Study

The First Jewish President

Toni Morrison famously referred to Bill Clinton as the “first black president,” writing that he displayed “almost every trope of ...

Jesus and Me

Benyamin Cohen’s new book My Jesus Year is nearing its release date, and the official website has just gone up. ...

Rabbi Steinsaltz Takes on the Olympics

Remember when all of Jewish Law was ruled by a committee of 71 judges, each of whom were able to ...

Remembering A Mystic: Rabbi Yitzhak Luria Ashkenazi

Today is the yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak Luria Ashkenazi, aka the Arizal or just the Ari (1534-1572). He was the ...

A Vow for the Nine Days: ‘Fess Up

One of the customary practices in these nine days is the avoidance of meat: it’s the way we commemorate the ...

Inveterate Missionizing

On the elevator this morning, a courier — this legit-looking man in his late 30s or so — took out ...

Nazi Medical Experiments

The drive to create a superior race.

Flunking English

Now that Ehud Olmert is on his way out, it’s time to evaluate his possible successors. Or at least their ...

Becoming Communist

These past few days have been weirdly Communist-centric for me. First, my book that’s coming out in October. Then there’s ...

Women Can Sing, Officially

For anyone who missed the public outcry last week about the Israeli youth group Bnei Akiva’s new single-sex policy on ...

Jewish Identity

For “the perpetual discussion of what it means and how it feels to be a Jew�, even though “there is ...

A Detailed Explanation of Niddah, or “Family Purity” Laws

How traditional Jewish women prepare for monthly mikveh use.