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The Spice Queen // Alex Tal
Beatrice, Hannah, or Gracia? The lives of the conversos and their descendants in the 16th century were a masquerade of names and identities. Most remarkable was Dona Gracia, who used her fabulous wealth and international contacts to protect her people
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Miss Palestine // Hizky Shoham
In 1920s Tel Aviv, Miss Palestine pageants transformed Queen Esther from a historical figure into a symbol of feminine allure. Yet beauty queens who dared use their moment in the spotlight to escape anonymity faced harsh public criticism
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Calling Henrietta // Efrat Krausz
From teaching immigrants to setting up a country-wide social work system, from founding Hadassah to saving thousands of young people through Youth Aliya, nothing seems to have been beyond Henrietta Szold. How did a nonpartisan American pacifist become a pre-state Zionist leader? Because whenever Jews called, Henrietta came
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Cooking Up a Revolution // Chana Kehat
The rebbetzin who preferred learning Talmud to cooking and laundry, Rayna Batya Berlin, wife of the head of Volozhin Yeshiva, could be termed the first Orthodox Jewish feminist
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Herod’s Last Monument // Sara Jo Ben Zvi
Open now at the Israel Museum, Israel’s most ambitious archaeology exhibit ever –is also the first world wide devoted to Herod the Great. The challenges faced by the exhibition’s curators make one realize why
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Book review
The Jewish Gospel, Daniel Boyarin // Lara Kwalbrun
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From the Archives
With Thanks from Damascus // Yochai Ben-Gedalia
Letter of thanks from the wives of community leaders in the Damascus Affair
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