The Complicated History of Pointy Hats
What do sorcerers, bishops, and garden gnomes all have in common? Pointy hats that share a common story deeply enmeshed in European antisemitism.
Michael Gold: Red Scare Victim
The author of Jews Without Money, a proletarian lit best-seller, was ostracized for his Communism and derided for his prose. Today he is all but forgotten.
How the Jewish Labor Bund Changed After World War II
For those thousands involved with the Bund, the group played an important role in a era marked by trauma, displacement, and resettlement.
J. R. R. Tolkien’s Jewish Dwarves
The peoples of Middle Earth weren’t just a product of Tolkien’s creative mind; they were shaped by the anti-Jewish culture that surrounded him.
How Does the Jewish Calendar Work?
The complicated system that determines the High Holy Days is a relatively new creation, dating to around 350 CE.
How Queer Jews Reclaimed Yiddish
Queer Yiddishkeit challenges the notion that Yiddish is inherently heteronormative or conservative.
Jewish Law and Abortion
A practicing physician reviews contributions of Jewish ethics and rabbinic thought to the issue of abortion.
Meet Eva Frank: The First Jewish Female Messiah
Was this revered female figurehead an empowered leader or a tragic victim in her father's wake?
A Passover Tradition to Promote Jewish Unity
Freeing a prisoner—a gesture of generosity and benevolence—may have been a way to bring together a fractured spiritual community.
The NYC –> RUS Yiddish Socialist Pipeline
At the turn of the twentieth century, Yiddish became the language of political organizing for Russian Jews, thanks to the flow of literature from New York.