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By: Assaf Gamzou Science fiction fans and cinema lovers across the world were all holding their breath in anticipation in 2017 at the release of Blade Runner 2049. In this sequence of Ridley Scott’s master piece, we are introduced to K, a replicant who hunts down other replicants and kills them. In the near future, we come to realize, a class of synthetic slaves will be formed, and those who would dare to revel against their creators will be exterminated. K runs his own life and routine. His girlfriend, a hologram by the name of Joy, waits for him after[…]

What triggered the butterfly effect 50 years before Habiba Msika became the most famous Jewish Tunisian woman in the world, was in fact not a butterfly, but bacteria – the tuberculosis that entered the body of a poor little baby named Edgardo Mortara, born in 1851 to a Jewish family in Bologna, Italy. His Christian loving nursemaid, who could not watch him die, took him secretly at night to the nearby church where he was baptized and – as the merciful nanny hoped – recovered from his illness. As it was illegal for none Catholics to raise a catholic child,[…]

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months” (Oscar Wilde) In this postmodern era of ours, when the concept of “truth” is undermined every single minute and dissected into numberless narratives, the building of Beit Hatfutsot is here, maliciously annoying all relativists. For five decades it has been standing at the center of Tel Aviv University campus, proud and erect, while styles have changed and trends came and went, and returned. Yet this building remains, faithful to one authentic truth: the architectural truth of the designers. The concept of one structural[…]

With the Winter Olympic Games commencing in South Korea it’s noteworthy to mention that one of the most successful Olympic sports for Jewish athletes has actually been the marquee event of the games – figure skating. In fact, at least 16 Jewish skaters throughout the generations have won Olympic medals – with the trend becoming ever stronger in the 21st century. Historically it has been women, more than men, carrying the flag for the chosen at the games. To honor them we are selecting the five greatest Jewish female skaters of all time. Oksana Baiul Oksana Baiul was the real winner[…]

In 1993 General Colin Powell visited the State of Israel. Upon meeting then-Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir, he is said to have greeted the surprised Shamir with “mir kenen redn Yiddish!” (“We can speak Yiddish!”) Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants who was born in Harlem and raised in the South Bronx of New York City, did not learn Yiddish at home. Rather, Powell picked up his Yiddish by his interactions with his Jewish neighbors, including serving as a Shabbos goy. Shabbat is the classic Jewish day of rest, one that is characterized by various guidelines and restrictions that are meant[…]

He wore many hats: an American Sheriff and patriot; an ambassador who released hostages in Tunis; an Ashkenazi who declared himself a Portuguese; a proud Jew, and most important – the man who wished to establish a Jewish state in the U.S.A. – way before others came with the idea of a Jewish state. Who was Mordecai Manuel Noah, and what can his extraordinary life and ambition teach us? Mordecai was born in Philadelphia in 1785, a few years after the end of the American war of independence. At a young age his mother died and his father went back[…]

In April 1959, the chamber of the Arab League Boycott of Israel submitted a demand that the Swiss watch company Ardath remove the Star of David from their logo, as it was an ancient Jewish emblem. A short while after, the Maariv newspaper delegate,  Yosef  “Tommy” Lapid  Z”L, published an item about the British tea brand Brooke Bond, who also surrendered to the Arab League and removed the Star of David which decorated their tea packs. Brooke Bond’s attempts to explain that this sign was in use on the tea packs long before the founding of the State of Israel[…]

“When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”. Two millions Dollars was the sum an anonymous businessman gladly paid  for the four pages original manuscript of the song “Like a Rolling Stone”. Indeed irony is one way to describe Bob Dylan’s career, the poet who wrote this complex beautiful poem when he was only 24 years old. The Dylan who was crowned by the hippies as the guru of rock ‘n’ roll and turned his back on both the title and the congregation; the same Dylan who used to change his musical style just when the fans started[…]