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    Issue 50 | December 2019

    Issue 50 | December 2019

    Nehama Lipshitz, the nightingale of Soviet Jewry, as Rosina in Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville, Kaunas, Lithuania, 1951

    Articles

  • Wimpel made from the circumcision cloth of Max Lilienthal circa 1814 | Photo © Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life

    The Ties That Bind – Wimpels

    Susan Nashman Fraiman

    Separate seating in synagogue has long kept women far from the scrolls of the law. Yet women have traditionally decorated the very fabrics that adorn and protect Torah scrolls. Some of these textiles are even associated with motherhood and

  • King David’s Diplomacy – David and the Philistines

    Gershon Galil

    Though scholars argue bitterly over the historicity of the Davidic kingdom, new archaeological discoveries are shedding surprising light on King David’s allies. The remains of a northern Philistine kingdom ruled by Toi of Hamath hint at som

  • In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin recounted how the moral work he developed in his youth improved his life. Portrait of Franklin, David Martin, 1767 | The White House Historical Association

    Forget Franklin – Franklin and the Musar Movement

    Shai Afsai

    Leading members of the Lithuanian Musar movement loved Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanów’s method of character refinement. But did they know where it came from?  Shai Afsai In part 2 of his famous autobiography, American fou

  • Voice Behind the Iron Curtain – Nehama Lipshitz

    Zvi Golany

    Opera singer Nehama Lipshitz defied the Soviets not just by performing in Yiddish and Hebrew but by collaborating with Israeli undercover agencies in the USSR Zvi Golany Deep in the Soviet Union, where any public demonstration o

    • Columns

  • Book Review | House on Endless Waters

    Sara Jo Ben-Zvi

    A spontaneous visit to Amsterdam produces a tale within a tale, as the author, her characters, and their creations exchange identities against a background of betrayal and rescue under Nazi rule Sara Jo Ben-Zvi House on Endless

  • Book Review | The autobiography of Solomon Maimon

    Elka Weber

    Solomon Maimon’s translation of his role model’s Guide for the Perplexed lies at the heart of his autobiography, attesting to his stubborn quest for knowledge above all Elka Weber The Autobiography of Solomon Maimon:The Complet

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