Attacked by Anti-Semites for Her Jewish Roots, an Italian Politician Gives Credence to Anti-Semitism
The “Etruscan nose.”
March 6, 2023
A 14th-Century Jewish Community Viewed Itself as Having Relived the Book of Esther
Megillat Esther and Second Purim.
As the story of a diasporic Jewry threatened by anti-Semitic politicians, who must save themselves without prophetic guidance or explicit miracles, the book of Esther reflected the experience of Jews living in exile in a way no other biblical book could. Hence the proliferation of “Second Purims” or “Minor Purims,” local holidays commemorating particular communities’ rescue from an external threat, modeld after the holiday that begins this evening. Chaya Sara Oppenheim describes one such Second Purim, and the handwritten scroll associated with it:
March 6, 2023
Secular and Religious Israelis Both Account for the Country’s Demographic Miracle
Viewing children as a blessing.
New York City’s Mayor Takes a Washingtonian View of Religion and Politics
“State is the body. Church is the heart.”
A 14th-Century Jewish Community Viewed Itself as Having Relived the Book of Esther
Megillat Esther and Second Purim.
Brain Surgery in Bronze-Age Canaan
“Trephination” was a luxury of the wealthy.