Reviews

While not the first, Rubin’s book is among the very few that aim to address the his­to­ry of the Chabad move­ment as a whole, plac­ing its major fig­ures in dia­logue with one anoth­er. Kab­bal­ah and the Rup­ture of Moder­ni­ty does so not in a devo­tion­al or ahis­tor­i­cal man­ner, but by explor­ing the rebbes’ writ­ings as con­scious and strate­gic efforts to forge a dis­tinct Lubav­itch tra­di­tion, con­struct the legit­i­ma­cy of their lead­er­ship, and respond to the com­plex chal­lenges of mod­ern times.

May 23, 2025

May 19, 2025

May 07, 2025

Apr 18, 2025

This col­lec­tion of essays reveals Singer’s com­plex and often con­flict­ed views on Jew­ish the­ol­o­gy, Judaism, and the role of reli­gion in literature.

Apr 18, 2025

Through Homes of the Past, Shan­dler not only revis­its a neglect­ed episode in Jew­ish his­to­ry but also offers a pro­found med­i­ta­tion on the ways soci­eties pre­serve, con­struct, and rein­vent their pasts. His work will con­tribute to future dis­cus­sions on Jew­ish muse­ol­o­gy, his­tor­i­cal mem­o­ry, and the evolv­ing iden­ti­ties of Yid­dish-speak­ing Amer­i­can Jewry.

Apr 14, 2025

Apr 10, 2025

“Jus­tice” – with all its trans­for­ma­tions and many faces – is a key notion for under­stand­ing Sovi­et his­to­ry. It was social jus­tice that the Bol­she­vik Rev­o­lu­tion was after. It was ​“the dream of social jus­tice” that attract­ed so many peo­ple, includ­ing numer­ous Jews, to join the rev­o­lu­tion or to immi­grate to Sovi­et Rus­sia. And the stronger the belief in social jus­tice the new order brought, the stronger was the shock caused by the injus­tice of the selec­tive enforce­ment of Sovi­et laws.

Apr 01, 2025

A pas­sion­ate social crit­i­cism can only be born from care for the soci­ety one crit­i­cizes and a deep famil­iar­i­ty with both its beau­ty and its flaws.

Mar 26, 2025

Mel Konner’s com­pelling trans­la­tion of Helfandn bay Nakht (1950) takes the read­er through Sutzkever’s Nesiye iber Afri­ka, evok­ing sto­ries of wise African kings, masked hunters, shape-shift­ing prey, lovers divid­ed by croc­o­dile rivers, and the cre­ation of man begin­ning with ele­phant tusks.

Mar 03, 2025