Facing Faces
Nearly every morning since October 7, I open my phone and look at the faces of the war’s most recent victims. I gaze at these portraits fearfully, searching for a…
Israel’s Iron Lady
Golda told Nixon: “You are the president of 150 million Americans; I am the prime minister of six million prime ministers.”
Leapsniffing through the Vimveil: Avram Davidson’s Fantastic Fiction
Gods in fishbowls, men who are apes, and a Jewish dentist abducted by aliens: the fantastic fiction of Avram Davidson was almost as strange as his life.
Letters, Winter 2024
Reconstructing the Bible I’d like to take issue with Ethan Schwartz’s recent essay “You Say You Want a Revelation” reviewing Edward Feld’s The Book of Revolutions. Feld did not wing it or merely “read between the lines,” as Schwartz states. Feld cleanly lays out evidence that for those who wrote the Torah, “the decision to be inclusive, to incorporate vying…
Lovers (and Haters) of Zion
A new history of Zionism tells the tale through the towering emotions of its proponents and adversaries.
Of “Good Jews” and Bad Binaries
Anti-Israeli bigots do not hate Israel because they believe the worst about its actions. They feel an urge to believe the worst about Israeli actions because they hate Israel.
Oh Homeland, Don’t You Wonder (Tzion Ha-lo Tishali)
Dan Alter translates Judah Halevi's poem of yearning for Zion from nearly a thousand years ago.
Origin Stories
If the Israelites of the Hebrew Bible weren't Jewish, when did Judaism begin?
Pogrom: A Poem
Will the hunters come again to our abode tonight, seeking our souls with gun threats? Will they come quiet and furtive, until the crack of a shot cuts through the crickets? Perhaps they will arrive with a shofar blast like the lords of the land subduing the world, bringing their sons to teach them the wiles of war, carrying our…
Readjusting Sights
Reams of military history, and recollections by generals have been written on Israel’s many wars, but in this bookish country, Haim Sabato is one of the few Israeli soldiers to write a truly literary memoir.