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Portrait of a People | A Dream Finally Come True

Naomi Samuel

Naomi Samuel The LashGouache25 x 17.5 cmTbilisi, 1939Georgian National Museum, Tbilisi Shalom Koboshvili1876–1941 Historic Realism Solomon (Shalom) Koboshvili was born to a poor Jewish family in Akhaltsikhe, Georgia. Hoping to raise a scholar, his parents...

ColumnsIssue 61 | May 2022

From the Archives | From Morocco to Amsterdam

Yochai Ben-Ghedalia

The memoir of an anonymous scholar features miracles, mishaps, and multiple wives as his thirst for Jewish learning drives him from home Yochai Ben-Ghedalia Highly Respected Professor, This copy, which I made in my student...

ColumnsIssue 59 | November 2021

Portrait of a People | A Fleeting Guest

Naomi Samuel

Naomi Samuel Jewish Wedding in MoroccoOil on canvas140 x 105 cmParis, 1839Louvres Museum, Paris Eugène Delacroix1798–1863 OrientalismRomantic Western depictions of everyday life in the Near East, beginning largely with Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt and the...

ColumnsIssue 59 | November 2021

Quick Looks at Books

Sara Jo Ben-Zvi

Medicine: From Biblical Canaan to Modern Israel | Cities of Splendour in the Shaping of Sephardi History | Memorable Sephardi Voices | Contextualizing Jewish Temples Sara Jo Ben-Zvi Medicine: From Biblical Canaan to Modern Israel...

ColumnsIssue 59 | November 2021

Tale of a Trail | Khirbet Bak, Mount Meron

Tamar HaYardeni

Israel Bak wasn’t one to give up. The first printer in Ottoman Palestine, he also established an agricultural village on Mount Meron in a series of none-too-successful pioneering endeavors Tamar HaYardeni Where To? Khirbet Bak,...

19th centuryColumnsentrepreneursIssue 59 | November 2021Lag B'OmerLand of IsraelZionism

Voices of the Past | Rabbi Moses Son of Nahman

Rabbi Moses Son of Nahman

Two letters sent by Nahmanides to his sons provide a glimpse of his personal life Nahmanides’ scant surviving personal correspondence includes the following two letters to his sons, Nahman and Shlomo (Solomon). Writing to Nahman...

ColumnsIssue 62 | September 2022

Tale of a Trail | Cave of the Patriarchs

Tamar HaYardeni

Generations of rulers and believers have added layers of construction to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, but mystery still shrouds the original cave’s dark depths Tamar HaYardeni Where To? Cave of the PatriarchsSacred...

ColumnsIssue 62 | September 2022

From the Archives | Unfinished Business

Gabriel Alexander

A portrait Gustav Klimt failed to complete before his death has left a trail across the art world, but how many know the story of the woman portrayed? Her secrets have long lain buried in...

ColumnsIssue 62 | September 2022

Voices of the Past | Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Shmuel Yosef Agnon

Upon learning that every last Jew there had been murdered by the Nazis, Agnon set about recreating Buczacz in all its vibrancy, from its heyday as a seat of Jewish learning until the day its...

20th centuryColumnsIssue 63 | December 2022UkraineWriters

Quick Looks at Books

Sara Jo Ben-Zvi

Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish | An Unchosen People | Jews and Their Roman Rivals | The 36 Sara Jo Ben-Zvi Categorically Jewish, Distinctly PolishPolish Jewish History Reflected and Refracted Moshe RosmanLittman Library of Jewish Civilization,...

20th centuryBook ReviewsColumnsIssue 63 | December 2022Land of IsraelPolandRoman Empire

Tale of a Trail | Herodium National Park

Sara Jo Ben-Zvi

Why did Herod bury his architectural masterpiece and final resting place, and who discovered it? Sara Jo Ben-Zvi Where To? Herodium National Park Herzl has Herzliya, Montefiore has the Jerusalem neighborhood of Yemin Moshe,...

AntiquityColumnsHerodHistoric Walks in IsraelIssue 63 | December 2022Land of Israel

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Portrait of a People | A Dream Finally Come True