Letters
Letters, Spring 2026
Canonizing the Rav; I'm Walkin' Here!
Reviews
Lost and Found and Random
Are ancient hair coverings Jewish texts? According to a wide-ranging new anthology, yes.
Members of the Scribe
What can an insulted, ancient Israelite soldier teach us about the Bible?
Frogs, and Locusts, and Lice, Oh My!
What do eighteenth century English preachers and twentieth century Hollywood directors have in common? They both love the ten plagues.
The Unbearable Lightness of Exile
A new book asks if exile is really that bad—despite all the evidence that it is.
Leap of Faith
Matti Friedman argues that Hannah Sensesh and her fellow WWII parachutists weren’t commandos as much as they were storytellers.
Converted Energy
What ghosts haunted Muriel Spark?
Vocabulary Lesson
How bad is antisemitism? According to the protestations of a new book, maybe not too bad at all.
Kaplan Unbound
Reconstructing Mordecai Kaplan's holy wars.
Readings
Rediscovering Rebecca Gratz
Rebecca Gratz was more than a great Jewish philanthropist with a legendary backstory. She was also a worried older sister, as newly discovered letters reveal.
Updike and the Jews
John Updike's stories about Henry Bech were a chutzpadik, shape-shifting experiment in Jewish mimicry. But what did they reveal about their creator?
Reflections
Breaching the Walls of History
Why was it so important to a prominent haredi rabbi to tie himself up in speculative knots just to deny a library checkout list?
Yavne and its Sage: Menahem Kahana (1946–2025)
When he skipped a Shabbat lecture, Kahana shrugged. “If everyone came to the shiur, who would learn Torah?”
The Arts
Zim Zum
A new biography of Barnett Newman could have used some contraction.
Last Word
My Father’s Seders
Verses flowed through his mind as easily as a boat on a waveless river. Why fight with an antisemite when you could rhyme him into shame?
