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Issues 51-100

Articles

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

Lay of the Land – Ashtori Ha-parhi

Amichay Schwartz

Using skills honed over generations, 14th-century scholar Ashtori Ha-parhi wandered the length and breadth of the biblical land of Israel, quadrant in hand, resolving issues that had long troubled the Jewish world Amichay Schwartz

The Christian Search for China’s Jews – Jews of Kaifeng

Noam Urbach

What prompted the first Anglican bishop in China to seek out the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng? And why for centuries were missionaries the only ones to transmit word of these Jews westward? Noam Urbach In 1850, a radical

Joining Forces – Ultra-Orthadox Soliders

Moshe Ehrnvald

Though Israel’s ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students have long been exempt from military service, they weren’t always. In the struggle to secure what became the Jewish state, this camp’s rabbis and public figures were clear that their followers

With All Their Might – Kibbutz Ovadia in Slawków

Yochanan Ben-Yaacov

Kibbutz Ovadia’s unique blend of “Torah and Avoda,” learning and labor, served as a model for religious kibbutzim forming in prestate Israel and beyond – but the demands of this Polish Jewish collective experiment took their toll Yochanan B

Singlehanded – Yosef Trumpeldor

Amit Assis

Though most famous as the one-armed defender of Tel Hai, Yosef Trumpeldor was also a Russian patriot, dentist, and pre-kibbutz pioneer of agricultural collectives in the land of Israel. He also cofounded the Jewish Legion, which fought with

Shtetl at Sea – Knesset Israel Illegal Immigration Ship

Mordechay Saar Marmorstein

The SS Knesset Israel set sail to break the British blockade barring Holocaust survivors from the land of Israel. Packed with young and old from all walks of life, this floating shtetl defied His Majesty’s imperial fleet Mordechay Saar Marm

Columns

Quick Looks at Books

Sara Jo Ben-Zvi

101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel | The Massacre That Never Was Sara Jo Ben-Zvi 101 Treasures from the National Library of Israelby Raquel Ukele

Tale of a Trail | Sa’ad

Tamar HaYardeni

The founders of Kibbutz Sa’ad (literally, “Aid”) didn’t choose that name, but the establishment of this collective between Gaza and Beersheba in 1947 certainly aided in the Negev’s inclusion in the Jewish state Tamar HaYardeni W

Voices of the Past | Yosef Trumpeldor

Yosef Trumpeldor

Diary entries and letters from Trumpeldor’s final days, 1920   January 4 Many have asked: If the French with their rifles and machine guns can’t stand up to the Arabs, how can we […]? None of us doubted the imminence of Arab attack. The que

Voices of the Past | Hadassah Kaplan

Hadassah Kaplan

Hadassah Kaplan wrote the following letter to her father in Hebrew during her stay in Jerusalem in 1933, in response to his question of whether she recommended his relocating there  Hadassah Kaplan Dear Father, When I received y