Search Results

Search for    in    All Categories Daily Features Daily Picks The Weekly Portion   

You can also browse by author, browse by source, or view the archives.

KDate

Traditionally prohibited from marrying converts or divorcees, some modern descendants of the ancient Jewish priesthood find themselves stuck in dating purgatory.What was Found at Hirbet Madras?

Initially identified as a synagogue, an archaeological site in the Judean hills has turned out to be a 1,500-year-old church with an unusually well-preserved mosaic floor.Israelites, not Jews

Torah, kashrut, Sabbath, Hebrew: these and more are marks of a black congregation that nevertheless rejects the idea that its members are Jews.T’rumah: Wood in the Wilderness

By Moshe Sokolow  This week's portion summons the Israelites to make free-will offerings (t'rumah) to the tabernacle (mishkan) being built in the desert. Rather than donating money, however, they are called upon to contribute goods that will be used in the construction of the edifice, in its furnishings, and in the manufacture of priestly vestments. Of the dozen or so specific materials requisitioned, one is outstanding in the perplexity it would induce in medieval commentators: acacia trees.Transmission Tale

In a show of one-upmanship directed at the U.S., Stalin claimed a Russian Jewish polymath—by coincidence, the grandfather of the American musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky—as the inventor of the telegraph. Neighborhood Watch

Contrary to conventional wisdom in the West that a Palestinian state needs to be created to contain the Islamist threat, Israelis believe the reverse to be true.Close to the Jews

The steep rise in intermarriage has prompted some Conservative leaders and synagogues to introduce a hybrid category of Jewishly affiliated non-Jews. (Interview by Shmuel Rosner.)Urban Legend

Odessa's Jews never made up more than a third of the population, but their imprint on the city was indelible.Do Israelis Speak Hebrew?

Despite the tremendous success of modern Hebrew, there is evidence, including in the growing use of English, that the language is losing some of its connections with its specifically Jewish roots.