Matti Friedman is a Tablet columnist and the author, most recently, of Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.
In an appearance that has never quite been explained, the legendary singer came to the desert to perform for the troops during one of the bloodiest weeks of the battle
Matan Kahana’s lonely battle to build a religious-Zionist-labor-Orthodox-democratic Jewish state
Israel’s last wave of Ukrainian and Russian Jews is preparing to absorb the next one
Beijing’s courtship of Israel has been canny and effective
The incredible strength of the shekel is playing havoc with Israel’s economy, while leaving its humble and egalitarian past in the dust
It will start without warning. And the consequences are likely to be enormous.
After decades of great expectations, Beersheba often seems like a lost cause. But a recent visit revealed a city finally on the cusp of a breakthrough.
A compilation of the past week’s stories on notable Israeli musicians—from the pioneering Mizrahi star Kobi Oz to rappers spitting bars about skipping mandatory IDF conscription—and a playlist to go with it
Kobi Oz might be the most influential musician in Israel. His songs brought Mizrahi stylings into the mainstream, painting a vivid portrait of a place coming to terms with its Middle Eastern identity.
Unlike most of his learned Jewish contemporaries, Herzl understood that antisemitism can’t be pled or reasoned away
Social media narratives fuel conflict and excite childish ideologues, but they ignore the forces that hold our city together
How coverage of the Jewish state became a signifier of the ideological activism that now permeates Western culture
An excerpt from Matti Friedman’s new book, ‘Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel’
Is it better to cooperate with dictatorships and authoritarian regimes and tell half the story with hands tied—or not tell the story at all?
At a lonely army outpost in 1994, Israel was shown the difference between radicals and fanatics—and between soldiers and storytellers. But the West didn’t learn.
What my preschooler’s taste in Mizrahi pop says about where the country is at
Dead at 92
What is normal here?
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