The Fall of Sudan’s Ruler May Mark the End of One of the Arab World’s Most Enduring Islamist Regimes
The implications of Omar al-Bashir’s ouster.
April 17, 2019
The Quasi-Jewish Messianist Sect at the Center of Contemporary Turkish Anti-Semitism
Conspiracy theories about the Dönme.
When the Jewish false messiah Shabbetai Tsvi converted to Islam in 1666—under threat of execution by the Ottoman sultan—most of those who had believed his claims became disillusioned; others remained committed in secret. But his most devoted followers joined him in becoming Muslim, a move they justified through Shabtai’s kabbalistic teachings. Their descendants, known as the Dönme, practice their own idiosyncratic form of Judaism in secret and remain a separate community in modern Turkey, where they are the subject of outlandish, and anti-Semitic, conspiracy theories. Türkay Salim Nefes writes:
April 17, 2019
Ilhan Omar and Her Willing Dupes
Compassion out of one side of her mouth, contempt out of the other.
The Quasi-Jewish Messianist Sect at the Center of Contemporary Turkish Anti-Semitism
Conspiracy theories about the Dönme.
A 5th-Century Gold Coin Found in Israel Commemorates the Emperor Who Took Away Jews’ Rights
Evidence of the man who ended the Sanhedrin, on the Sanhedrin Trail.
How the Books of Exodus and Esther Use Humor to Underscore a Message of Hope
Ironic inversions unite two narratives of redemption.