Tuvia Ruebner’s Poetry and Why Translation Matters – By Dara Barnat
Dara Barnat on Rachel Tzvia Back’s In the Illuminated Dark Being a victim, again and again a victim — what a job! Here and
... [Read More]
Modern Jewish History
A Sociolinguistic History of the Jews – By Sarah Bunin Benor
Sarah Bunin Benor on Bernard Spolsky’s The Languages of the Jews Intellectual history. Political history. Cultural history. Economic history. There are so many lenses through
... [Read More]
A Conversation with Sayed Kashua
Margaret Litvin and Simon Rabinovitch with Sayed Kashua In Emile Habibi’s satirical novel The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (1974), the Arab
... [Read More]
Not Like the Egyptians – By Jonathan Boyarin
Jonathan Boyarin on Beth A. Berkowitz’s Defining Jewish Difference: From Antiquity to the Present Trigger warning: devotees of popular Kabbalah and Judaism may be distressed
... [Read More]
Many Admirers, Few Disciples: The Life and Legacy of Rav Kook – By Samuel Thrope
Samuel Thrope on Yehudah Mirsky’s Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution In the fall of 1913, Avraham Yitzhak Kook, then serving as
... [Read More]
Aztec Birth Customs and Early Modern European Jews – By Adam Shear
Adam Shear on Yaacov Deutsch’s Judaism in Christian Eyes Christian thinkers have always been interested in Jews and Judaism. Some biblical exegetes in
... [Read More]
Jewish Families: From Babylon to Brooklyn and Back Again – By Kimberly Arkin
Kimberly Arkin on Jonathan Boyarin’s Jewish Families A central tension haunts contemporary Jewish studies. Historically, the discipline both presupposed and documented Jewish peoplehood —
... [Read More]
The Lewd, the Obscene, the Lascivious in Jewish Literature – By Stephen J. Whitfield
Stephen J. Whitfield on Josh Lambert’s Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture Have Jewish writers shown a proclivity for transgressions of good taste, for
... [Read More]
“Arab,” “Jew,” and Identity in Israel – By Samuel Thrope
Samuel Thrope on Shadow in Baghdad Shadow in Baghdad – Trailer from Zygote Films on Vimeo. In 1946, Baghdad was a Jewish town.
... [Read More]
A Tragedy of the Most Ironic Sort – By Todd Hasak-Lowy
Todd Hasak-Lowy on Ari Shavit’s My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel Every publishing season brings a new batch of titles dealing with
... [Read More]