The Seeing Eye ·
Jeremiahs in Paint and Stone
By Jacob WisseFor Christian and Jewish artists, the prophet has revealed something about timeless human struggles.
Subject
Arts & Culture
Latest Mosaic Content for Arts & Culture
Gleanings ·
War and Peace, and Shabbat
By Gary Saul MorsonWhy should an infinite, all-powerful being choose to rest? Tolstoy had an answer.
The Seeing Eye ·
Welter and Waste in the Hebrew Bible
By Jacob WisseThe Great Masters saw eternal stillness in Christian Scripture, and dynamism and change in Jewish Scripture.
Observations ·
Coming of Age Amid the Resurrection of Zion
By Ruth R. WisseThe Gavriel Tirosh Affair and the costs of Jewish restraint.
Observations ·
Where Did Shylock Get His Name?
By PhilologosThe unusual appellation testifies to the individuality of the character who bears it.
Observations ·
Nobody Wants All Hell to Break Loose. But Who’s Breaking, and from Where?
By PhilologosDonald Trump, Paradise Lost, and the origins of a phrase.
Response ·
Christians Believe in Divine Art. Jews Believe in Divinely Inspired Art. What Does the Difference Mean?
By Dr. Jacob WisseIn the Christian ideal of art, the artist is nowhere to be found. In the Jewish one, the artist is imbued with a divine spark and in special cases can achieve holiness.
Response ·
Twisted Tales: Christian Art Re-Presents the Hebrew Bible
By Larry SilverChristian artists often employ a notion called typology, or prefiguration, where events from the Hebrew Bible eventually find rhymes within the later life of Jesus.
Response ·
The Messages about Jews in Christian Art
By Edward RothsteinAnd how Jews used art to send messages about themselves.
Observations ·
The Hebrew Language’s Wildly Unpredictable Gender System
By PhilologosAll nouns and adjectives in Hebrew are gendered. Why do those genders keep switching?
Monthly Essay ·
How Western Artists Used and Abused the Hebrew Bible
By Dr. Jacob WisseFor centuries, visual artists, nearly all Christian, turned to the Hebrew Bible for inspiration even more often than the New Testament. What did they find there, and did they treat it well?
Observations ·
An Unusual and Beautiful Hebrew Poem by a 19th-Century Catholic Priest
By PhilologosI can’t think of a single serious Hebrew composition written by a Christian other than “In Praise of the Hebrew Language.”
Response ·
To Do Better in Our Time, We Must Learn What Abraham Cahan Accomplished in His
By Ruth R. WisseYiddish socialist or proto-neoconservative?
Observations ·
Why Goats Show Up in So Many Idioms
By PhilologosHebrew is full of goats these days, and English and French aren't too far behind. Where'd they all come from?
Response ·
The Cold Litvak
By Gennady EstraikhIn many ways, Abraham Cahan was a stereotypically rationalist Lithuanian Jew, able to rein in his emotions and do what he felt right.
Response ·
Watch Gary Saul Morson and Jacob Howland Discuss the Dostoevsky Problem
By Gary Saul Morson, Jacob Howland, Jonathan SilverTwo leading scholars joined Mosaic's editor to look at why compassionate people, like the brilliant Russian author, can so often hate the Jews.
Response ·
The Special Sway Dostoevsky Held over Soviet Jewish Minds
By Marat GrinbergWhy Russian Jews believed that reading Dostoevsky would legitimize their place in Russian culture and protect them from accusations of being interlopers.
Observations ·
The Best Books of 2023, Part II
By Andrew Koss, Jonathan Silver, Rabbi Meir SoloveichikFeaturing fears, fates, burdens of power, memory wars, Sabbath days, Russian writers and timeless questions, years of upheaval, Japanese Jews, and more.
Observations ·
The Best Books of 2023, Part I
By Elliott Abrams, Cynthia Ozick, Neil Rogachevsky, Ruth R. WisseFeaturing prime ministers, kidnappings, popes, silences, exiled shadows, portraits, intellectual origins, the best minds, and more.
Response ·
Anti-Semitism Appeals to Intellectuals Because It Feels Like an Idea
By Adam KirschThat's why geniuses like Dostoevsky can love all humanity and hate the Jews.
Observations ·
Does the Slang Word “Shamus” Come from the Yiddish “Shammash” or the Irish “Seamus”?
By PhilologosThe long-running case of the word for private detective can finally be considered closed.
Monthly Essay ·
Why Dostoevsky Loved Humanity and Hated the Jews
By Gary Saul MorsonThe case of the literary master helps explain why people who devote themselves to compassion for all so often make an exception for Jews.
Observations ·
“This Is the Yom Kippur of”
By PhilologosIn the wake of the Yom Kippur War, the words yom kippur shel, “the Yom Kippur of,” have referred in Israeli speech to any debacle that might have been prevented by better judgment.
Response ·
The Presence of Peretz: A Discussion with Ruth Wisse and Andrew Koss
By Andrew KossThe only Jewish personality who ranks with the Yiddish writer Y.L. Peretz was Herzl, who devoted himself to a similar task in the political domain.
Monthly Essay ·
I.L. Peretz and the Golden Chain
By Ruth R. WisseThe great Yiddish writer envisioned an unbroken transmission of Jewishness through the generations, from biblical prophets to talmudic sages to literary giants like Heine—and himself.
Observations ·
The Wheels of Jewish Language in the New Netflix Show “Rough Diamonds”
By PhilologosOne of the show's main pleasures has to do with which of the four languages spoken by its main characters—Yiddish, Flemish, French, and English—they use with whom.
Observations ·
A Religious Musical in Secular Tel Aviv
By Sarah RindnerTraditional lines between the secular and religious populations are fading, particularly in the realms of music and art.
Response ·
Haim Sabato's “The Dawning of the Day”: A Dramatic Reading
By The Editors, Jonathan Silver, Daniel BouskilaWatch our recording of the modern Israeli classic. Then stick around for the discussion with Israeli novelist Ruby Namdar and American rabbi Daniel Bouskila.
Observations ·
The Best Books of 2022, Chosen by Mosaic Authors
By Elliott Abrams, Tamara Berens, Andrew Koss, Daniel Polisar, Neil Rogachevsky, Sarah Rindner, Jonathan SilverFeaturing wars, peacemakers, two cultures, pogroms, plays, four ages, wild problems, caves, magic, letters, American conservatives, liberal parents, radical children, and more.
Monthly Essay ·
The Sage and Scribe of Modern Israel
By Ruth R. WisseThe novelist and rabbi Haim Sabato infuses tradition into fiction as well as any of the Yiddish greats. The difference? His work is unencumbered by modern angst.
