Grant Me the Strength
Lilly Elliasevich
On Christmas Day, 1991, the hammer-and-sickle banner that had fluttered over the Kremlin for 70 years was lowered for the last time, replaced by the new flag of the Russian…
An American Jewish Folk Hero
Ben Novosyolok
A striking fact about modern Zionism is that its founder, Theodor Herzl, dedicated his life to Jewish statehood despite originally caring little for Jewishness. At one point, he even advocated…
The Early Encounters of Jabotinsky
Adin Linden
Why return to Vladimir Jabotinsky today? In Hillel Halkin’s Jabotinsky (2014), we witness the transformative experiences of this great man’s youth, which help to explain how he became the formidable Zionist thinker…
The Identity Crisis of Robert Moses
Josh Stiefel
Throughout the twentieth century, New York was defined by some of the same forces that shaped other major American cities: the Great Depression, waves of immigration, the World Wars, and…
Rabbi Akiva’s Heroism for Torah
Moshe Sarna
Towards the end of the Second Temple Period, the Land of Israel was in tumult. Following a bloody civil war, the Jews rebelled against the Roman Empire, which had ruled…
Begin’s Jewish Pride
Zach Lukeman
On May 12th, 1977, in the immediate aftermath of his improbable Israeli election victory, Prime Minister-elect Menachem Begin broke down Israel’s long-upheld “secular wall,” as he donned a kippah and…