Article Archives

Theology, Identity, and Covenant

David Hartman, who passed away on Sunday, was among the foremost Jewish theologians of his generation. Here, we reprint some of his thoughts on God and the Jewish people. 

Speaking What Must Be Spoken

The sheer number of books on the Holocaust has long demanded a guide to Holocaust literature that would be as accessible as it was comprehensive and scholarly.  Now we have one.

Is Judah Halevi’s Kuzari Racist?

A recent attempt to redeem the Kuzari from the charge of ethnocentrism raises the question as to whether Jewish texts should be reinterpreted to accord with modern sensibilities.

Department of Excuses: BDS at Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College's BDS panel was  no "open forum to discuss important topics," but anti-Zionist evangelism—which no academic department could support in good faith. 

Leibowitz at 110

A scientist, a philosopher, and a sharp-tongued public intellectual, Yeshayahu Leibowitz was an oracle for some, a crank to others.  Two decades since his death, his ideas remain influential on Israeli society.

Leaving the Ghetto

"Was there any possibility," asks Jacob Katz in this 1996 Commentary essay, "that the Jews collectively might have been accepted in Europe on their own terms—that is, as a community, with a religion opposed to Christianity?" 

Signs of the Times

A new report by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America is the latest in a long line to allege anti-Israel bias at the New York Times.  But the newspaper isn't about to change.   

Denominational Delusions

With synagogues closing, congregations ageing, and the non-Orthodox majority dwindling, American Jews are caught in a crisis. Yet no one is tackling the root of this problem: intermarriage.

The Halakhah of Selling Arms

Jewish law prohibits individuals from selling weapons to irresponsible or violent customers.  But how does this apply to Israel's arms sales to foreign governments?

Life Goes On

Life Goes On, by German-Jewish novelist Hans Keilson, had been forgotten since the Nazis banned it in 1934.  Now, a year after Keilson's death, it has been translated into English.