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Diaspora
Lev Levanda spent decades advocating for Jewish assimilation into Russian culture. It all changed after pogroms shook the empire…
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Walther Rathenau, one of Germany’s wealthiest and most powerful men, was gunned down by radicals in 1922 and mourned by millions. A moving and timeless letter from his mother was read at the murderer’s trial.
Land of Israel
Why was Mandatory Palestine changed to the imaginary “Emirate of Khemed” in “Land of Black Gold”, the 15th volume in the comic series, “The Adventures of Tintin”?
How Ol’ Blue Eyes managed to trick the FBI, make a special delivery down at the docks and help the Jewish state-in-the-making…
Judaism
The Book of Ruth is an extraordinary biblical story. At its center is the brave friendship between two women that leads to the founding of the Davidic dynasty, and a heroine whose character traits made her an everlasting symbol of beauty
Check out these clips featuring four of the most stunning and interesting Torah scrolls from the National Library of Israel collection
If not for a crucial lunchtime intervention by General Edmund Allenby, who apparently had his mouth full, half of Jerusalem could have come under French control. In fact, had Allenby remained silent, there might never have been a British Mandate in Palestine, not to mention a State of Israel…
Even a mass murderer can have a personal library. Some of the books from Heinrich Himmler’s private collection, containing his signature, can be found today at the National Library of Israel. How did they get here?
Nowadays, people identify the keffiyeh as the unequivocal symbol of the Palestinian national movement. However, going back a few decades, we find documentation of senior members of the Zionist movement wearing the traditional headdress as well as members of the Palmach and even soldiers in the IDF. What changed along the way?
A beautiful illustration from a book printed in 1601 for the Jewish community in Venice contains the first-ever printed documentation of the Lag BaOmer holiday haircut tradition
How did a glittering Star of David become the centerpiece of the royal crown and state symbol of a Pacific island nation? What does the Kingdom of Sheba have to do with circumcision? Join us on a journey around the globe as we follow the six-pointed star to the most unexpected of places…
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