How a little-known Yom Kippur ritual became a weapon in the hands of antisemites
“Bless the mother of the child with a maid and a servant”: Birthing Songs of Yemen’s Jewish Women
“If only you had seen, O my sisters! What I experienced during childbirth” – These songs sung by Yemenite Jewish women helped them regain their silenced voices, by directly addressing the difficulties of childbirth and life in a patriarchal society
The Kabbalistic Tree: The Map of God
The second commandment states that “You shall not make for yourself a statue or any image”. The Jewish Kabbalists found a rather unique and complicated way to circumvent this prohibition…
The Three Jewish Monsters Charged With Saving the World
How is the balance in nature maintained? Well, with the help of three monsters from Jewish mythology, of course! One that lives in the sea, one that moves through the air and another that roams the earth. Naturally, no other creature dares to mess with these guys…
Hannah Senesh Bids Farewell to Her Brother Giora
Hannah Senesh did not believe she would meet her brother Giora before leaving on a mission from which she thought she might not return. When her brother arrived in Mandatory Palestine a few days before she was to depart for Egypt, Senesh gave him a letter. He could not have understood its full meaning at the time…
The Family Trading Company That Became a Relief Network for the Jews of Yemen
In late 19th-century Yemen, Suleiman Habshush built a prosperous trading empire and harnessed its success to help needy members of the local Jewish community. Later, when his grandson inherited the firm, the family helped to bring the community to Israel
The Holy Land “in Natural Color”: German Postcards From 1932
Less than a year before the Nazis came to power, a collection of postcards featuring holy sites and the developing Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel was published in Munich…
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Napoleon: The Meeting That Never Was
In 1799, after a perilous journey, Rabbi Nachman arrived in the Land of Israel just in time to witness its conquest by Napoleon. Only by a miracle did R. Nachman escape Napoleon’s siege on Acre. So why did he make the French general the hero of one of his best-known stories?
“I did not commit treason, I committed suicide” – Uri Ilan’s Secret Notes
The story of the captured soldier who chose to end his life for fear of revealing secrets to the enemy
The Wise Men of Chelm: The Unfair Shaming of a Jewish Community
How did the Jews of Chelm, a city in Poland, acquire their reputation as a “town of fools”? Could Chelm have actually been a community of great sages? We set out in search of the true story behind this odd piece of Jewish folklore…