Monthly Essays

Philologos says farewell.

Leading thinkers confront the crisis of anti-Semitism and anti-Western ideology on campus—and explore how America’s universities might yet be renewed.

The historical roots of Israelis’ favorite political epithet.

Reading Homer in wartime.

France, Britain, and Canada pave roads to nowhere.

Many people are delighted to be told that Israel is doing to the Palestinians of Gaza exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews of Europe.

The problem with history is not that it has no lessons but that the ones it has can be read in opposite ways.

The unusual appellation testifies to the individuality of the character who bears it.

Mamad, mamak, mamam, mamats—how about some sleep?

Operation Midnight Hammer deals a blow to the anti-Western alliance.

Operation Rising Lion.

The rulers of the Gulf states are cheering every Israeli strike. But they now have less incentive to improve diplomatic relations with Jerusalem.

Moses, the muses, and an early-1960s Jewish magazine at Harvard.

Iran has assumed it can keep its assets safe by hiding them deep underground. The IDF's daring operation in Masyaf may have shattered that assumption.

Only one was a mark of prestige for ancient rabbis.

The Bitburg controversy, 40 years on.

At the start of this war, the jihadist group had governing authority, territorial control, a functioning bureaucracy, and a trained army.

The real network of criminals, secret police, and dissident officers that transformed the Ottoman empire.