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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...

ArticlesIssue 47 | April 2019Purim

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...

20th centuryAmerican JewsColumnsIssue 11 | July 2012New YorkPeople

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 people would probably choose...

ArticlesIsrael Independence DayIsrael's warsIssue 16 | April-May 2013Land of IsraelStatesmen

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...

20th centuryAmerican JewsArticlesIssue 11 | July 2012New York

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...

American JewsArticlesIssue 11 | July 2012New YorkPost-1948

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 with a story....

20th centuryAmerican JewsArticlesIssue 11 | July 2012New York

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...

20th centuryArticlesIssue 11 | July 2012New YorkPeople

My Son, the Gangster

Robert Rockaway

New York’s Jewish gangsters lived fast and furious. Exploiting the criminal opportunities created by Prohibition, they masterminded a network of crime that spread far beyond New York and earned their fellow Jews’ scorn – and...

20th centuryAmerican JewsArticlesIssue 11 | July 2012New YorkPeople

Tale of a Trail | The Underground Prisoners’ Museum

Tamar HaYardeni

“Bevingrad” was the highest-security British prison in the Middle East, but that didn’t stop Jewish paramilitaries from lying through their teeth and crawling through its sewers in a daring escape Tamar HaYardeni Where To? The...

ColumnsIndependence DayIssue 32 | June 2016

From the Archives | With Thanks from Damascus

Yochai Ben-Ghedalia

Not only community leaders suffered interrogation and humiliation in the Damascus Affair – so did their wives. Their letter of thanks recently came to light Yochai Ben-Ghedalia On February 5, 1840, Father Thomas, a Capuchin monk...

ColumnsIssue 15 | February 2013

A Soul Divided – Heinrich Heine

Asael Abelman

Though baptized at age twenty-eight, Heinrich Heine remained torn between Judaism and German nationalism, tradition and modernity Asael Abelman Poet, freedom fighter, and cosmopolitan in exile, Heinrich Heine bore the burden of an evolving modernity....

19th centuryArticlesGermanyIssue 16 | April-May 2013Writers

Issues

Esther: The Persian Version – Book of Esther