Home > Articles

Articles

A World in Words – S.Y Agnon

Michal Shir-el

Nobel Prize–winning author Shmuel Yosef Agnon recreated a lost world in his prose. In Hebrew echoing the majesty of the prophets and the clarity of the Mishna, he peeled away nostalgia for the distant shtetl....

20th centuryArticlesIssue 63 | December 2022Literature and CultureUkraineWriters

A Zionist Life – Chaim Weizmann

Yemima Hovav

When requesting that Chaim Weizmann become Israel’s first president, Ben-Gurion described him as having done more to create the state than anyone else. Yet Weizmann’s new role effectively removed the lifelong activist from Israeli politics...

20th centuryArticlesIsrael Independence DayIssue 75 | December 2025Land of IsraelScientistsStatesmenUnited KingdomWW1Zionism

Bar Mitzvas Coming of Age – Bar Mitzva

Hizky Shoham

Thirteenth birthdays haven’t always been cause for Jewish celebration. When were the first bar and bat mitzva ceremonies, and why their enduring appeal even among otherwise unaffiliated Jews? Hizky Shoham Why celebrate bar and bat...

20th centuryAmericaAmerican JewsArticlesIssue 68 | March 2024Land of IsraelLifecycle

Warner Brothers’ Leading – Harry Warner

Yuval Rivlin

On the eve of World War II, Jews’ domination of Hollywood got political. How Harry Warner’s testimony before the Senate redefined Americanism Yuval Rivlin Harry Warner wasn’t a nice guy. Years of Hollywood wheeling and...

AmericaAmerican JewsArticlesIssue 75 | December 2025WWII

Game of Thrones – Hasmonean Civil War

Ilan Abecassis

The Hasmonean story began with the heroic Hanukka tale but ended in a civil war sparked by two rival royal brothers. Two cultural elites – Pharisee and Sadducee – vied for dominance in the death...

AntiquityArticlesHanukkahIssue 75 | December 2025Jerusalem

Clothed in Kindness – Clothing Sabbath

Levi Cooper and Itai Cooper

Teaser: The Jews who dominated Thessaloniki’s garment industry celebrated Hanukka by displaying their best wares – and by ensuring the community’s schoolboys were well clothed for winter. This worthy example spread far and wide Levi...

ArticlesEarly modern periodGreeceHanukkahIssue 75 | December 2025Rabbis

Greatness in Store – Gittel Dinowitz

Tamar HaYardeni

Very few know anything about her, and even the street sign bearing her name says precious little. Yet Gittel Dinowitz was a pillar of pre-state Jerusalem’s Old City, her leadership growing out of the store...

20th centuryArticlesIsrael's warsIssue 68 | March 2024JerusalemPre-state of IsraelWritersZionism

Living on the Edge – Forced Conversions in Spain

Shalom Sadik

The Spanish expulsion is usually considered the nadir of Judeo-Christian relations on the Iberian Peninsula, but in many ways the largely overlooked mass conversion of Jews a century earlier was far worse Shalom Sadik For...

ArticlesconversosIssue 68 | March 2024Medieval PeriodSpain

Zoroastrians at Heart – Iran’s Zoroastrian Heritage

Thamar E. Gindin

Beneath the veil of Iran’s current regime, its people have nurtured their pre-Islamic roots with pride. Until June 12, 2025, the Zoroastrian faith, the Sassanid-Persian Empire, and above all Cyrus, “king of kings,” were all...

ArticlesCyrusIranIssue 74 | October 2025The Sassanian EmpireZoroastrianism

Amsterdam Festival Prayer Book

Ephraim Shoham-Steiner

Two rabbis, a stonemason’s guild, a Jewish merchant, and the archbishop of Cologne all helped solve the riddle presented by a magnificent, medieval prayer book found in Amsterdam Ephraim Shoham-Steiner In September 2019, an armored...

ArticlesGermanyHigh Holy DaysIssue 74 | October 2025Medieval Period

Persian Riddle – Iran and Israel

David Menashri

Fifty years ago, Israelis lived and worked freely in Iran. How did those peaceful relations turn to war, and how do Iranians perceive Israel now, after half a century under the Islamic Republic? David Menashri...

20th centuryArticlesIranIssue 74 | October 2025KhoumeiniMohammad Reza Shah

Articles

A World in Words – S.Y Agnon

A Zionist Life – Chaim Weizmann

Bar Mitzvas Coming of Age – Bar Mitzva

Warner Brothers’ Leading – Harry Warner

Game of Thrones – Hasmonean Civil War

Clothed in Kindness – Clothing Sabbath

Greatness in Store – Gittel Dinowitz

Living on the Edge – Forced Conversions in Spain

Zoroastrians at Heart – Iran’s Zoroastrian Heritage

Amsterdam Festival Prayer Book

Persian Riddle – Iran and Israel

Join us

Follow us

Deepen your knowledge and embrace your Jewish heritage

Articles

A World in Words – S.Y Agnon

A Zionist Life – Chaim Weizmann

Bar Mitzvas Coming of Age – Bar Mitzva

Warner Brothers’ Leading – Harry Warner

Game of Thrones – Hasmonean Civil War

Clothed in Kindness – Clothing Sabbath

Greatness in Store – Gittel Dinowitz

Living on the Edge – Forced Conversions in Spain

Zoroastrians at Heart – Iran’s Zoroastrian Heritage

Amsterdam Festival Prayer Book

Persian Riddle – Iran and Israel

Feel free to share

You may also be interested in