing again.
A Lone Soldier
Every year, when Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s memorial day, rolls around, the author thinks of an idealistic college student named Alex Singer who became a lone soldier in the IDF.
The Nazi Rosetta Stone
The interagency task force meeting at an elegant suburban estate was like any other such meeting, except for its agenda: the “final solution.”
Exodus from Kishinev
From Kishinev, Moldova to Israel with Ukrainian Jewish refugees.