Jews
Personal History
Of Yiddish, Litvaks, and the Evil Eye
A smattering of Yiddish happens to be all the Yiddish I have.
By Calvin Trillin
The Front Row
“Terrorists in Retirement” Brings Wartime Traumas Back to Life
With in-depth interviews and startling reënactments, the director Mosco Boucault details the anguish and the heroism of a mainly Jewish group of French Resistance fighters.
By Richard Brody
The Weekend Essay
Two Paths for Jewish Politics
In America, Jews pioneered a way of life that didn’t rely on the whims of the powerful. Now it’s under threat.
By Corey Robin
Cultural Comment
Are Hollywood’s Jewish Founders Worth Defending?
Jews in the industry called for the Academy Museum to highlight the men who created the movie business. A voice in my head went, Uh-oh.
By Michael Schulman
The Weekend Essay
In the Shadow of the Holocaust
How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today.
By Masha Gessen
Shouts & Murmurs
Sons of Commandment: Tales from the Nineties Bar-Mitzvah Circuit
Every single bar or bat mitzvah had the same d.j. play the party, so you could prepare.
By Seth Rogen
Our Columnists
The Historians Under Attack for Exploring Poland’s Role in the Holocaust
Scholars face defamation suits, and potential criminal charges, in the Polish government’s effort to exonerate the nation of any role in the murders of three million Jews during the Nazi occupation.
By Masha Gessen
Our Local Correspondents
“We Don’t Protest”: Borough Park’s Mask-Burning Orthodox Jewish Demonstrators
Heshy Tishler, a radio host and City Council candidate, has emerged as the leader of a neighborhood’s uprising against government coronavirus measures.
By Zach Helfand
The Front Row
Review: Seth Rogen’s Empty Ethics in “An American Pickle”
The sentimental fantasy of generational conflict and an immigrant’s struggles, starring Rogen in a double role, strains to achieve a reconciliation with the recent cultural past.
By Richard Brody
Keep the Faith Dept.
Trying Not to Jewbarrass the Guests at a Socially Distant Passover
The marketing pro behind the witty Manhattan Mini Storage ads has turned her focus to rebranding Judaism. Join Cory Booker and others at the JewBelong Seder.
By Nathan Heller
Daily Comment
Benjamin Netanyahu Is Indicted on Criminal Charges; His Defiance Puts Israel’s Democracy at Risk
The temptation to draw parallels between Netanyahu’s Israel and Trump’s America is irresistible. But America’s democratic institutions are more numerous, established, and dispersed than Israel’s.
By Bernard Avishai
Personal History
My House in Cairo
In Egypt, time is accordion-like. Certain moments seem to last forever, but then everything is compressed and an era disappears in a flash.
By Peter Hessler
Daily Comment
In Pittsburgh, Naftali Bennett’s Presence Highlights the Debate Between Netanyahu’s Government and American Jews
Naftali Bennett’s supposition that members of his audience thought of anti-Semitism as a “piece of history”—that they were in need of his corrective—suggests only how he’s underestimated them.
By Bernard Avishai
Peach Fuzz Dept.
The Growing Pains of Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg
Two of the creators of “Big Mouth” return to the White Plains middle school where they first started cracking each other up.
By Naomi Fry
L.A. Postcard
The Nazi Sites of Los Angeles
A walking tour of where the Fascists and Hitlerites gathered in California.
By Dana Goodyear
House Divided Dept.
Is Steve Bannon Good for the Jews?
Alan Dershowitz attends the annual gala for a Zionist organization and considers whether the former head of Breitbart is anti-Semitic.
By Andrew Marantz
The Pictures
Rachel Weisz and Deborah Lipstadt
The actress sits down with the professor, who was sued for libel for calling David Irving a Holocaust denier, and whom Weisz plays in “Denial.”
By Tad Friend