Observation
The Famous Israeli Accent, and How It Came About
By Philologos“I em verry heppy to mit you end yourr femily in yourr hawm.”
Unlock the most serious Jewish, Zionist, and American thinking.
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“I em verry heppy to mit you end yourr femily in yourr hawm.”
Monthly Essay
The author of the great Jewish language column examines his alter ego.
Observation
It's not why you think.
Observation
The controversial terms, unlike “West Bank,” were in common use until 1948.
Podcast • Episode 5
Psalm 5 teaches that God-given joy is the honey at the heart of this world.
Podcast • Episode 6
Psalm 6 was often recited in a posture of prostration, allowing for a more intimate interaction with God.
Podcast • Episode 435
Taking stock of 2024.
Podcast • Episode 4
Psalm 4 reveals the power of music in healing the soul.
Podcast
In this daily podcast, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik guides listeners through all 150 chapters of King David's Psalms, exploring their poetry, meaning, and enduring place in the life of faith.
Podcast • Episode 1
Psalms is a book in which God is praised. Why then does it begin with praise for man?
Observation
For Hashem, for country, and for Yale.
Observation
Jews vs. Rome bridges the great historiographic divide.
Podcast • Episode 3
Psalm 3 finds David at the lowest point of his career, but his focus remains on his people.
Podcast • Episode 2
Psalm 2 speaks to the enduring nature of Jerusalem as the City of David.
Podcast
Professor Ruth Wisse explores the wit and wisdom of the greatest stories in the modern Jewish literary canon.
Course Lesson
In this darkly comic parable of Jewish assimilation, the story's narrator—a former ape who has become a sophisticated academic—speaks of his experience being forcibly transformed into a member of what...
Observation
Philologos says farewell.
Observation
The latest drama in the field of Jewish studies has turned into a campaign to reframe the perpetuation of Jewishness as a dystopian project of enforced reproduction.
Response
Committed to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Course Lesson
Sholem Aleichem's breakout story follows Moshe, a naive young scholar whose first trip away from home devolves into a comic nightmare involving a dead woman, an amoral shtetl, and the Russian police....
Course
Delve into the masterpieces of modern Jewish literature with one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Jewish fiction.
Observation
Leading thinkers confront the crisis of anti-Semitism and anti-Western ideology on campus—and explore how America’s universities might yet be renewed.
Response
Committed to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Monthly Essay
The post-October 7 explosion of hostility challenges decades of Jewish communal strategy.
Observation
The historical roots of Israelis’ favorite political epithet.
Monthly Essay
Israel contra mundum.
Podcast
Weekly, in-depth conversations on Jews, Judaism, America, and Israel with leading thinkers, writers, rabbis, and policymakers.
Monthly Essay
October 7 was not Palestine’s independence day, but the final nail in the two-state solution’s coffin. Is confederation with Jordan all that remains?
Observation
Many people are delighted to be told that Israel is doing to the Palestinians of Gaza exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews of Europe.
Monthly Essay
Three catastrophes, all marked by euphoria at the start and denial at the end, have shaped the Palestinian predicament. Has the fourth arrived, and is the same dynamic playing out?
Observation
The unusual appellation testifies to the individuality of the character who bears it.
Observation
And what they tell us about particularism and universalism in Jewish tradition.
Podcast • Episode 3
Explore how ravens in Genesis reveal human resilience and divine reconciliation post-flood, predating Poe's famous avian symbol.
Podcast • Episode 1
Explore how Genesis 1-2's creation stories reveal insights into today's technological marvels and their profound implications for humanity.
Podcast • Episode 434
If it doesn’t stand up for the Jews, who will?
Monthly Essay
Today’s Islamism promises authenticity but is postmodern in form, postcolonial in posture, and pretends to retrieve the sacred through the techniques of the profane.
Course
A comprehensive look at the history of Zionism—political, social, and religious—and the schools of anti-Zionism that have opposed it.
Monthly Essay
The case of the literary master helps explain why people who devote themselves to compassion for all so often make an exception for Jews.
Podcast • Episode 14
Einstein's view on human nature aligns with Judah's story in Genesis, highlighting Judaism's belief in mankind's moral capacity.
Podcast • Episode 4
Explore how post-flood events in Genesis 9-12 reveal Jewish ideas' global impact, guided by insights from two non-Jewish writers.
Observation
Moses, the muses, and an early-1960s Jewish magazine at Harvard.
Observation
Exodus's Sea of Reeds wasn't the Red Sea. But was it the Gulf of Suez? Lake Balah? Somewhere else?
Podcast • Episode 12
Explore Jacob's family tensions through Rembrandt's art, revealing insights into Genesis and the rise of the modern Jewish state.
Podcast • Episode 11
Jacob's wrestling match symbolizes personal battles and the birth of Israel, as explored in Genesis 30-33.
Podcast • Episode 433
What Christians rejected when they accepted the Jewish God, and why it matters today.
Podcast • Episode 8
Explore Jacob Curiel's journey from secret Jew to leader, reflecting on Jewish identity, struggle, and the enduring power of faith in a complex world.
Podcast • Episode 30
A Hasidic family drama explores Peretz's vision of Jewish tradition and its transmission, revealing deep cultural insights and generational ties.
Podcast • Episode 43
Churchill's speech and a Hanukkah reference illuminate the menorah's significance and its reappearance in Numbers 7-8 of the Torah.
Monthly Essay
The usual answer is Truman—but it could just as easily be Stalin. In fact, thanks to Zionist diplomacy, it was both; and therein lies a lesson for the Jewish state today.
Podcast • Episode 289
The ritual of washing one's hands before eating bread has a deeper significance beyond cleanliness.
