The Book of Radiance
An old Jew reflects on what the Zohar illuminates about the nature of the Jewish tradition.
Tag: Judaism
A New-Ancient Zohar
On translating the Zohar’s poetic and unruly Aramaic, while staying true to the text’s original ambiguity.
Exploring the Zohar
A syllabus for plumbing the depths of a multi-volume masterpiece of Jewish mysticism.
Encountering Traditions
What we can learn from exploring the dynamics between belief systems. A Q&A with series editors Jonathan Tran, Nicholas, Adams, and Rumee Ahmed.
Message in a Bottle
The buried manuscript of a Greek Jewish inmate of Auschwitz. The main gate of Auschwitz. Creative Commons image by Tulio Bertorini via Wikimedia Commons. In a Q&A with the editors of Sephardi Lives, each was asked to share some of what they regarded as being …
Dear Rebecca …
A Turkish Jew interned at Drancy writes home. The camp in Drancy, circa 1941. Creative Commons image from the Bundesarchiv of Germany via Wikimedia Commons. The following is a letter from Yaco Soulam, detained in Drancy, to his wife, Rebecca in Paris. The letter was …
A Russian Jewish Woman in New York Seeks Dating Advice (… in 1916)
The question of the hour: can a Sephardi-Ashkenazi romance survive? The following letters originally appeared in a Ladino newspaper, La Bos del Pueblo. They were translated into English by Aviva Ben-Ur and are excerpted below from Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History 1700-1950: In early-twentieth-century New York City, …
Plumbing 250 Years of Sephardi History
A new documentary history sheds light on a vibrant culture. a Q&A with JULIA PHILLIPS COHEN & SARAH ABREVAYA STEIN Sephardi couple from Sarajevo, circa 1900. Public Domain image via Wikimedia Commons. Inspired by the relative scarcity of information and understanding about Sephardi culture, Julia Phillips …
How Does One Invent a Canon?
On collating hundreds of years worth of cultural history. by JULIA PHILLIPS COHEN & SARAH ABREVAYA STEIN Some six years ago, we began a collaboration with little idea that it would last so long, or yield such rich fruit. Our collaboration was motivated by a …
