Blog

For those who celebrate, Christmas might conjure up images of sleigh bells, snow, and dancing sugar plum fairies. But for Jews, the holiday is just as likely to prompt mouthwatering visions of wontons, Kung Pao chicken, and other Chinese dishes. Jewish people eating Chinese food on Christmas is an image that has become so pervasive, it has even made it to the federal government, when it was mentioned during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. But Jews and Chinese food, especially on Christmas, is a stereotype that is actually based on truth, and on the historical relationship[…]

There is a Talmudic Agada about Moses, who traveled forward in time and landed in Rabbi Akiva’s Beth Midrash. He sat in the eighth row and listened to Rabbi Akiva splitting hairs over every verse – or as the story puts it: “(Rabbi Akiva) is destined to derive from each and every thorn of these crowns mounds upon mounds of halakhot”. Somewhat baffled, Moses was unable to figure almost nothing out of the debate and was getting frustrated. He thought, what does any of this have to do with the Torah I carried down from Mount Sinai? Why are these[…]

A quote that religious Jews in Israel enjoy hurling in heated arguments with secular Jews is that of the founder of the Hashomer Hatzair Movement and spiritual leader of the kibbutz movement, MK Yaakov Hazan: “We wanted to raise a generation of apikorsim [non-observant Jews], but instead raised a generation of amei haaretz  [unlearned Jews].” This quote is one in a collection of religious hubris, which includes “the parable of the empty wagons” from the famous discussion between Ben-Gurion and the Hazon Ish; and Reserve Major General Yaakov Amidror’s, “Secular Jews are Hebrew-speaking Gentiles.” It reflects both the desire to diminish[…]

In celebration of our blockbuster exhibit, “Let There Be Laughter – Jewish Humor Around the World”, honoring the contributions of Jews to the world of comedy, we at the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot unveiled a list of the 15 greatest moments in the history of Jewish comedy. Headlining the list are “Seinfeld,” Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner’s “2,000-Year-Old Man” routine, the “Borscht Belt,” Joan Rivers’ 1965 debut on “The Tonight Show,” Adam Sandler’s “Hanukkah Song” and Henny Youngman’s signature “Take my wife, please.” Since its opening, the “Let There Be Laughter” exhibit has drawn more than[…]

Assaf Gamzu The popular culture of 2018 owes so much to Stan Lee. Every couple of months a new comic movie is released by Marvel Cinematic Universe, that undisputedly has been ruling the world of cinema for a decade now. Most of the stars – Thor, The Hulk, The Black Panther, Spider-man and others – were created by Stan Lee over five decades ago. Back then they were part of a cultural revolution and apparently no one – not even Stan Lee himself – could imagine the honor, fortune and cultural impact they receive today. The beginning of Stan the[…]

Two contradictory ideologies dealing with distributive justice were dominant in modern history: the model of the Socialist State, that strive to expand government’s power and interference in the lives of citizens, and the opposite model of the Liberal State, that focused on individual rights and wished to limit governmental interference in private lives. In a deeper level, even today there is an intense struggle between these two central values – equality versus freedom. The question of distributive justice kept Jewish philosophers busy since biblical times, when the “Hebrew biblical republic” as Thomas Hobbs called it imposed social laws such tithe[…]

In the early 1930’s, an unknown young Jewish lyricist called Aharon Ze’ev published the poem “We are carrying torches” – Anu Nos’im Lapidim, which became popular overnight among Zionist sing along lovers. It was a one-liner essence of all Zionist core ideas: No miracle happened for us / No cruise of oil did we find / We walked through the valley, ascended the mountain / We discovered wellsprings of hidden light / We quarried in the stone until we bled / “Let there be light!” These loved lyrics condensed the entire story of the Zionist movement, whose central goal was to[…]