Kadish book

Summoning 17th-Century Scholars: Researching The Weight of Ink

Author Rachel Kadish tells us about how she used JSTOR to research her fascinating, complex new novel, The Weight of Ink.
Edith Stein

Edith Stein, the Jewish Woman Who Became a Catholic Saint

In 1998, Pope John Paul II made one of his most contentious canonizations, elevating a Jewish woman named Edith Stein to the status of saint.
NYC food riot

“Give Us Bread!”

In 1917, a food riot erupted in Brooklyn over the prices of staples. These forms of protest, sadly, are not quite yet ready for the dustbin of history.
Soldier eating matzo, 1940s

Matzo and Oreos: Keeping Kosher in America

The koshering of America's food industry has mostly gone unnoticed. Yet most people who specifically buy kosher foods are not Jewish.
dead sea scroll

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Still Unscrolling

The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered some 70 years ago after 2000 years in the desert, have had a controversial and conflicted life.
Menorah

How Hanukkah Became “Jewish Christmas”

For most of the Jewish world, Hanukkah is a minor holiday. What happened in America?
Indian Haggadah

High Holy Days in Mumbai

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are the "High Holy Days" of the Jewish calendar. 
Radcliffe Quad undergrad housing at Harvard University

Affirmative-Action for White Protestants

A different side to affirmative-action: How legacy admissions maintained white Protestant student enrollment at elite universities.
Licoricia of Winchester

Licoricia of Winchester, Jewish Widow and Medieval Financier

The story of Licoricia of Winchester illustrates just how much wealth and influence a Jewish woman could accumulate.
Certificate awarded to Shloyme Preisner of Brooklyn for participating in YIVO’s 1942 autobiography contest.

YIVO Vilna Project Will Digitize Jewish History

It's an exciting time for Yiddish scholarship. The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research has announced the start of its YIVO Vilna Project, a $5.25 million, 15-year endeavor to unite, at last, a collection of treasured documents that has been separated by an ocean for half a century .