Arts & Culture
Ladino!Thursday, January 13, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Long overshadowed by its Yiddish cousin, Ladino—the "other" modern Jewish language, also known as Judeo-Spanish—has increasingly benefited from new waves of scholarly and cultural retrieval.
The Persian PuzzleWednesday, January 12, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A synagogue in today's Jerusalem bears the name "Hajji Yehezkel." Yehezkel is Ezekiel, and Hajji is the Persian term for one who has fulfilled the Islamic precept of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Who was this Ezekiel, and how did he earn his improbable honorific?
Press Freedom, Israeli-StyleTuesday, January 11, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
If, as Walter Lippmann wrote, the newspaper is the bible of democracy, the land of the Bible is exceptionally well endowed with that precious commodity.
Who Needs Hebrew?Thursday, January 6, 2011 by Yehudah Mirsky | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1967, on a visit to Jerusalem, the American novelist Saul Bellow met Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Israel's Nobel laureate in literature. "This spare old man," Bellow would recall, "asked me if any of my books had been translated into Hebrew. If they had not been, I had better see to it immediately, because, he said, they would survive only in the Holy Tongue."
Lost & FoundTuesday, January 4, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In 1974, a strange letter from northeastern India landed on the desk of Israel's then Prime Minister Golda Meir. It was sent by a group of Indians claiming to be descendants of the biblical tribe of Menashe.
The Huguenot ConnectionMonday, January 3, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In the darkest hours of the Holocaust, the safest place for Jews in occupied Europe may have been the southern French hamlet of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
The Sound of (Classical) MusicFriday, December 24, 2010 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season, a milestone in a triumphant history linked with the names of famous conductors like Arturo Toscanini, Leonard Bernstein, and Zubin Mehta. But it faces rough sailing ahead.
A Year in BooksThursday, December 23, 2010 by D.G. Myers | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
It was a good year for Jewish books in English. From the popular to the scholarly, here is a reader's and buyer's guide to 34 of the best.
The DNA SpeaksMonday, December 20, 2010 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Are Jews a "nation" or a "people"? The Hebrew term ‘am means both. Both terms, moreover, have been subjected to disapprobation in our time—although not nearly to the extent of "race," a term that Jews themselves stopped using nearly a century ago. How, then, are we to think about the mounting genetic evidence that points to Jewish biological continuity over time?
The Continuing War for SafedThursday, December 16, 2010 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Safed (Hebrew: Tsfat) is a picturesque town of 32,000 souls nestled in the hills of Galilee. It is also home to a hardline branch of the Islamic Movement looking for ways to undermine Jewish sovereignty.
Editors' Picks
Israel, Where's Your Instagram? Matt Marshall, VentureBeat. Israeli entrepreneurs are hitting base hits all year long but they can't seem to get into the World Series.
Learn Hebrew! David Hazony, Forward. The cultural gulf between Israel and the Diaspora can be bridged—but only if American Jews decide they want to bridge it.
Couched Wisdom Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune. Jews are more likely to seek out therapy and believe in its efficacy than are other Americans.
And Justice for All Gil Student, Torah Musings. While Shmuly Yanklowitz's writing is uneven and his scholarship is suspect, his activist agenda is built on classical Judaism.
The Carp in the Bathtub Alan Deutschman, Salon. In the Brooklyn of the writer's youth, they didn't know from ahi tuna, but carp made good pets—and great gefilte fish, too.
Henry Kissinger The Mike Wallace Interview. "What is essential," Kissinger says, is to "have some image for the construction of the free world which is based on other motives than simply defending the world against Communism. We must make clear what we are for rather than what we are against." (Video; 1958)
Mortimer Adler The Mike Wallace Interview. "The kind of capitalism I'm talking about is, I would think, even more revolutionary than Communism." (Video; 1958)
George Jessel The Mike Wallace Interview. On the rumor that the comedian might be appointed ambassador to Israel: "I think if they did, I'd make a very good ambassador." (Video; 1957)
Kirk Douglas The Mike Wallace Interview. "I am not even aware whether or not we have former Nazi officers in our production. Very honestly, I wouldn't even allow myself to think in those terms . . . I like to feel that the War is over." (Video; 1957)
Arab Fairy Tales Lyn Julius, Times of Israel. In countries that ethnically cleansed their Jews, the media now hail the restoration of Jewish buildings as somehow indicative of pluralism and tolerance.