Episode 433The Tikvah Podcast
R.J. Snell on Modern Expressions of the Marcionite Heresy
What Christians rejected when they accepted the Jewish God, and why it matters today.
Featured Content
Observation
The Christian-Jewish Alliance and Its Enemies
For Hashem, for country, and for Yale.
Course
The Wisdom of Jewish Literature
Pre-enroll now for Ruth Wisse's masterclass on the greatest stories and writers of the modern Jewish literary canon.
By Dr. Ruth Wisse
Response
How Israel’s Victory Strengthens America’s Hand
While Western media talk up Israel’s isolation, its neighbors are moving closer to it after two years of military success.
Episode 31·Bible 365
Bible 365: The Founder of Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving Offering
The story of who inspired the national Thanksgiving of 1863 sheds light on Leviticus’s original thanksgiving offering.
By Rabbi Meir SoloveichikExplore
Mosaic
ExploreFeatured Content
Response
How Israel’s Victory Strengthens America’s Hand
While Western media talk up Israel’s isolation, its neighbors are moving closer to it after two years of military success.
Observation
The Long Shadow of Joseph Trumpeldor
The man who helped found the first all-Jewish combat unit in two millennia was born 140 years ago this week.
By Oren Kessler
Essay
The Strategic Fruits of Israel’s Military Victory
Israel contra mundum.
Observation
Jewish Ideas in Plymouth Colony
The faith of America’s Pilgrim ancestors was deepened by Jewish texts, while their acts of gratitude were conscious reenactments of the Jewish past.
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Hamas Goes to Europe
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Qatar Plans to Keep Terror Alive in Gaza
And recently concluded an important military deal with the U.S.
Under Zohran Mamdani, Will Mobs at Synagogues Become the Norm?
The mayor-elect condemned the demonstrators, and the synagogue.
A Portrait of a Jewish Woman Becomes the Highest-Priced Modern Artwork Ever Sold at Auction
Gustav Klimt’s Elisabeth Lederer.
Explaining Isaac’s Love for Esau
Looking beyond the caricatures.
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Essay
A Death-Defying Orchestra
A performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris was an embodiment of the miracle of Jewish history.
Speech
Jewish Conservatism Among the Almost Chosen People
What should a distinctly Jewish version of conservatism look like in today's America?
Speech
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Conversation with Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Rabbi Soloveichik visits the home of Rabbi Sacks for a discussion about Judaism, multiculturalism, and the West.
Featured Series
The Tikvah Podcast
Weekly, in-depth conversations on Jews, Judaism, America, and Israel with leading thinkers, writers, rabbis, and policymakers.
Episode 433·Nov 21, 2025
R.J. Snell on Modern Expressions of the Marcionite Heresy
What Christians rejected when they accepted the Jewish God, and why it matters today.
Episode 432·Nov 13, 2025
Ambassador Ron Dermer Looks Back on His Years in Washington (Rebroadcast)
Why the U.S.-Israel relationship endures.
Episode 431·Nov 6, 2025
Jonathan Leaf on What New Research about Men and Apes Says about Human Nature
The primate myth.
Video Courses
The Wisdom of Jewish Literature
With Dr. Ruth Wisse
Available Monday, November 24. Pre-enroll now!
The great writers of the modern Jewish literary canon captured the struggles, questions, and aspirations of a people entering a new world. Confronted by the promises and perils of religion, Communism, liberty, assimilation, and capitalism, Jews turned to literature to understand—and to confront—the challenges of modern life. What emerged was a rich body of writing, a treasure to which Jews and all thoughtful readers can turn for insight, experience, and moral understanding.
In this nine-part series, Professor Ruth R. Wisse—one of the world’s foremost interpreters of Jewish fiction—guides you through the masterpieces of modern Jewish literature. Through stories by the greatest Jewish writers of the age, you'll see how they wrestled with God and man, tradition and change, suffering and joy—and how their words continue to illuminate both the Jewish and human conditions.
This course, and all of Ruth Wisse's work at Tikvah, is supported by the generosity of Robert L. Friedman.
Pirkei Avot: Living with Jewish Values and Ethics
With Mrs. Rachel Besser, Dr. Mijal Bitton, Rabbi Shmuel Braun, Dr. Erica Brown, Eric Cohen, Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, Talia Harcsztark, Dara Horn, Dr. Doran 'Dodie' Katz, Rabbi Hershel Lutch, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger
Where can modern Jews, both young and old and across the spectrum of observance, turn for guidance on timely and timeless questions, on the most urgent and most perennial issues?
For nearly two millennia, Jews from all around the world have dedicated the six Sabbaths between Passover and Shavuot to the regular study of Pirkei Avot, the Ethics (or Chapters) of the Fathers. Pirkei Avot—or Avot, for short—is a section of the Mishna, the first formal codification of the Jewish Oral Law, which portrays the moral-ethical universe of Judaism in all its fullness. These teachings, culled from the sayings of almost sixty sages, stretching over some five centuries, are the building blocks of a Jewish life well-lived. In short, Avot is the foundational text for any authentic transmission of Jewish values and virtues.
Why Do Jews Do That?
With Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Rabbi Soloveichik explores the history and hidden depths of Jewish ritual through the extraordinary art of Moritz Daniel Oppenheim. Oppenheim brought Jewish ritual to life as no other modern artist has. In this course, Rabbi Soloveichik will study his paintings to uncover the spiritual meaning, historical context, and enduring relevance of the Jewish practices and people he depicts.
