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Issues 1-50

Articles

Curator or Creator? – Holy Sites

Doron Bar

After the Old City of Jerusalem fell to the Jordanians, Dr. Shmuel Zanwil Kahane took charge of Israel’s few remaining holy sites. Pitching new pilgrimage destinations with boundless creativity and more than a little nerve, Kahane even adde

The Price of Dissent – Uriel da Costa

Moti Benmelech

A converso who returned to his roots, Uriel da Costa found the Judaism practiced in Amsterdam a far cry from the faith he’d encountered in the Bible. The Jewish community’s response to his puzzled objections forced him back into hiding, thi

The Shrine on the Mountain – Herzl’s Tomb

Ophir Yarden

Herzl’s tomb and the nearby military cemetery have become central locations in the celebration of Israel’s national holidays. Why did this hill in modern Jerusalem supersede more traditional sites? And what does that choice reveal about the

Esther: The Persian Version – Book of Esther

Thamar E. Gindin

Is the story of Esther a myth, or were its dramatic heroes and villains real people on the stage of Persian history? Iranian sources paint a complex but fascinating picture, which could – like the book of Esther – go either way Thamar E. Gi

The Best Defense – Ben-Gurion

Yagil Henkin

Ben-Gurion could never have declared a state in May 1948 without first painstakingly transforming Palestine’s ragtag Jewish militias into an army Yagil Henkin What was David Ben-Gurion’s most significant accomplishment? Most peo

Strength in Numbers

Jeffrey S. Gurock

In New York circa 1900, Jewish identity was in the streets and in the air; one in four New Yorkers was Jewish, and formal religious affiliation felt unnecessary. Fifty years later, suburban Jews needed communal institutions - and today's ur

Jewish as Can Be

Rachel Gordan

Are New York’s Jews opting for more Judaism or less? Is their Jewishness nothing more than bagels and lox, or is the growing visibility of ultra- Orthodox communities an indication of future trends? Rachel Gordan In 1946 a young

No Business Like Show Business

Yuval Rivlin

Broadway was a springboard to integration for talented Jewish arrivals from Europe, yet their musicals’ immigrant themes are unmistakable Yuval Rivlin When asked to define modern Jewish identity, Sigmund Freud often responded wi

Ticket to Riches

Rebecca Kobrin

The waves of migration from eastern Europe did not simply ebb and flow. Orchestrated by the entrepreneurial spirit of the likes of Sender Jarmulowsky, they created surges of capital. The trade in ship tickets changed individual fortunes as

Columns

Picture of the Month | Planting Seedlings

Yisrael Goldman

Yisrael Goldman Tu Bishvat, the new year for trees in the Jewish calendar, has gained significantly in popularity over the generations. From a date of mainly fiscal significance for calculating agricultural tithes, it was expand

From the Archives | The Jewish American Secret Police

Hadassah Assouline

A Jewish community organization in New York dealt with myriad issues, even creating an internal police force to deal with rising crime Hadassah Assouline In early September 1908, the chief of the New York City Police Department