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The Few, the Proud, the Chosen

From kosher Boxed Nasties to the minyan at Al Asad air base: life as a Jewish Marine.Take My Synagogue

In referring to the place where they worship, most Jews prefer to use a name other than "synagogue," the ancient Greek translation of beit k'nesset.Classical Islam and the Jews

The root of the Israel-Arab conflict is not territorial but religious. Part I; part II is here.Partners in Apartheid?

A serious attempt to reconstruct the historical relationship between Israel and South Africa is marred by manipulative, irresponsible, and offensive speculation.A Jerusalem Childhood

The longtime literary editor of the (London) Sunday Telegraph recalls her years as the child of German Jewish refugees in 1940's Jerusalem.Is Diss a System?

A new book explicates the work of the American cartoonist and storyteller Milt Gross (Nize Baby, Dunt Ask!, etc.), who flourished in the 1920s and 30s—and whom it would be a colossal error to judge from a 21st-century perspective.One Nation, Under God

The ancient Israelite experience in nation-building differed from the American experience in many ways; but what is striking, and not accidental, are the similarities. Nitzavim-Vayelekh: The Last Mitzvah

A well-known talmudic tradition reports that there are exactly 613 mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah. Of the total, 248 are positive (the do's), while 365 are negative (the don'ts).  Not all the sages are in complete agreement on this enumeration, with some arriving at a higher number. But the custom has long been to speak of 613 mitzvot—or, in Hebrew, taryag mitzvot, based on the numeric values assigned to letters of the Hebrew alphabet.