Jewish Word | Not That Kind of Rabbi

In 1970 The New York Times ran an article about the secret language of New York City police officers. ...

Jewish Word | Beware the Fires of Moloch

In 2012, days after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 20 children and six adults, historian Garry Wills wrote an impassioned essay in The New York Review of Books. ...

The State of the Jewish State

That Israel’s existence is miraculous is clear—as every respondent made sure to let us know—but the rest, like everything in Judaism, is up for debate. ...

Jewish Word | Israel: What’s in a Name?

Israel was not considered as a name for the new Jewish state until late in the deliberations. ...

The Meaning of ‘Semicha’

How did a word that means "leaning" become the way to describe the act of becoming a rabbi? ...

Jewish Word | ‘Almah’ Grows Up

After working for seven years at a Jewish parenting website, Molly Tolsky wanted to create a space for an audience she herself identified with: young Jewish women focusing on careers and their place in the world who weren’t necessarily thinking about marriage or children. ...
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Special Edition | The Making of a Jewish Word

Technology inexplicably fails us often enough that we need a word for the occasion. ...
Next Year in Jerusalem

Jewish Word | Why We Say ‘Next Year in Jerusalem’

Seders all over the world this Passover will end with the words L’Shanah Ha Ba’ah b’Yerushalayim—“Next year in Jerusalem.” ...
Shmita

Jewish Word | Shmita: A Sabbath for the Land—and Ourselves

Flapping proudly in fallow fields, large green and yellow banners in rural Israel proclaim: Kan Shomrim Shmita (“Here We Keep Shmita”). ...
Two pages from the Talmud, part of the inspiration for the word Talmudic

Jewish Word | The Hairsplitting Complexity of ‘Talmudic’

More often than not, the word “Talmudic” isn’t about the Talmud. ...
A dybbuk, an evil spirit, clings to a man who is struggling to walk.

Jewish Word // Dybbuk

A Ghost from Our Past by Sala Levin Fans of the film-making, Minnesota-bred brothers Joel and Ethan Coen were transported

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Jewish Word | The Joyful Power of Hallelujah

In American culture, the word “hallelujah” is so associated with Christian prayer and music—and overall rejoicing and jubilation—that people often forget it is originally Hebrew. ...