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Geoffrey Clarfield

Jun 5, 2026, 9:02 AM

The Ecstasy of the Piyyut

After the fall of the Second Temple (70 CE) the Jews were still a majority in the Land of Israel. First, they lived under the authority of the pagan Romans. When the Romans then converted to Christianity, these same...

Jun 3, 2026, 9:19 PM

Micros and Macros in Chelsea, New York

Walking peacefully through Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood this spring, I felt unexpectedly content. A melody kept following me: “I want you, I want you…” That romantic song by Bob Dylan had always embodied New York for me. Yet this visit felt far more...

Jaclyn S. Clark

Jun 1, 2026, 12:27 AM

Dave Matthews Was Our Soundtrack. Now His Crowd Chants Slurs.

Dave Matthews didn’t just lose me over Israel. He turned the one place that felt like home into a place where kids feel free to scream slurs. Here’s what we do about it — and why we don’t have...

May 30, 2026, 10:13 AM

Gender-Rich and Gender-Poor Languages

There is more than one road to Dublin. Different societies can move in different linguistic directions and still converge on the same human values. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Poetess and Avtorka Languages evolve. But they do not always evolve in the same direction — even when societies claim to pursue the same values. Consider English. Once upon a time, feminine professional forms were common: poetess authoress doctoress actress Today, many...

Brendon Stewart Freedman

May 28, 2026, 3:57 AM

Michelle: Israel’s Eurovision Lament for Europe

Mons, Belgium. Photo by Emmanuel Codden / Pexels.

There was something almost unbearably poignant about this year’s Israeli Eurovision entry. On the surface, Michelle appeared to comply perfectly with Eurovision’s insistence on political neutrality: a multilingual love song, wistful, romantic, and melancholy, about a toxic relationship and lingering...

Daniel Feigelson

May 26, 2026, 8:00 PM

A Memorial Day Concert Review

Yesterday was Memorial Day in the USA, and I went to a concert in Tel-Aviv. What do these things have to do with each other? In principle, nothing, but read on. The concert consisted of three trios for French horn,...

May 20, 2026, 4:21 AM

When Pete Seeger met Reb Zalman

Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Pete Seeger, seated in his wife Toshi’s wheelchair, studying the words of Ecclesiastes together in Pete’s living room in May 2012.

Photo credit: David Weisberg

An unforgettable encounter between two spiritual giants before Shavuot gave me a timeless lesson in compassion, curiosity, and human dignity

Dorothea Shefer-Vanson

May 17, 2026, 1:39 PM

An Echo from the Past

One day a message appeared on my screen. It came from someone I had never met or known and asked about my translation of articles by Verdina Shlonsky. As I read the message the memory of the composer, Verdina Shlonsky,...

May 12, 2026, 6:39 PM

The Jewish Art of Remembering Forward

Photo by Abbie Strauss

From “Next Year in Jerusalem” to “Jerusalem of Gold,” Jewish memory has often functioned less as nostalgia than as preparation for the future. There is something slightly unusual about the Jewish relationship with memory. Most people remember the past in...

May 11, 2026, 2:33 PM

Fellow Toronto Jews: the world is not ending for us. Neil Diamond taught me this.

Photograph by David Matlow

Good news, fellow Toronto Jews. The world is not ending for us. Neil Diamond taught me this. At the Mother’s Day matinee of A Beautiful Noise at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, I estimate the audience was 95%...

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