I remember the first Mishnah I ever learned, and it wasn’t in a classroom. (The Mishnah is the basic text of the oral tradition, as codified and edited by rabbi Yehuda Ha’Nasi circa 200 C.E.) The synagogue we attended when I was five years old had a strict decorum, and I recall the challenges this presented to my parents; vague images of my red-faced and embarrassed father carrying me out of synagogue kicking and screaming come to mind. more

There is a strange little village alongside one of Israel’s borders that I came across on one of my reserve duty stints. Without detailing, for obvious reasons, its location, it was a curious place because I could not figure out how on earth it came to be in such a strange place. Any history buff who studies anthropology readily discovers that there are always historical, geographical and often economic reasons that will explain the nature of a city’s location and growth, and whenever I was on reserve duty in different corners of Israel, I always enjoyed my own secret game of sleuth, trying to uncover the mystery of how local villages came to be situated wherever they were. more

When Bergen-Belsen was liberated on April 15, 1945, the sight that greeted the British soldiers was hellish, even by concentration camp standards. In a desperate attempt to bury the dead before the … more

The sun had long since set, dark clouds hid the stars, and the wind was howling off the Shouf mountain range in central Lebanon. I had managed to quietly sing the Kabbalat Shabbat service … more

I can still see his eyes and his twinkling smile as I walked him to the bus, with his rucksack over his back and a pair of ‘kafkafim’ (shower shoes) tied on and dangling from a piece of string. more

The details of this story have been changed to protect the identity of the commander involved. J enin during the first intifada was a nasty place, especially for a month of reserve duty, but we … more

The famous 19th century blood libel in Russia that came to be known as the Beilis Trial was much more than the trial of just one man. Judaism as a whole stood accused, and its faithful defenders … more

A number of years ago, I struck up a friendship over Pesach with a Holocaust survivor, a former inmate of the Janowska work camp and Auschwitz. Towards the end … more

I recall an incredible series of coincidences that to me were nothing short of miraculous. A student had been desperate to speak with me, and we finally managed to connect in New York the day before … more

As we dress in costumes for this weekend’s celebration, it should be noted that one of the stories in the Megillah of Esther is very much about clothing. more