J. J. Kimche

From Moses to Moses, there arose none like Moses. This aphorism, popular in rabbinic literature from the Middle Ages until today, draws a comparison between the biblical legislator and his worthiest medieval successor. It is almost impossible to overstate the prominence, the influence, the . . . . Continue Reading »

Cursed be he by day and cursed be he by night; cursed be he when he lies down and cursed be he when he awakens. Cursed be he when he goes out and cursed be he when he comes in. . . . May the Lord blot out his name from under heaven. . . . Nobody may communicate with him, neither in writing nor . . . . Continue Reading »

Anti-Semitism, it has often been observed, is remarkably adaptable. Across countless centuries, anti-Semites have targeted Jews because of their wealth and their poverty, their power and their frailty, their piety and their godlessness, their tribalistic chauvinism and their rootless . . . . Continue Reading »

Meir Kahane: No other name elicits such visceral and varied reactions among Jews today. Born and raised in Brooklyn, ­Rabbi Meir Kahane rose to national prominence in the late 1960s with the founding of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a movement that used radical and often violent means to . . . . Continue Reading »

The Talmud relates the tragic story of an ancient Jewish sage named Elisha ben Abuyah. Initially one of his generation’s leading rabbinic luminaries, Elisha eventually became ­Judaism’s first unambiguous Epikoros, or theological apostate, earning the sobriquet Akher (“the . . . . Continue Reading »

George Steiner, who died earlier this year, was one of the most influential Jewish intellectuals of the last half-century. He produced a foundational text in the philosophy of translation, the first thorough introduction to Martin Heidegger in English, major investigations into the nature of tragedy . . . . Continue Reading »