Magazine

Few images capture Yom Kippur more powerfully than a person bent over a machzor (prayer book), quietly reciting its catalogue of sins.

How is it that precisely on the eve of the day when a person stands before his Creator, and his judgment for the coming year is sealed, we are commanded to eat and rejoice?

Then comes the inevitable American analogy. “This is not a football game,” senior diplomat Morgan Ortagus says, explaining why she cannot predict when the negotiations will produce a final agreement.

Victor Sebestyen has painted a vivid picture of the life and eventual death of Weimar Germany, telling the painful story of Germany between 1918 and 1933.

Belu-Simion Fainaru, our representative at the Venice Biennale, struts his creative stuff and rolls with the anti-Israel punches.

From playing numerous Jewish women on screen to painting her dearest memories with family, actress and artist Lisa Edelstein's work has been profoundly shaped by her Jewish identity.

“It’s such an incredible blessing to be here. I really feel it was the mission of my life to facilitate my family’s return to Israel,” retired judge David Parry said of his aliyah journey.

When confronted by our own absurdity and inadequacy, Judaism turns the tables and asks us to eat festive meals, sing optimistic songs, and make Rosh Hashanah into a holy celebration.

In Who Is American? Belonging and the Question of Jewish Citizenship, Prof. Lila Corwin Berman explores the intertwined, controversial issues surrounding the history of Jewish citizenship in the US.

The point of Rosh Hashanah is that we get a chance to pray to God for a year that will be better than we expect, both for us and for our country. So what should we be praying for this holiday?