The Deed
Yehoshua November's poem movingly and thoughtfully portrays the challenges and pleasures of Chassidic life.
Forging a Judicious Spectator: The Legacy and Influence of Herman Wouk
Jeffrey Kobrin comments on the work and influence of Herman Wouk.
Shadal, García Márquez, and the Stain of Honor
Daniel Klein on how violence in the Bible plays out in the writings of Shadal and Gabriel Gárcia Márquez
The State of the Conversation
Zev Eleff and Ari Lamm cap off the Lehrhaus Symposium on the OU statement.
The Poetry of the Land
With masterful translation, Tzvi Novick offers a glimpse of Israeli culture to our English readers.
Ezrat Nashim: Notes on Halakhic Womanhood
Naima Hirsch Gelman provides three powerful poems exploring important themes in halakhic womanhood.
Akeidah
Zohar Atkins presents a new poem on the Akeidah.
A Return to Jewish Roots in Nicole Krauss’ Forest Dark
The question of whether or not your writing is Jewish is not up to you, because writing ultimately belongs to the reader. Krauss’ avatar answers Ozick perfectly: “Jewish literature would have to wait, as all Jewish things wait for a perfection that in our hearts we don’t really want to come.” In the end, perhaps all we can do is kvetch and vacillate between different answers to the question of what is Jewish literature—because, of course, the answer was never the point.
Traditional Revolutionaries
Ilan Fuchs reviews Naomi Seidman’s book Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement.
The Shepherd’s Veil
This short story by Benjamin Guggenheim reimagines Moses after the sin of the Golden Calf: powerful yet powerless, dutiful yet embittered, so close to God yet so distant from His people.