JL;DR

S. Y. Agnon is revered as one of the greatest Hebrew writers of all time, often compared to literary giants like Dante and Kafka. While praised for his lingu...

"The Wandering Jew Has Arrived" by Albert Londres is a reissued work shedding light on the French investigative journalist's 1929-1930 travels to Jewish comm...

In "The End of Europe" by James Kirchick, the author explores the rise of figures like Nigel Farage in the UK and Angela Merkel in Germany within the context...

"Fauda" is an Israeli TV series on Netflix following an IDF special ops team dealing with a resurrected Hamas operative planning an attack. The show delves i...

In "A New History and Old Facts," the author discusses the events leading up to the Six-Day War in 1967 and challenges the traditional narrative through an a...

"The Wedding Plan" is a film directed by Rama Burshtein, known for her portrayal of the haredi community in movies like "Fill the Void." The story follows Mi...

The text discusses various scholarly and historical perspectives related to Jewish themes. It delves into the concept of repentance in the Hebrew Bible, noti...

Allan Bloom's influential book "The Closing of the American Mind" ignited a firestorm of controversy when published in 1987, criticizing higher education for...

David Grossman's novel "A Horse Walks into a Bar" tells the story of comedian Dov Greenstein's final stand-up show in a seedy club, where he performs a dark ...

In "The Sephardic Mystique," the focus is on the 19th-century German Jewish obsession with Sephardic culture, contrasting it to traditional Ashkenazic Jewish...

The Letters section of the Spring 2017 issue explores various aspects of Jewish culture and history. Raymond S. Hack reflects on his cousin Nathan Green's co...

Rebecca Goldstein's book "Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity" sparked intense engagement from a previous reader, evidenced by extensiv...

American Yiddish poet Celia Dropkin's work, including the poem "Di tsirkus dame" and "In heysn vint," reflects a personal yet provocative exploration of them...

Uzi Rebhun's analysis in "Jews and the American Religious Landscape" delves into American Jewry's demographics, intermarriage, socioeconomic status, religiou...

Shahram Amiri, an Iranian scientist who defected to the U.S. in 2009 after providing information on Iran's nuclear program to the CIA, later claimed he was k...

Itamar Rabinovich's biography, "Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman," provides a detailed account of Yitzhak Rabin's life and his impact on Israel's hi...

"Gur Alroey's book 'An Unpromising Land' focuses on the typical Jewish immigrants to Palestine in the early 20th century, highlighting that most were seeking...

In Leonard Cohen's song "The Future," the idea of repentance is pondered, leading to a discussion on how the concept of repentance as we know it today is not...

"Are Clothes Modern?" was an exhibition organized by architect Bernard Rudofsky in 1944 at New York's Museum of Modern Art to critique contemporary mass-prod...

Yehoshua November's latest poetry collection, "Two Worlds Exist," delves into the challenges of everyday life through the lens of being a Lubavitch Hasid, fa...

The text discusses the friendship between the renowned Talmudic scholar Saul Lieberman and the great Yiddish writer Chaim Grade, shedding light on their conn...

Isaac Deutscher, a former Gerer Hasid who became a prominent Marxist journalist and historian, underwent a transformative journey from his Jewish roots to a ...

Hillel Halkin's book delves into the topic of love, death, and immortality, touching on ancient Israelite burial practices, the concept of Sheol as an afterl...

The article discusses the intersection of Judaism, Esperanto, and the life of Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof, a Jewish ophthalmologist who invented Esperanto as a unive...

Jonathan Levi's novel "Septimania" tells the story of Malory, a British organ-tuner who discovers he is a descendant of the Jewish exilarch of Baghdad, Charl...

Erez Bitton, a Mizrahi poet and social worker in Israel, encountered Zohra el-Fassiya, a Moroccan Jewish singer, in the 1960s, which inspired him to start wr...

In "The Story of Hebrew," Lewis Glinert presents Hebrew as a language with a rich and complex history, detailing its survival and evolution over centuries. G...

Saul Friedländer's memoirs, "When Memory Comes" and "Where Memory Leads," delve into his experience as a Holocaust survivor and his struggles with memory, id...

The modern portrayal of golems in popular culture, such as in the game Pokmon GO, deviates from the traditional Jewish concept of a golem as a magically crea...

"Masha Gessen's book 'Where the Jews Aren't' dives into the complex history of the Soviet Union's Jewish Autonomous Region, Birobidzhan. The book explores th...

Bernard-Henri Lévy (BHL), a prominent French intellectual known as a philosophe, explores the connection between Judaism, his personal life, and political ac...

"The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel" by Uri Bar-Joseph delves into the fascinating story of Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian who became Israel's most val...

"Waiting for Moshe Right" discusses the portrayal of Modern Orthodox Jewish singles in the web series "Soon by You," highlighting the challenges and humor in...

Bob Dylan's Jewish identity, though at times obscured by his persona as a Gentile cowboy or folk revolutionary, holds deep roots in his upbringing in a small...

Nietzsche's views on Jews and Judaism have sparked conflicting interpretations, with some seeing him as anti-Semitic and others as philo-Semitic. Robert C. H...

Naomi Seidman's book, "The Marriage Plot: Or, How Jews Fell in Love with Love, and with Literature," explores the historical shift in Jewish marriage practic...

The text discusses the concept of golems in Jewish folklore and how it has been used in modern contexts. It explores the usage of the term by white nationali...

In the Winter 2017 issue of "Letters," various topics are discussed by readers and responded to by authors. One reader praises a review of Cynthia Ozick's es...

The menorah, with its 3000-year history and intricate design, holds a unique place as a religious symbol. Steven Fine explores how the menorah became a symbo...

During the tumultuous years leading up to and during the Holocaust in Europe, Rabbi Kalman Chameides of Katowice, Poland, played a significant role in safegu...

Michael Doran's book delves into the complex relationship between American diplomacy and Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser during the mid-20th century. It h...

The text discusses the nature of jokes, particularly in Jewish culture, contrasting the serenity advocated by Epicurus with the prevalent irony, skepticism, ...

The article discusses the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition "Jerusalem 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven," focusing on the diverse and crowded natur...

The text discusses the Jewish past of Salonica (now Thessaloniki) and the ongoing struggle to remember and honor it amidst desecration and anti-Semitism. The...

The text discusses the concept of Jewish excellence through the lens of three influential figures: David Ben-Gurion, Leo Strauss, and Joseph Soloveitchik. It...

In a debate between Rabbis Jonathan Sacks and Shlomo Riskin, the topic of the Hasmoneans and their legacy is discussed. Sacks argues against the toxic mix of...

The Jewish Review of Books recently held its 2nd annual conference at Yeshiva University Museum, featuring engaging discussions between prominent readers and...

Leonard Cohen's latest album "You Want It Darker" delves into his Jewish roots, showcasing his connection to his youth in Montreal and the cantorial traditio...

The text discusses the landmark exhibition "By Dawn's Early Light," curated by Adam D. Mendelsohn and Dale Rosengarten at Princeton University, which explore...

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin reviews Jonathan Sacks's book, "Not in God's Name," acknowledging its exploration of religious violence but critiquing its treatment of h...