The Kibbutz and the State

 by ANITA SHAPIRA, TRANSLATED BY EVELYN ABEL

How the position of the kibbutz in Israeli society has changed, and why.

The Poet from Vilna

 by RUTH R. WISSE

Avrom Sutzkever and Max Weinreich, a memoir.

All the Good Things of Spain

 by ROBERT ALTER

The greatest Hebrew poet gets the English bio he deserves.

With Interest

 by YUVAL LEVIN

Have the Jews been capitalism's best friends or worst enemies, or both?

The Christian Road to Jerusalem

 by ROBERT CHAZAN

Looking back on the clash of civilizations.

Montefiore and the Politics of Emancipation

 by DAVID SORKIN

More than a shtadlan.

Friends of Zion

 by WALTER RUSSELL MEAD

Getting by with a little help from our friends.

Animal Foible

 by DARA HORN

The author of Life of Pi trivializes the Holocaust.

Going Public

 by ANNE TRUBEK

The Jewish Jane Austen, or better?

I, Terrorist

 by MARGOT LURIE

Whither the great anti-American novel?

Letters

Posthumous Prophecy

 by BEN BIRNBAUM

Milton Steinberg's unpublished novel about Hosea was forgotten for a long time. For good reason.

Old-New Sabbath

 by MARTIN KAVKA

Does everyone need a Sabbath? Judith Shulevitz thinks so.

Underground Man: The Curious Case of Mark Zborowski and the Writing of a Modern Jewish Classic

 by STEVEN J. ZIPPERSTEIN

Life is with People is perhaps the most well-known work of shtetl nostalgia. But how should it be read in light of its author's bloody career as one of Stalin's best spies?

The Limits of Prayer

 by MOSHE HALBERTAL

One who prays to change the past, says the Mishnah, “utters a vain prayer.” A person should not beseech God to undo events that have already taken place, even when the outcome is still unknown. And yet there are circumstances where one is naturally tempted to do just that.

The Rothschilds of the East

 by RICHARD I. COHEN

The Splendor of the Camondos and the pity of it all.

Swept Up

 by ELLA TAYLOR

A new documentary displays the process of conversion to Judaism.

The Weaver

 by GABRIELLA SAFRAN

An-sky's photographs.

Rashi and the Crusader: A Legend

 by GEDALIAH IBN YAHYA, TRANSLATED BY MATT GOLDISH

Did the great biblical and talmudic commentator meet Godfrey of Bouilon? A fascinating excerpt from Gedaliah ibn Yahya's Shalshelet ha-Kabbalah.

Gut Shabbes

 by HARVEY PEKAR & TARA SEIBEL

Upmanship & Downmanship

Moses Mendelssohn Street

 by ALLAN ARKUSH

Immortality in Jerusalem.