Culture

What motivated the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rav Herzog, to work tirelessly on the seemingly quixotic project of running the modern State of Israel on the basis of Halakhah? Reviewing Alexandar Kaye's new book on the subject, Rabbi Shalom Carmy explains.

Jewishness, antisemitism, popular culture and Russian television in the postwar era? Historian Maya Balakirsky Katz explains.

Moshe Kurtz provides a poignant and vivid tribute to Rav Moshe Tendler, reflecting on their time learning together during the final three years of his life.

Shumel Hain discusses how we can bridge the "Tragic Gap" between the world envisioned in the blessing on budding fruit tress and our current reality of pandemic and tragedy

What do you get when you read George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda alongside Rav Soloveitchik’s Kol Dodi Dofek? A cross between Zionism and feminism, argues Eileen Watts.

Joshua Berman, a leading Tanakh scholar, has written a compelling book that addresses head-on many of the challenges posed by biblical criticism. Michael Harris explains.

Shalva Muschel offers some perspective on George Elliot's leading Jews and the newest attempt to gain a fuller appreciation of Daniel Deronda.

As we begin to read Sefer Shemot, Yosef Lindell explores Koren Publishers' new series, The Tanakh of the Land of Israel, the first volume to use Rabbi Sacks’ Humash translation.

Laurance Wieder's After Adam was named the Book of the Year in 2019 by First Thing's John Wilson, but has been largely overlooked in the Jewish community. The Jewish Review of Book's Michal Leibowitz seeks to remedy this in her review of Wieder's lyrical retelling of the Bible.

A poem on parshat Korach by Zohar Atkins