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In this December 28, 1962 file photo, anti-Stalinist poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko speaks during a reading of his poetry in Moscow's Tschaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow. (AP Photo)

How a poem let Soviet Jews remember in public

Sixty-five years ago, Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s ‘Babi Yar’ put into print a history Jewish families had been forced to carry in private

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a ceremony at the monument to Jewish victims of Nazi massacres, at Babyn Yar in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, September 29, 2021. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)

Yevgen Korniychuk

Babyn Yar: When history becomes a battlefield

Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel: ‘The Jewish people know better than many others how dangerous it becomes when a lie is repeated so often that it begins to be accepted as truth.’

Young men writing essays. (iStock)

Daphne Lazar Price

I want to read the essays

When you were accused of drugging and gang-raping a woman and given the opportunity to mitigate against the alleged crime, what did you say?

Then-defense minister Benny Gantz speaks in Rishon LeZion, October 20, 2022. (Avshalom Sassoni/ Flash90/ File)

Benny Gantz

Israel needs to take the erosion of US support seriously

I believe in a broad Zionist government that doesn’t rely on extremists – for the sake of Israel’s alliances and Jews everywhere

Students lead prayers outside New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence in Manhattan, September 18, 2026. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

What should we teach our children when Israel is challenged?

Instead of responding to Mamdani with a vigil, Jewish schools could help students grapple with the moral questions facing Israel and Zionism

Nadav Tamir

Hope cannot be built on the exclusion of Arab parties

If the change bloc wants to present a credible alternative government, it must stop treating Arab parties as untouchable coalition partners

(ChatGPT image)

Ben Lazarus

Two little-known bookend prayers I really need now

While I’m staving off the anger, apathy, and impulsiveness of my incurable disease, I turn to God twice each day and ask for help that I believe would help anyone

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Michael Feldstein

Sep 30, 2026, 12:29 AM

From Prohibition to Kiddush: The Surprising Story of Grape Juice and Halacha

Credit: Gemini

If you have young children at your Pesach seder—or even if you don’t—chances are you’ll be pouring grape juice for some or all of the four cups we are required to drink. Today, we take it completely for granted...

Sep 30, 2026, 12:28 AM

A Christian Filmmaker’s Striking Defense of Israel and the Jewish People

Morehead had time to catch some waves in Jaffa while making PROMISED LAND. "Once I started taking surfers to Israel that was it!" he says.

Todd Morehead, who’s made three feature films about Israel including a deep-dive into the nightmare of October 7, challenges claims in new NAZA documentary that IDF intended mass killings of civilians in Gaza. “I don’t buy it,” says Todd Morehead. ...

Sep 30, 2026, 12:27 AM

When a Football Match Becomes a Morality Play

Ireland's soccer players bow their heads as the Israeli national anthem plays before their UEFA Nations League match in Debrecen, Hungary, September 27, 2026. (Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

I have to be honest: I don't share academia's infatuation with reductive thinking. There is something particularly pernicious about taking the conceptual framework from one historical situation and simply copying and pasting it onto another. History is messy, nations...

Isaac Steven Herschkopf

Sep 30, 2026, 12:27 AM

My Dinner with Abe Lebewohl at The 2nd Avenue Deli

"Strange to see how a good dinner... reconciles everybody." Diary, Samuel Pepys (1665) The year was 1975. My medical student group, stuck working in Bellevue for the weekend, decided to eat at The 2nd Avenue Deli. Good news for me being orthodox,...

Sep 30, 2026, 12:25 AM

Light, Circus and Coexistence at the Akko Festival of Alternative Theatre

Photo credits: Noam Bedein We heard the festival before we saw it. Drums rolled up from the direction of the port, children laughed somewhere down a side alley, and then, above the heads of the crowd, a woman danced on...

Grant Arthur Gochin

Sep 30, 2026, 12:24 AM

Citizenship as Both Refuge and Inheritance

A passport can be an escape route. It can also be an heirloom. Jews understand passports differently from people who have never had to imagine an exit route. Long before October 7, sociologist Yossi Harpaz documented that close to 60,000...

Sagit Alkobi Fishman

Sep 30, 2026, 12:24 AM

What the Sukkah Knows That the Safe Room Doesn’t

A sukkah beside a reinforced safe room. AI-generated photorealistic illustration.

This Sukkot, two shelters stand side by side in countless Israeli homes. One has reinforced concrete walls, a steel door, and a window designed to seal from within. The other has flimsy walls and a roof of branches through...

Sep 30, 2026, 12:24 AM

Sukkot and Belonging

“Who would you invite to your sukkah?” This is one of my favorite questions to ask when teaching about Sukkot. Based on the idea of ushpizin – the ethereal visitors we welcome during the holiday – it’s an opportunity to...

Sep 30, 2026, 12:23 AM

What to do to calm down when life becomes too much to bear?

Image AI Generated Your advice is find a verse of Psalms. Choose a verse that speaks to you. Say the verse slowly, with concentration until you calm down. You start to feel menucha (inner calm). Your heart moves away from worries. You relax. You become like a child...

Mordechai Soskil

Sep 30, 2026, 12:23 AM

Happiness is Overrated

Of all the Jewish holidays, the one most closely associated with happiness is Sukkot. The prayer service calls Sukkot Zman Simchateinu – the time of our happiness. The Torah instructs us to take the Lulav and Etrog and “rejoice”...

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