Editor's Pick ·
A Bold Historian Who Died on the Frontlines in a Final Archaeological Quest
Ze’ev Erlich “knew more about Israeli history than nearly anyone I’ve ever met.”
Matti Friedman
Matti Friedman is the author of a memoir about the Israeli war in Lebanon, Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War (2016). His latest book is Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel (2019).
Latest Content
Editor's Pick ·
Israelis Are Learning Some Hard and Unpleasant Lessons
Among the mourners.
Editor's Pick ·
A Dispatch from Israel’s Burning North
The attacks from Hizballah can’t be allowed to go on forever.
Editor's Pick ·
Orwell in Gaza
“I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie.”
Editor's Pick ·
Israelis Are Buying Guns
What Zionism has and hasn’t changed about the Jewish condition.
Editor's Pick ·
The Israeli Pop Song That Captures the Mood of a Country at War
“Canaan.”
Editor's Pick ·
An Elaborate Torah-Ark Curtain and the Tale Behind It
The legacy of Jewish Moscow.
Editor's Pick ·
What If Israel’s Real War Hasn’t Yet Started?
The showdown with Hizballah would likely dwarf that with Hamas.
Editor's Pick ·
How, and Why, Journalists Get Israel Wrong
The most important story on earth.
Observation ·
Podcast: Matti Friedman on Whether Israel Is Too Dependent on Technology
By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Matti FriedmanCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
The Story of a 1,500-Year-Old Egyptian-Jewish Papyrus
An unidentified text about the Yom Kippur service.
Editor's Pick ·
An Ancient Prenup for a Jewish Soldier in the Persian Army
From an island garrison in the Nile to a Moscow museum.
Editor's Pick ·
A Prehistoric Village in Northern Israel May Hold Answers about the Origins of Civilization
Nahal Ein Gev.
Editor's Pick ·
Crimean Jews’ Medieval Cemetery
The stone of Tmutarakan.
Editor's Pick ·
The Jewish Anti-Demon Bowls of St. Petersburg
Forgotten Babylonian artifacts at the Hermitage.
Editor's Pick ·
In Music, Politics, Religion, and Diplomacy, Israel Is Becoming Part of the Middle East
Mizraḥi nation, revisited.
Editor's Pick ·
The Rich Past, and Promising Future, of the Middle East’s Date
Forget Iran. The red palm weevil could be the enemy that brings Israelis and Arabs together.
Editor's Pick ·
The Jewish Musicians Who Shaped Modern North Africa—and Modern Israel
And their betrayal during World War II.
Editor's Pick ·
Leaving an Increasingly Hostile France, a Fast-Growing Immigrant Group Is Making Its Own Mark on Israel
The new French wave.
Editor's Pick ·
Leonard Cohen, the Yom Kippur War, and What the West Gets Wrong about the Recent Flare-Up in Gaza
Singing at the frontlines.
Editor's Pick ·
The American Romance with Zionism Predates Both Israel and the U.S.
Manifestations of the American mind.
Editor's Pick ·
Robbed of Its Congregants and Ravaged by War, the Great Synagogue of Aleppo Lives On, Virtually
Thanks to 51 photographs.
Editor's Pick ·
The Mysterious German of the Galilee
Erich Gunther Deutecom, his temple, and his fate.
Editor's Pick ·
In the 19th Century, Westerners Misunderstood the Significance of Jerusalem’s Archaeology. They Still Do
If you dig past the city’s Islamic and Christian layers, what you’re going to find is Jewish.
Editor's Pick ·
Matan Kahana: the Religious, Conservative Politician Taking On Israel’s Rabbinic Establishment
“The less we force Judaism, the more people will choose it.”
Editor's Pick ·
A Ukrainian Exodus to Zion
The immigrants of this wave will be assisted by those who came in the last one.
Observation ·
Podcast: Matti Friedman on China’s New Haifa Port
By Tikvah Podcast at Mosaic, Matti FriedmanCommitted to developing and supporting the intellectual, religious, and political leaders of the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
Editor's Pick ·
Beijing’s Popular, Hebrew-Speaking PR Man in Israel Masks an Unequal Power Dynamic
Meet “Chinese Itzik.”
Editor's Pick ·
The Rise of the Shekel
An economy that isn’t dependent on the government.
Editor's Pick ·
How an Israeli Archaeologist Accidentally Upended a Skeptical Account of the Bible’s Accuracy
Debunking the debunkers at “Solomon’s mines.”