Book Review | The Anti-Semite Who Wasn’t
By John Marszalek
Jonathan Sarna’s book When General Grant Expelled the Jews is going to make a significant splash amidst a wave of new books reevaluating the career...
Book Review | Jerusalem: The Unholy Story
By Arieh O'Sullivan
Jerusalem is in an awful location. There’s no water. It’s far from any main trade route, surrounded by mountains, and sitting on an...
Book Review | They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore
By Pamela Eisenbaum
Daniel Boyarin, professor of Talmudic Culture at the University of California Berkeley, may be the most influential scholar of ancient Judaism today. He...
Ask the Rabbis | Are Jews Still Expecting a Messiah?
INDEPENDENT
Very few of us ever expected the Messiah. We spent most of our history hoping for one. And one day, indeed, the dove will return...
Jewish Word | A Word Fit for a King
By Caitlin Yoshika Kandil
Today, “messiah” usually brings to mind a personal savior, the end of time, the Kingdom of Heaven—or Jesus Christ. This grand, contemporary...
Nathan Guttman: Is the American Right too Right for Israel?
By Nathan Guttman
This election cycle has officially ended the decades-long debate over whether Israel should be an American campaign issue. For better or worse, it...
Eetta Prince-Gibson: Can a “Messiah” Save Israel Now?
By Eetta Prince-Gibson
“The Messiah is not coming. The Messiah is not going to phone, either.”
In a still-popular song from the 1980s, Israeli rock singer Shalom...
Naomi Ragen: The Ultra-Orthodox’ PR Problem
By Naomi Ragen
The cultural divide in Israel between Haredi and secular Jews has reached new extremes. In December, Haredi men spat upon a terrified eight-year-old...
Clifford D. May: Are We Too Fair-minded to Take Our Own Side?
By Clifford D. May
In the 20th century, a war was waged against the Jews of Europe. It culminated in the Holocaust. In the 21st century,...
From The Editor
By Nadine Epstein
Welcome to our Messiah Issue!
The specter of a messiah is alive and well in the 21st century. We may not think of it...
Fiction // Infections
This story is the second-place winner of the 2010 Moment Magazine-Karma Foundation Short Fiction Contest. Founded in 2000, the contest was created to recognize authors...
Messiah Mania: A Short History of Four Jews and Their Legacies
Jesus
Simon Bar Kokhba
Shabbtai Tzvi
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
No one can verify the exact number, but to date, Judaism has rejected at least 24 Jews claiming to...