The Improbables
Not writing what you know can help an author steer away from autobiographical shoals, but it puts a certain research burden on the writer.
The Jewbird
It is in his stories, rather than his novels, that Malamud emerged as a unique writer. A new series brings new exposure to both.
The Shtetl Trap
How should we think about the Eastern European market town? Did the shtetl ever have a golden age?
The Ukrainian Question
"If I had to choose between Hitler and Stalin, Adam Michnik once said, I pick Marlene Dietrich." Vladimir Putin's propaganda notwithstanding, this is not the choice facing Ukrainian Jews.
Tradition! Tradition!
Wonder of wonders! One of the most beloved musicals ever created far outstripped its own creators' expectations for its success.
Missing Menachem
When Menachem Begin led the Likud to victory in 1977, Yitzhak Ben-Aharon spoke for many in the Israeli political establishment when he said that “if this is the will of the people, we have to replace the people.” Begin’s image has evolved, but he remains a contested figure.
A Stone for His Slingshot
In 1948 screenwriter Ben Hecht lectured “a thousand bookies, ex-prize fighters, gamblers, jockeys, touts,” and gangsters on the burdens and responsibilities of Jewish history. The night at Slapsy Maxie’s was a big success, but the speech was lost, until now.
Are We All Khazars Now?
While it's exciting to imagine our ancestors as "Jews with swords," the science just isn't there.
At Professor Bachlam’s
A lost chapter from Agnon's final, classic novel Shira, translated here for the first time.
Dangerous Liaisons: Modern Scholars and Medieval Relations Between Jews and Christians
In the spring of 1942—which, as Mel Brooks noted, was “winter for Poland and France”—Salo Baron published a boldly revisionist article. He was thinking of present-day Europe, a 12th-century Jewish woman named Polcelina, and perhaps also his colleagues.