Father and Son in America: A Memorial Candle
by Howard R. Wolf
When, in 1978, I sent my brother--who has lived in Portugal for more than 40 years--a book I had written about our...
Next Year in Beijing?
by Sophie Lavine
In the spring of 2013, our family of four broke from our usual Passover routine and spent the holiday in Beijing, China--not the...
An Inside Look at the World Zionist Congress Elections
by Liat Deener-Chodirker
Every few years, Diaspora Jews have the opportunity to vote for the World Zionist Congress, which oversees the World Zionist Organization. The congress...
Religious Liberties and Gay Rights in Indiana
by Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil
Following a weeklong outcry over Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act—which was criticized for curtailing gay rights—state Republicans have now announced that they...
Jewish Word // Judeans
These days, all eyes are on what many are calling the new anti-Semitism, arising from both far-right and far-left politics, radical Islam and virulent anti-Zionist ideologies. But the old anti-Semitism isn’t forgotten—a 2013 Anti-Defamation League poll showed that 26 percent of Americans believe that “Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.”
Our Bread of Affliction
by Liat Deener-Chodirker
Every year at the Passover seder, Jews across the world celebrate our liberation from slavery, enjoying meals of abundance while eating matzah, the...
Ask the Rabbis // Special Passover Edition
Is it permitted to invite a non-Jew to your Seder? And is it a good idea?
What Lincoln Meant to America’s Jews
by Eileen Lavine
"The history of the Jews in America would have been quite different without Abraham Lincoln," says Jonathan Sarna, co-author of a new book...
Alan Gross: A Profile in Art and Courage
The Washington, DC resident and former USAID subcontractor was arrested in 2009 for bringing computer and networking equipment to Cuba’s Jewish community. Two years later, he was convicted of being “a threat to the security and integrity of the state,” and sentenced to 15 years. As a prisoner, Gross lived his life in the confines of a small cell, fighting anger, boredom and declining health...
Editing the Editor
The Education of an Interloper
by Jack Miles
It was as a student at the Hebrew University during the 1966-1967 academic year that I was first introduced to...
Curating a New Jewish Canon
When Jack Miles approached me with the proposition to edit the Judaism volume of the projected Norton Anthology of World Religions, I was naturally flattered but also confounded. There are, of course, many anthologies of Judaism in different formats. But the Norton anthologies are different.
Book Review // The UnAmericans
“Listen,” says Tomás to his daughter, Daniela. “I know what you wrote.” Tomás is an academic, a Czech, who got out of Prague before the fall of communism, along with his wife, Katka, and baby Daniela. Now, he’s teaching at a two-bit college in Maine, divorced from Katka when their little girl was only two, and nearly estranged from his grown daughter, now a playwright. As “The Quietest Man” begins, Daniela has sold her very first play—and her father, the tale’s narrator, is determined to use her good fortune to reconnect with her...