Currently Browsing: Uncategorized 110 articles
Overcriticism and Forgiveness
Alex Gordon reflects on his father’s Jewishness. In 1935 my father met his idol, the French writer Henri Barbusse, winner of the Goncourt Prize. Barbusse, a member of the French Communist Party who also met with Stalin, sought to persuade my father, a newly minted graduate in literature from Kiev University, to become a communist. […]
Danny Kalb: Jewish Blues Icon
Martin Elliot Jaffe reflects on his musical inspiration since 1966. Reading the New York Times obituary for guitarist Danny Kalb, who died aged 80 in November, I was transported back in time: aged 15, Framus guitar in hand, struggling to find a chord progression as I listened to Projections, a new album from Kalb’s band, […]
Dating the Exodus
Annette Duckworth asks how did two different dates arise. In 1822, Jean-Francois Champollion, the French Egyptologist and linguist achieved his first true breakthrough in the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics, with the decipherment of the two Pharaonic names, ‘Ramesses’ and ‘Thutmose’. This must have caused great excitement throughout the world of biblical scholarship because the Bible […]
The day before Passover
It’s the day before Passover and we’re preparing to flee Egypt again to leave behind all the tasks we never got around to doing to bid goodbye to old habits and routines that won’t take us anywhere but back to where we started to say farewell to the people who enslaved us and treated us […]
Cleaning for Pesach
Cleaning the kitchen for Pesach yesterday I heard the voices of my loved ones who are gone but whose memories live on and return to keep me company. I kneeled to scrub the inside of the oven and suddenly could smell the chicken soup and matzah balls that my grandmother used to make in her […]
Seinfeld Yomi: The English Patient
In another instalment of his Seinfeld Yomi, Jarrod Tanny discusses the episode, “The English Patient”. Day 144, Thursday, March 24, 2022, s8e17, first aired on March 13, 1997. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697691/ MISHNAH: Hillel: The English Patient Shammai: Sack Lunch Hillel: Neil Armstrong Shammai: Neil Diamond Hillel: Cubans Shammai: Dominicans Hillel: World’s Greatest Sage Shammai: Number one Sage […]
Volodymyr Zelensky: From Rootless Cosmopolitan to Democratic Icon
Martin Elliot Jaffe profiles the Ukrainian Jewish President. “Both Ukrainians and Jews value freedom and they work equally for the future of our states to become to our liking—not the future others want for us—we know what it’s like not to have our own state and land and with weapons in hand at the cost […]
When Wisdom of the Catfish met the Gefilte Fish
In the first part of her memoirs, Carole Bent reflects on her Jewish upbringing and childhood. My Jewishness sits with me lightly until a word, a sight, or a slight pushes it to the front of my mind where it repeatedly pulses, demanding to be seen or heard. It is stubborn yet subtle, demanding attention […]
The Tiger
A new short story by Ellis Shuman. “There’s a tiger in the playground!” “That’s nice, Shmuel.” “No really, Imma. It was coming toward me, but I didn’t run. I wasn’t scared at all!” “That sounds very exciting! You’re so brave! Now, go wash up and call your brothers. It’s almost time for Havdalah.” The tiger […]
Israel and Covid
Sue Fox charts the hassle of flying to and from Israel in the age of Covid. Israel here we come. Never mind PASSENGER LOCATOR FORM, what I need is a brain locator form. Flights to Israel were bought pre-Covid. It was barely two years ago but I seem to have aged another decade. When Israel […]