An American Jewish Folk Hero
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
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
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
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
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…
Einstein’s Recalculation of Zionism
Walter Isaacson’s 2007 biography of Albert Einstein—Einstein, His Life and Universe—provides a compelling and detailed account of the scientist’s life as well as insights into his scientific and political views.
All About Mel
In an iconic moment of the 1967 film The Producers, scantily clad dancers dressed as Nazi sturmtruppen move into swastika formation and slowly rotate, surrounded by Third Reich banners and singers extolling the…
The First Religious Paratrooper
Rabbi Shlomo Goren’s autobiography, With Might and Strength, tells the story of a precocious rabbinical student who decided to join the Israeli army and eventually became Chief Rabbi of Israel. By…