Currently Browsing: Uncategorized 114 articles
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 […]
To Life
Ophir J. Bitton Where does one go from here, In abundant clouds of marmalade – mobility is futile and success is falling down, feet were meant to be planted in the ground, with posthumous roots sprawling like streams of water seeking independent routs to a common destination Yet to fall in triumph, the soul must […]
If A Teddy Bear Could Talk….
Gloria Tessler reviews a remarkable online exhibition about refugees. Imagine as a child, being told you are going on a journey from which you may never return. You are asked to choose one toy – just one – that would represent all the memories of your lost childhood. What Would You Bring is a new […]
Fear Street
Mirushe Zylali reviews Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street. *Warning: this review contains spoilers* Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street is the story of a scapegoat revealing the truth. The enemies in this story? On a textual level, ambiguous prejudice; human hunger for power; the fear of not having control over one’s life and actions. On a subtextual level, […]
Shaddai
Mirushe ‘Mira’ Zylali reviews Loolwa Khazzoom’s new album. The Aramaic-language piyyut ‘Yah Ribbon “Alam”’ ends with a prayer for a restored Jerusalem. Written in the late 1500s by Rabbi Israel Najara, the then-rabbi of Gaza, it has been sung for four hundred years as a Shabbat hymn – that’s 21,000 Shabbatot. On Shabbat, God asks […]
What the Dickens?
by Clarissa Hyman I never learnt to tango or teach myself Russian (to read Tolstoy in the original, of course), nor did I excavate the loft, repaint the kitchen or sort out the old family photos. And don’t even bring up the subject of updating the website. I baked far too many loaves of banana […]
The Book of Sarah
Zanne Domoney-Lyttle reviews Sarah Lightman’s graphic novel The Book of Sarah. Sarah Lightman’s The Book of Sarah is an ambitious and moving text-image chronicle of her experiences from childhood to parenthood, embedded within a framework of Jewish feminist approaches. It is a biography intertwined with a hazy memory, family mythology, and some meaningful and other […]