Was the fate of Judea as a Roman province sealed from the moment Julius Caesar switched sides in the Hasmonean leadership struggle? Or could Herod’s brutal path to kingship still have been blocked? Either way, 47–46 BCE marked a turning poi
This year marks the centennial of Einstein’s general theory of relativity and sixty years since the death of the absent-minded professor who revolutionized physics
Albert Einstein was a nonconformist,
No one captured the modern terrors of alienation and bureaucracy better than Franz Kafka, penning some of the 20th century’s best-known short stories. Yet family, religion, and Zionism also drew him, though all three remained unattainable d
Exchanging the lab for the analyst’s couch, Sigmund Freud defied the scientific conventions of his day. The man who attributed supreme importance to early childhood benefitted from his own adoring Jewish mother’s assurances that he was dest
The cultural meld of Jews and blacks working together in show business gave rise to a new style of American music. Captivated by black sounds and rhythms, composer George Gershwin interwove classical motifs and popular melodies into a black
Did the later Hasmoneans really become Hellenized, as many have theorized? Or were they like their palaces – Hellenist on the outside but Jewish within? The Hasmoneans were among the first to struggle to forge a distinctively Jewish ethnic
Though nostalgically associated with Israel’s early days, the hora was originally neither socialist nor Jewish. So how did this folk dance become synonymous with young Zionists circling under a starry sky?
