The First Debate Over Religious Martyrdom
The name of God is sanctified when life is preserved, not when it is proclaimed great an instant before life is obliterated.
The Man Who Thought in Pictures
S.Y. Agnon was a completely visual thinker. Now his stories have been turned into a comic book.
Two or Three Concepts of Dignity
Is human dignity a "useless concept" Does it obscure more than it reveals? Two important new books seek to defend strong versions of human dignity.
A Certain Late Discovery
Was Jacques Derrida a Jewish thinker?
Brother Baruch
Daniel Schwartz's excellent new book is the first ever to chart the changing image of Spinoza throughout the centuries.
Chopped Herring and the Making of the American Kosher Certification System
In 1986, the discovery of non-kosher vinegar in a classic Jewish delicacy led to a revolution in kosher supervision.
Famous Jews
How is Barbra Streisand's decision not to have her nose "fixed" similar to Sandy Koufax's decision not to pitch on Yom Kippur?
From the Middle to the End
A deceptively simple novel about a suburban, Midwestern Jewish family catapults into something annoyingly profound.
Golden Apples
Meet Hyam Plutzik, the poet who wrote a major work—and then disappeared.
Israel on the Hudson
An ambitious, new three-volume work attempts to tell the story of New York's Jews from the days of Peter Stuyvesant to the present.