Akedat Hannah
Hannah's vow binds Samuel to an altar just as Abraham bound Isaac, but her sacrifice has a different origin and her story a different ending.
Indiana Jones and the Meme-ification of Nazis
What happens when pop culture becomes responsible for maintaining historical memory? Benjamin Weiner has a bad feeling about it.
Another Round with Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer had the gift of enlivening everything he touched. And he touched almost everything, from politics to Hollywood to Sports. But his Jewish novel stayed in the drawer.
As American as Augie March
Once again, Maya Arad marries the metafictional play of Nabokov with the moral warmth of Jane Austen.
At the Edge of What?
Was the golden age of Polish Jewry truly golden, or just the calm before the storm?
Come Here to Me, You Fortunate Citizen of the World
Zalmen Gradowski’s testimony makes the sadism of the Nazi enterprise painfully clear. That seems obvious, but it runs counter to most Holocaust education.
Early Modern Blasphemy and Postmodern Virtue
Was Jacob Frank a progressive trendsetter or a seductive cult leader?
From Place to Place in Search of a Place: Reading Agnon in Berlin
Far from his family, and searching for a sukkah, Shai Secunda found himself following Shai Agnon’s footsteps through the city of Berlin.
From Turban to Top Hat
Torah crowns, Chinese scrolls, portraits by John Singer Sargent, invaluable Hebrew manuscripts. What does the Sassoon treasure mean?
It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Can liberal Judaism survive and thrive in the digital age?