Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  This week, Jews celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, during which it is traditional to read one of the most philosophically interesting books of the Hebrew Bible, Ecclesiastes. The narrator of the book, identified by Jewish […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  The celebrated novelist Dara Horn’s new book, People Love Dead Jews, has an arresting title, one designed to make the reader feel uncomfortable. That’s because Horn makes an argument that tries to change the way […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Thirty years ago, in August 1991, riots broke out in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, a neighborhood shared by African Americans and Jews, the latter of whom were mostly members of the hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  In the year 1970, the distinguished American writer Cynthia Ozick published an essay arguing that Jewish literature might succeed if it embraced and conveyed the rich particularism of the Jewish experience. In a famous metaphor, […]

Press play below to listen to the podcast, download it in the iTunes Store, or stream it via Stitcher.  Two liberal arts professors were intrigued by a habit of mind they detected in their students, especially their high-achieving ones. Despite material abundance and the freedom to pursue a profession or passion of their choosing, […]