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March 26, 2026
The dominant theme of Passover is freedom. In the Haggadah, we celebrate the liberation of the Jewish people who had been enslaved in Egypt by pharaohs “who knew not Joseph.” …
March 23, 2026
Saul Golubcow’s Were the Angels Wrong? is both a marvelous whodunit and a moving meditation on the lingering aftermath of the Holocaust. This is the third book in Golubcow’s mystery …
February 23, 2026
Languages are a challenge for me. And I am not really competent in biblical Hebrew. Nonetheless, I’m a student in Yoel Gleizer’s Conversational Hebrew class. And I am very much …
Edward Hirsch is a celebrated American poet and the author of many notable books, both poetry and prose. He is also very funny, as shown by his wisecracking and witty …
January 20, 2026
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (translated from German by Ross Benjamin) is a powerful, darkly comic World War II novel about art, ego, and bad choices. The “Director” of the …
December 17, 2025
More than four centuries after they were first performed, the plays of William Shakespeare continue to dazzle and inspire. But as to Shakespeare himself, a vocal minority has long contended …
December 9, 2025
Dreidel trivia: According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the most dreidels spinning simultaneously for at least 10 seconds is 820. The longest dreidel spin is one minute, 29.93 …
December 2, 2025
As we look forward to the celebration of Hanukkah, three words tend to dominate: gifts, lights, and miracles. We search for presents for our children and grandchildren. We clean our …
November 20, 2025
In 1860, there were 150,000 Jews living in the United States. How did this small minority, comprised mostly of recent immigrants, react to the fierce national debate over slavery? Richard …
November 6, 2025
Thank God. Thank God the hostages are home. If we had not gotten them back now, two weeks ago as of this writing, I certainly would have been here speaking …
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