Home > Issues > Issue 71 | December 2024

    Issue 71 | December 2024

    Issue 71 | December 2024

    Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai | Illustration: Ovadiah Benishu

    Articles

  • Why do such different Jewish communities all feed birds? A Jew distributing food to pigeons in Piazzo San Marco, Venice | Photo: oliale72

    Feeding the Heavens – Jewish Birdfeeding Customs

    Yossi Ziv

    Both Polish and Ethiopian Jews traditionally fed birds at specific times of year, ascribing deep meaning to this practice. Did the custom spread from south to north with the migratory flocks, or was it simply the Jewish imagination that too

  • Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai was among the first 19th- century thinkers to call for the establishment of a Jewish home in the land of Israel | Illustration by Ovadia Benishu

    The First Zionist Visionary – Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai

    Yitzhak Krausz

    At first glance, 19th-century rabbi Yehuda Alkalai’s writings seem like traditional Jewish interpretations of biblical prophecies, but closer scrutiny reveals a strikingly modern redemptive vision – which had yet to be dubbed Zionism Yitzha

  • Bronze coinage from the Bar Kokhba Revolt | Kadman Numismatic Pavilion, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv–Jaffa

    Coins of Rebellion – Judean Rebels’ Coins

    Yinon Horesh

    Unlike other freedom fighters throughout history, the Judeans rebelling against Rome even minted their own coins. Why “waste” energy and resources on mere symbols of independence? What subversive messages did they convey? Yinon Horesh

  • Flora and her daughter Rachel, 1902 | Photo: Major Stanley Smith, Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine Archive, National Library of Israel

    Woman of Worth and Wisdom – Flora Sassoon

    Hezi Cohen

    Even today, most boardrooms remain dominated by men, but 130 years ago a Jewish woman shattered the glass ceiling to preside over one of India’s largest mercantile empires. A philanthropist and scholar to boot, Flora Sassoon was a force to

  • Columns

  • Portrait of a People | On Stage

    Naomi Samuel

    Naomi Samuel Eunuch’s Costume for the Ballet ScheherazadeParis, 191027 X 43 cmGouache and graphite with

  • Quick Looks at Books

    Sara Jo Ben-Zvi

    The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s Attic | Reading Herzl in Beirut  Sara Jo Ben-Zvi The Madwoman in the Rabbi’s AtticRereading the Women of the Talmud Gila FineMaggi

  • Tale of a Trail | Kibbutz Gesher

    Tamar HaYardeni

    Three bridges, one Arab village, three Jewish settlements, a railway station, and a hydroelectric plant. How did a single bend in the River Jordan generate so much activity? Tamar HaYardeni Where To? Kibbutz GesherRestored site

  • Voices of the Past | Eliezer Ben Yehuda

    Eliezer Ben Yehuda

    Father of modern Hebrew Eliezer Ben Yehuda describes how Balkan nationalism drew him to Zionism Eliezer Ben Yehuda Eliezer Ben Yehuda (see “Hebrew Zealot,” Segula 22) wrote this article soon after the issuance of the Balfour De

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