Culture

David Selis and Zvi Erenyi share their memories of JTS Librarian Professor Menahem Schmelzer for his sheloshim.

Daniel A. Klein reviews a new book on Hebrew by Mitchell First.

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

Would you be happy for the Messiah to arrive? In this short story, R.A. Alpert imagines the conflicts that arise when a Jewish businessman attempts to capitalize on the coming of the Messiah

In this imaginative short story from David Zvi Kalman, as synagogue attendance shrinks, the buildings themselves begin to grow.

What would Jewish life in outer space look like? In this short story, Joseph Helmreich imagines the Jewish community transplanted into a new life among the stars

Why did the women bring musical instruments out of Egypt? In her first Lehrhaus article, musicologist Rebecca Cypess draws a fascinating historical analogy between biblical and African-American slavery to shed light on the Exodus in Jewish tradition.

Yakov Ellenbogen reviews Susan Weingarten's Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History.

A new poem from Zohar Atkins offers a poetic meditation on life in the COVID world.

Rav Ronen Neuwirth suggests that the strictures of social distancing enable us to reduce this year's Lag BaOmer bonfires - which he sees as a very good thing.