Islamic Jihad, Zionism, and Espionage in the Great War
A century ago, the Holy Land seems to have been full of European adventurers, archaeologists, would-be diplomats, and spies—sometimes all combined in the same person. Take, for instance, Max von Oppenheim . . .
Israeli Strategy for a New Middle East
Ninety-nine years ago, in the middle of World War I, a French diplomat and a British politico secretly redrew the map of the Middle East. The state system they helped engineer lasted a surprisSyingly long time, but it’s gone now. Israel’s new strategic landscape must be rethought.
It Is Either Serious or It Isn’t
A poem by Chana Bloch is like a stone thrown deep into the well of experience.
Letters, Fall 2015
Anti-Semitic Spelling?, Render Unto Caesar, Implausible Etrog?, Just-So Question
Members of the Tribe
If an Israeli ambassador to the United States can’t consume ham in public, he may still have to engage in something like pork-barrel politics.
On Old Stones, a Black Cat, and a New Zion
There is a legend that Prague’s Altneuschul was built on a foundation of stones from the ancient Temple in Jerusalem.
Something Off
There was a sense of oddness about Bruno Shulz that German-Jewish writer Maxim Biller exploits in his new novella, Inside the Head of Bruno Schulz.
The Apocryphal Psalms of David 1:15–20
In 1902 Abraham Harkavy published two previously unknown psalms and parts of two others from a manuscript in the Cairo Geniza. They may date back to the Second Temple.
The Commentary Tales
In his latest book John J. Clayton delves once again into the literary territory he has been patiently mapping for some time.
The Great Whitefish Way
Larry David baked an anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-meta stance into Fish in the Dark from the get-go.