The Ethics of Protective Edge
How does one deal with Hamas, an enemy that has eliminated any trace of the distinction between combatants and non-combatants, except for the purposes of propaganda?
Thoroughly Modern Maimonides?
Three recent books elucidate what, if anything, Maimonides has to say to us today.
Valhalla in Flames
To give their "Thousand Year Reich" a patina of tradition, the Nazis co-opted the German and Western European cultural canon.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Stepan Bandera: A Rejoinder to Dovid Katz
Konstanty Gebert responds to Dovid Katz's critique.
Zionism’s Forgotten Father
Nathan Birnbaum, one of Zionism's early leaders, looked like Herzl and wrote like Herzl (albeit not as successfully). But his unusual trajectory has reduced the space that might have been assigned to him in the history of Zionism.
Publishing Godliness: The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Other Revolution
Much of the discussion of the Rebbe's legacy focuses on his charisma, his saintliness, and his organizational skills, but first and arguably foremost, he was a book publisher.
Rethinking Jabotinsky: A Talk with Hillel Halkin
The Jewish Review of Books and Yale University Press hosted an evening for Hillel Halkin’s brilliant new biography of Vladimir Jabotinsky at YIVO.
Brief Kvetches: Notes to a 19th-Century Miracle Worker
One day in the 1860s, a father burst into Rabbi Elijah Guttmacher's study house begging for help. His son's stomach was distended, and he was barking like a dog.
Haim Gouri at 90
The poet turned 90 last fall, and his latest poems are among the best he has ever written.
Heschel Transcendent
Abraham Joshua Heschel’s intellectual peers included Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, Reinhold Niebuhr, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His main thought, Shai Held argues, was of transcendence.