Paradox or Pluralism?
Walzer’s paradox of liberation, if that is what it is, is that religion is back, or that despite the extraordinary success of secularizing revolutionaries it never quite went away.
Playing the Fool
Of the many varieties of anti-Semitism, or anti-Judaism, that have plagued the Jews over the centuries, two recurrent general patterns can be identified by the holidays that celebrate triumphs over them: Purim and Hanukkah.
Strange Journey: A Response to Shmuel Trigano
Two historians challenge Shmuel Trigano’s analysis of anti-Semitic violence in France.
Tested Loyalties
What if a national leader chooses to bring disgrace on his family rather than compromise his political beliefs?
The Great Gaon of Italian Art
Berenson’s teacher Charles Eliot Norton dismissively dubbed Berenson's method the “ear and toenail school,” but Berenson employed the technique in his first book to great effect.
The Life of the Flying Aperçu
Dickstein’s story is not a narrative of apostasy and rebellion; belief and doctrine play a minor role.
The View from Paris: A Rejoinder to Ethan Katz and Maud Mandel
The flaw Ethan B. Katz’s and Maud S. Mandel’s analysis of the position of Jews in France is that “they view the anti-Semitic violence we Jews are living through here in France through American-made binoculars,” says Shmuel Trigano.
Jews of Dune
In Chapterhouse: Dune, the sixth book in the Dune series and the last Herbert wrote before his death, the Jews show up.
A Conversation with Leon Wieseltier
Abraham Socher and Leon Wieseltier talk about the responsibilities of Jewish intellectuals, standing on the shoulders of (and tearing down) giants, and crying cookies.
Accounting for the Soul
Mussar Yoga makes for a surprising deli combo platter of the spirit, even in our easy-going mix-and-match America.