Just Because the Knesset Closed for a Few Days, Israeli Democracy Was Not about to Collapse
The political crisis is real, but the hysteria is unwarranted.
March 24, 2020
Does Talmud Study Really Explain Jews’ Remarkable Contributions to Modern Civilization?
Genius and Anxiety.
The world’s Jewish population, notes Josef Joffe, is about the same as that of Kazakhstan, yet while most people would be hard-pressed to name a single Kazakh, they could easily name a number of famous Jews. In his recent book Genius and Anxiety, the music critic and novelist Norman Lebrecht joins the long list of those who have written on this topic. To Joffe, Lebrecht is “a storyteller par excellence” and, when it comes to explaining “how Jews transformed Western ways of thinking and doing,” the book “is intellectual history at its best.” But when it comes to trying to answer the question at the book’s heart—why the Jews?—Joffe finds Lebrecht’s frequent invocations of the Talmud unsatisfying:
March 24, 2020
Raed Salah, Who Spread Islamism among Arab Israelis, Goes to Jail
The man behind Temple Mount violence.
Gaza’s Rich Jewish History Includes Decades of Friendship with Local Arabs
From the Hasmoneans, to a famed poet, to the rabbi and imam who coauthored a book.
Does Talmud Study Really Explain Jews’ Remarkable Contributions to Modern Civilization?
Genius and Anxiety.
How a Once-in-a-Generation 19th-Century Rabbi Responded to Cholera
Clean your houses, wash your hands, don’t eat pickles—and avoid crowds.