Commentary

The Yemenite Children Affair is among the most persistent myths in Israeli society. Ben Rothke reviews a recent book examining the evidence, or lack thereof, for the affair, as well as what its persistence means for community relations in contemporary Israel.

Drawing upon the teachings of the Piaseczner Rebbe, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and others, Yiscah Smith proposes a model for reimagining contemporary Jewish leadership on both the communal and personal levels.

Chesky Kopel reviews Eli Rubin’s new book Kabbalah and the Rupture of Modernity: An Existential History of Chabad Hasidism.

Yaakov Taubes review Vol. 2 of Artscroll’s Kisvei HaRambam.

Ethan Zadoff discusses what Israel education should look like post-October 7.

Ethan Schwartz reviews Yitchak Etshalom’s new volume on the prophet Amos, considering ways in which the author succeeds and fails to recreate the divine roar of Amos’ message.

Meir Ekstein review Yonatan Rosensweig’s recently translated book on mental Health and Halakhah.

Drawing upon Jewish history and human anatomy, Shmuel Chaim Naiman demonstrates how the Land of Israel serves as a collective body for the collective Jewish soul.

Twelve years after the passing of R. Menachem Froman, his daughter-in-law, the scholar and activist Tchiya Froman, considers R. Froman’s literary critique of the Gush Emunim settlement enterprise and his determination that Judaism requires a feminine revolution.

The biblical figure of Esther is often interpreted by traditional and modern commentators as a heroine of active leadership. Naama Sadan offers a novel perspective, according to which Esther confronts national crisis in female-coded ways, triumphing and saving her people through internally-focused activism.