S. An-sky created a survey—never completed—on shtetl life in the 1910s. Its 2,087 questions offer a fascinating window on the Pale of Settlement.

Brooklyn Rabbi Andy Bachman and Tablet’s Marc Tracy, both good liberals, can’t agree on the merits of the Occupy Wall Street movement

Max Brooks shares his father Mel’s sense of humor. But when it comes to thinking about zombie outbreaks and how to prevent them, he is dead serious.

Shimon Peres, Israel’s president, has written a new Nextbook Press biography of David Ben-Gurion, its first prime minster and his mentor

As the Statue of Liberty turns 125, talking to statue-bound tourists about Emma Lazarus, the poet whose sonnet is inscribed in its base

Evonne Marzouk, the Orthodox co-founder of a Jewish environmental group, insists the Torah holds us responsible for the earth’s well-being

Yoshie Fruchter and his band, Pitom, delve into repentance on the new album Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes, a jazz-metal take on confession

Until the widow of Yiddish writer Chaim Grade died last year, his archive was kept locked away in their stuffed apartment. Now it’s up for grabs.

Israelis are fixated on the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations. But Palestinians, inured to false hopes, are much less riled up.

Lucette Lagnado’s first memoir was dominated by her colorful father. In The Arrogant Years, she plumbs the heartbreaking life of her mother.