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Jul 17, 2026, 7:05 PM

The #Herzl100: 100 Herzl Artifacts in 100 Days

I own the world's largest collection of Theodor Herzl memorabilia and this summer I am posting 100 Herzl artifacts from my collection in 100 days. 45 episodes have dropped so far, with another 55 episodes to go. The #Herzl100 can...

Silas Anastacio

Jul 17, 2026, 12:59 AM

All We Have Standing Between Us: 250 Years of Jews and American Democracy

For 250 years, American Jews have helped shape, challenge, and reimagine the nation’s democratic ideals. All We Have Standing Between Us: 250 Years of Jews and American Democracy invites you to explore this dynamic history, where debates over freedom,...

Jul 17, 2026, 12:46 AM

In conversation with rock legend John Illsley – My Life In Dire Straits

"We were lucky we weren't teenagers - that would certainly have been fatal" writes Mark Knopfler in his forward to John Illsley's autobiography, reflecting on the band's meteoric rise and an ever-changing landscape. "The ride is not for everyone" Knopfler...

Jul 16, 2026, 5:03 AM

They Stamped Every Neighborhood But Ours

There is a particular loneliness in being counted only when someone is counting victims, and forgotten every other day of the year. This summer, as the World Cup came to New York, the City handed out a “Neighborhood Passport,”...

Jul 15, 2026, 8:06 AM

Today’s changing world: A readers guide

(courtesy)

There was a book I read as a child, which I only partially remember. I pulled it off my grandmother’s bookshelf in the late '60s, early '70s; and only remember a snowy scene and a character trying to solve...

Jul 14, 2026, 3:40 PM

An interview with acclaimed author Andrew Ross Sorkin on his Masterpiece 1929

As a Financial Advisor who has had the honor of working at over 8 Fortune 500 companies, including Wells Fargo, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, and now Merrill Lynch, I have always admired Andrew Ross Sorkin. Andrew is one of the...

Jul 14, 2026, 11:05 AM

Halakha’s Kármán Line: Imagined and Real Jews in Space

Ilan Ramon, November 2001, NASA, https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/missions/sts-107/images/high/KSC-02PP-0490.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ilan_Ramon,_NASA_photo_portrait_in_orange_suit.jpg, cropped

In the late 1960s or early 1970s, when Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof – the most prolific author of responsa in the American Reform movement – was asked for sources in Jewish law in preparation for “a discussion of the...

Jul 13, 2026, 11:00 PM

History After Prophecy

Esther before Ahasuerus by Rembrandt van Rijn. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Meme That Started My Thinking A few years ago, I came across one of those ubiquitous internet memes: Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. Something about it bothered me. Not because...

Jul 13, 2026, 12:58 PM

Trapped in China

China and I are not friends. I first realized that long ago when, passing through one of its many airports, an unsmiling immigration officer confiscated my favorite oversized razor. And again, years later, when during a two-day-multiple-airport layover, my then-eight-year-old...

Eric M. Leiderman

Jul 13, 2026, 5:02 AM

Did America Prove Herzl Wrong?

Theodor Herzl never witnessed the rise of American Jewry. This illustration imagines Herzl overlooking New York as the United States emerged as the most successful Diaspora community in Jewish history. (AI-generated illustration created with ChatGPT/OpenAI. Not a historical photograph.)

Theodor Herzl remains one of the defining Jewish thinkers of the modern era because he recognized a truth that many of his contemporaries preferred not to see. Writing amid the rise of European nationalism and in the shadow of...

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