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Issues 51-100

Old meets new by the Siloam Pool. Illustration using a photograph by Oren Cohen for Megalim Institute, City of David

Articles

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 part of an ident

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 armo

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 The Islamic Revolu

Behind the Veil – Mashhadi Jews

Hilda Nissimi

Crypto-Jews are usually associated with the conversos of early modern Spain and Portugal, but less than two hundred years ago, the Jews of Mashhad, Iran, met a similar fate. How did a century in hiding affect Jewish life in this community?

The Hasid From Prague – Jiří Langer

Levi Cooper

What led a young, acculturated Jew from Prague to seek guidance at the court of the Bełz Hasidic master? What brought this spiritual seeker back to his hometown and then to Tel Aviv? And how was that journey linked to this poet’s homosexual

Royal Convert – Queen Helene of Adiabene

Tal Ilan

Even antiquity had its celebrity culture, with intellectuals chronicling the lives of the famous. The conversion of an entire royal family to Judaism thus fascinated both the sages and Josephus, who recorded the wondrous deeds of Helene, Mo