State and Counterstate

 by ALLAN ARKUSH

Debates about Zion and its relation to the diaspora aren't new. David Myers and Noam Pianko have retrieved the forgotten ideas of several interesting figures, foremost among them Simon Rawidowicz. Do they speak to us now?

The Martyr of Reason

 by JEROME E. COPULSKY

On Saturday evening, December 31, 1785, the eminent Enlightenment philosopher Moses Mendelssohn left his house to deliver a manuscript. He had finished it on Friday afternoon but, as an observant Jew, Mendelssohn waited until the Sabbath concluded to bring it to his publisher. He died a few days later on January 4, 1786, at the age of 56.

Railroads and Dragon's Teeth

 by JORDAN CHANDLER HIRSCH

During World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany sought to foment an Ottoman jihad in part by building a massive railroad—and so did the British and the French.

Brother Daniel, Sister Ulitskaya

 by NADIA KALMAN

Ludmila Ulitskaya's fictionalized version of the Brother Daniel case asks us all to turn the other cheek.

The Hebrew Hammer

 by EITAN KENSKY

On Rosh Hashana, Greenberg went to shul, then the ballpark and hit two home runs. "Hank’s Homers are strictly Kosher," said the Detroit Free Press.

The Hasidim: An Underground History

 by SHAUL MAGID

David Assaf introduces us to Hasidic Rebbes who ride into small towns and take over. (If cowboys were Hasidim, this would be Deadwood.)

The Great Non-Miracle Rabbi of Prague

 by ALLAN NADLER

A new biography of Ezekiel Landau (the Noda Biyehudah) makes a controversial claim about his views on Kabbalah.

Words, Words, Words

 by SHOSHANA OLIDORT

The super sad truth about Gary Shteyngart's new novel.

Irving Kristol, Edmund Burke, and the Rabbis

 by MEIR SOLOVEICHIK

Irving Kristol started off as a neo-Trotskyite and famously became the “godfather of neoconservatism.” But his idiosyncratic “neo-Orthodoxy” lasted a lifetime.

Missed Connections

 by ANNE TRUBEK

Joseph Skibell, like any good historical novelist, is a dybbuk—he animates the dead.

Letters

Springtime for Arabia, Hailing to the Chief, Straw Men . . . and more!

Yehuda Amichai: At Play in the Fields of Verse

 by ROBERT ALTER

Israel's great poet had an impish sense of humor that also came through in the linguistic brilliance of his wordplay.

Jacob Glatstein's Prophecy

 by DARA HORN

Literary masterpieces that double as works of prophecy have been rare since the death of Isaiah. But the Yiddish poet Jacob Glatstein wrote two novellas that foreshadowed the future of Jewish Europe.

The Poet Goes to War

 by MARGOT LURIE

Poet Eliaz Cohen is a Religious Zionist who lives with his family on a kibbutz in the southern West Bank. And thereby hangs a tale.

Loaves in the Ark

 by MATT GOLDISH

A striking tale of pure faith, divine fiat, and free food from Rabbi Moses Hagiz's Mishnat Chakhamim (Wandsbeck, 1733).

Hope, Beauty, and Bus Lanes in Tel Aviv

 by NOAH EFRON

From the floor of Tel Aviv's City Council, Israel's future looks more promising than many would think.