Ideas

The Persian winter solstice tradition of Yalda pairs perfectly with Hanukkah

A proponent of the Iranian tradition says she can no longer imagine celebrating Hanukkah without poetry or Yalda without fried donuts.

First Person Ideas

The blessing and burden of bearing first witness to Jewish history

A reflection at the close of two decades on the D.C. Jewish news beat

Ideas

8 candles, 80 opinions: The many meanings of an American Hanukkah

A holiday that celebrates militarism and rejects assimilation — and vice versa — raises questions that occupy us this year, writes the head of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.

What my relatives’ Christmas celebrations taught me about observing Hanukkah

What’s everybody reading? Readers suggest the defining Jewish books of the 21st century

Traffic light with green right turn arrow

Amid war and an election, the Jewish mainstream bends to the right — and not just on Israel

On a roots journey from NYC to Poland, I packed my great-grandfather’s tallis

After I fell behind in public school, I found my place in a Jewish school’s special education program

What the co-chair of Columbia University’s antisemitism task force says people get wrong about the campus protests

On a mission to Auschwitz, I found hope amid the ashes

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