Adam Kirsch

Half Human

The German Jewish writer Joseph Roth, whose letters are newly translated, chronicled the death of 19th century Europe and the rise of its darker heir

Robin Cembalest

Consequence

Sol LeWitt’s minimalist installations for synagogues and Jewish institutions have given the late conceptual artist an afterlife he’d approve of

Marjorie Ingall

Fear Factor

Holocaust books for children can be terrifying—for adults. How do we teach our kids about history without scarring them for life?

Josh Lambert

Primary Sources

Five Books: Jews in film, Jews and booze, the poisonous sound of children’s voices in Ben Marcus’ novel, Tony Judt’s last conversations, and more

Liel Leibovitz

Monomaniacal

The newest George Lucas production, Red Tails, forces a Star Wars nerd to come to terms with a troubling philosophy

Judith Miller

They Shoot Horses

Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of War Horse saps the imaginative power of the play in favor of sentimentality

Lee Smith

Rationale

The question policy-makers should focus on isn’t whether Iran would use a nuclear weapon, but how a bomb would embolden an already reckless regime

Liel Leibovitz

Perpetual Movement

Clancy Sigal’s 1961 novel, Going Away, is a primer for the Occupy generation about the futility of despair and the inevitability of change

Adam Kirsch

Earthly Gardens

In The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Giorgio Bassani’s 1962 novel, an aristocratic Jewish family in Italy tries to wall itself off from the Holocaust

Lee Smith

Minority Interest

Lebanon’s Maronites, threatened by Sunni power, will be the bellwether of the Mideast’s Christians. Could they face the same fate as the region’s Jews?

Writing Footnote

Director Joseph Cedar on Orthodox Judaism, The Social Network, and the nightmare scenario behind his latest Academy Award-nominated film

Hostage Crisis

The Egyptian government is preparing a show trial for 19 American pro-democracy organizers. Is this what life after Hosni Mubarak looks like?

Sentimental Journey

In the new collected stories of Nathan Englander, and in his revised Haggadah, Jews cling tenuously to the easily broken chains of tradition

Never Too Old

The centenarian hero of the forthcoming novel Liebestod enjoys a ménage à six with a rabbi’s wife, a Brazilian bombshell, and a three-legged cat

Keep the Faith

The battered Israeli left can advance its agenda only if it learns to stop fearing religion and embrace the notion of the Chosen People