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Kafka’s Last Trial

In the coming weeks, a court-appointed group will finish inventorying the disputed Kafka papers and settle the legal wrangling in a situation that has repeatedly been called Kafkaesque.Dear Hannah, Dear Leni

The correspondence between Hannah Arendt and the Holocaust historian Leni Yahil, whose friendship during the Eichmann trial ended abruptly with the publication of Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem.Fiddler in the Rough

Directing a summer camp production of Fiddler on the Roof means turning shy, sniveling campers into the boisterous residents of Anatevka. (Part 3 of 4.)Famous Last Words

For Simhat Torah, 5771: Moses' last will and testament take up virtually the entirety of the final portion of the Torah, read in the synagogue on the festival of Simhat Torah. Its most unusual feature is its anonymity. In an abrupt shift from the preceding 32 chapters of Deuteronomy, the first-person voice of Moses is wholly absent. The introductory passages make reference to him in the third person, and the blessings that follow give no hint of who (or, as tradition surmises, Who) is bestowing them. Once they have been rendered, we are reunited with Moses, but again in the...Why Joshua?

For Simhat Torah, 5771: "And Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there." This one-line description of a death in the desert (Deuteronomy 34:5) succinctly summarizes the tragedy of a dream denied, the end of the life of a leader whose hopes of entering the Holy Land would never be fulfilled. It is a terribly sad verse—which happens to be read on one of Judaism's happiest days of the year, Simhat Torah: the day the annual reading of the Torah is completed. But at least the haftarah, the reading from the Prophets recited immediately following the Torah portion, appears to be on...Under the Gun

Gazans confide to a correspondent for an Abu Dhabi newspaper that they preferred life under Israeli occupation to the brutal rule of Hamas.Jonah’s Paradox, and Ours

Ambassador Michael Oren delivered a powerful Yom Kippur homily (here reprinted) exhorting American Jews to respect Israel's terrible dilemmas and support its decisions.Wonder Sukkahs

Religious artists in Israel have been inspired to decorate their sukkahs with matchstick architectural models, flashing lights, stuffed animal heads, and other intricate treasures.Self-Help

A 19th-century Lithuanian Jewish movement of strenuous moral development is experiencing a small but significant revival among some non-Orthodox circles in America.What’s in a Name?

Long before they became politically controversial terms, Judea was the standard English word for the hills around Bethlehem and Hebron, just as Samaria was for the hills farther north.