Новости за 30.11.2018

Hanukkah, Pittsburgh, 5779…

Slowly emerging from the depths of sadness, we tentatively approach Hanukkah. Finally, a modicum of happiness awaits. We reach for the text and open it to the Book of Maccabees, chapter one. Shocked, we blink, and blink again. The words of the past cry out from the page:

Continue reading "We Are the Heirs to the Maccabees" at...

Introducing Aleph-Bits, a new feature for The Scroll by the writer, software engineer, and critic David Auerbach, exploring the human dimensions and ethical questions of digital life.

Introducing Aleph-Bits, a new feature for The Scroll by the writer, software engineer, and critic, David Auerbach, exploring the human dimensions and ethical questions of digital life.

Pati Jinich knows what it’s like to be a new immigrant in the United States. She came to this country on a visa when she was 24 years old and newly married. Homesick and unable to return to Mexico until her immigration papers were finalized she brought comfort to Texas by cooking the chicken soup of her youth for herself and her husband. The scent gave her rented duplex in Dallas a connection to home.

Sixty years ago, in 1958, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s prime minister and founding father, sent a letter to fifty-one leading Jewish intellectuals. In the brief letter, he asked for their opinions on the definition of Jewish identity. While the question “Who is a Jew?” had occupied Israel’s politicians, religious authorities, and general public in one form or another since the nation’s founding, Ben-Gurion’s request was neither general nor theoretical. He pointedly asked his correspondents “how... Читать дальше...

Twitter is bad. This is both a truth and a truism, a fact so well-established that it has become trite—the kind of banality that gets spat out thousands of times an hour on Twitter.com. Don’t take my word for it. Tap a couple of key words into a Twitter search field and watch the results fill the screen: a scrolling catalogue of anti-Twitter invective, tweet after tweet proclaiming the platform a cesspool, a garbage fire, a “hellsite.” Twitter, it’s said, is corroding public discourse, spreading lies and hate... Читать дальше...

Continue reading "Jules Feiffer’s American Follies: Where's My Roy Cohn?" at...

Dear Parsha in Progress fans: We hear you and are in the process of getting the show added to iTunes and all the rest of the standard podcast sites. Thank you for your support! For the time being, enjoy listening in the player below and stay tuned.