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

Jews and Booze, a fascinating new history of Prohibition-era bootleggers, barmen, rabbis, and cops, picks up where HBO’s Boardwalk Empire leaves off

In a new graphic column, Judah Loew and his famous homemade creature time-travel to the wilds of New York City, circa 2012

Ed Koch may not have caused a change in Obama’s Israel policy, but he’s forced the administration to shift its message to Democratic Jewish voters

Performer and poet Vanessa Hidary, the Hebrew mamita, mashes up her Jewish identity with that of a Puerto Rican—and unsettles stereotypes

Agenda: I.B. Singer, Stephen Sondheim, Tony Kushner, and Gilad Shalit-inspired monologues in New York, Joan Rivers in California, and more

A passionate, crusading Yiddisher tries to keep the Eastern European language alive in the cosmopolitan center of the Jewish state

A shopping trip to Borough Park on Dec. 25 reveals a lesson about pious passivity and dignity—and the value of human relations

The invented Seinfeld winter holiday Festivus, like the late Christopher Hitchens, demands a religion-like dogma  around nonbelief

Agenda: An I.B. Singer story set to klezmer, Lou Reed reads in Brooklyn, the Steins in Paris, Chagall in Ontario, and more