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Sep 25, 2026, 11:49 PM

Sweden’s Yiddish Story: How Sweden Became a Guardian of Yiddish

When travelers think about Sweden’s Jewish heritage, they may think first of Stockholm’s Great Synagogue, the rescue of Danish Jews during the Holocaust, or the remarkable story of Raoul Wallenberg. But there is another, less familiar chapter of Jewish...

Zahava Feldstein

Sep 24, 2026, 8:59 AM

On Yom Kippur, Man Plans and God Laughs

You can watch the transcribed audio-podcast version of this article here: Man Plans and God Laughs. Click to watch the video. This year, I prayed not to be inscribed in the Book of Life. There is no careful way to say...

Alexander A. Winogradsky Frenkel

Aug 24, 2026, 12:40 AM

Tshurbes, Mud and blossoming

On August 24, Ukraine marks its Independence Day. In 2026 the date cannot be separated from the war that followed Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Yet another August comes to mind. On August 21, 1968, Warsaw Pact forces entered...

Jul 25, 2026, 9:47 AM

Pigs are widely regarded as among the most intelligent domesticated animals. Photo © Mercy For Animals (MFA), Los Angeles, USA, 2011. Licensed under CC BY 2.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

How One Forbidden Animal Became the Symbol of Kashrut This article continues the series: Fins and Scales, Hooves and Cud Kashrut Through the Lens of Information Theory: The Hidden Logic of Redundancy If every fish with scales also has fins, why does the...

Jul 4, 2026, 10:48 AM

Mizrahi Civilization

Mizrahi Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“The Yiddish people must be counted among the founder nations of Europe.” — Paul Kriwaczek, Yiddish Civilization The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation In his acclaimed book Yiddish Civilization: The Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation, historian and writer...

Zahava Feldstein

Jun 27, 2026, 5:00 PM

What to the Ashkenazi Jew is the Fourth of July?

I found the name Feldstein only once in a book: at Auschwitz, compiled in the book of the dead.

I am a fourth-generation American, and my ancestors are lost to Jewish history. They authored no books for me to discover; their names are not transcribed among the intellectual Jews of any time. I know, because I keep looking....

Jose Lev Alvarez Gomez

May 27, 2026, 11:18 AM

Europe Needs Israel to Join the European Union

Europe is careening toward strategic irrelevance as Iranian proxies tighten their noose around its southern flank and radical Islam spreads through its streets and no-go zones. Israel is the hard-power partner the European Union can no longer afford to...

Mihran Kalaydjian

May 25, 2026, 7:22 AM

When Jews Are Told They Don’t Belong Again

For decades after the Holocaust, civilized society agreed on one moral line that could never be crossed again: Jews would never again be treated as outsiders in the societies they helped build. Today, that line is eroding before our eyes. Across...

May 18, 2026, 6:08 PM

I’m Not a Zionist, I’m a Zionistish Person

When language becomes a system of approvals, nouns stop standing alone. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Jewish Person, Parent #1, Parent #2, and Other Linguistic Innovations of Our Time There was a time when English was a relatively simple language. You could say things like “a Jew,” “a woman,” or “a father,” and people would assume...

May 6, 2026, 9:27 AM

The Vocabulary of Belonging

One land. Many homelands. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

From Rodina to Bashertland: A Taxonomy of Homeland In my earlier piece, Soulmateland. Bashertland, I introduced two new terms—not as linguistic curiosities, but as necessary additions. Because the existing vocabulary was insufficient. We have many words for “homeland,” yet most of them...

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