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This week 75 years ago, on January 13, 1948, marks the anniversary of the murder of the renowned Soviet-Yiddish actor and director, Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels, who was also the artistic director of the Moscow State Jewish Theatre – GOSET. He was also the undisputed leader of Soviet Jewry in those days. The decision to murder him was made by Stalin himself. The reason: the reaction of Soviet Jews to the decision of the Soviet authorities to support the establishment of the State of Israel a couple of months earlier, on November 29th. According to the official account, Mikhoels was killed[…]

Some names evoke such strong connotations that you can’t free yourself of them. One of those names is Delilah. Every time you hear Tom Jones’s immortal hit from 1968 about the treacherous woman who drove him crazy, which was written by Barry Mason and composed by Les Reed, you can envision the seductive and dangerous image of the biblical Delilah. While Samson symbolizes courage, Delilah has become a code name for sensual and backstabbing women. Everyone is familiar with the biblical story of Delilah. Samson, the last judge in the Book of Judges, received superpowers from God to terrorize the[…]

Mirra (Maria) Sakhnovsky (Sakhnovskaya) was a fascinating, but controversial, figure, who was willing to go to great lengths to spread her ideology. Her short life was replete with secrets and mystery. Born in the Pale of Settlement, she fell in love with the communist revolution, had an impressive military career, and become the first woman to reach a rank equivalent to general in the Red Army. Her story ended, like many others, when she was thrown under the brutal and blind machine of Stalin’s purges. Her birth name was Mirra Goetz. On official forms, she always wrote that she was[…]

Towards the middle of the 1960’s, a new kibbutz was established at Tel Avdon in the Western Galilee. A lot of effort went into building it, but no trace remains – besides on the movie screen. The kibbutz was established so that Sophia Loren, who at the time was at the height of her beauty and charm not long after winning the Oscar for Best Actress, could wiggle her hips there while wearing short shorts and a blue shirt. The gorgeous Italian movie star landed in Israel on July 29, 1964. She toured the country for ten days before starting[…]

In the first years following the October Revolution, the new Soviet State was suffering from a famine. The attempt to contain a ‘new economic policy’ was a big failure, and people living in cities and villages were forced to stand in line for hours to buy basic commodities such as bread, salt, matches and heating oil. And if they were lucky, they would also get a bit of herring. Despite the famine, the communist regime continued to export grain to other countries, hoping to convey to the outside world that it was a success story. One of those images of[…]

“In our home, we didn’t talk about anything related to the Holocaust or the pogroms,” recounts Ilana Bar-Gil from Modi’in. “I was in shock when my mother began receiving reparations from Germany. And then, little by little, she started telling us what had happened. In 1945, my mother, Dina, was nine years old, the middle child of six siblings. She doesn’t remember a lot about the pogroms, but does remember being hungry all the time. They would rummage through garbage cans for food. One day, she found a piece of bread covered with rat droppings. But because she was so[…]

Roseanne Barr has just turned 70. It’s an excellent opportunity to take a close look at the high-profile, complicated and volatile Judaism of one of the most influential, controversial and oftentimes successful women in the American television and entertainment industry. Despite the broad-based consensus regarding her importance in the world of American comedy, as well as the brilliance of the good seasons of the trailblazing sitcom Roseanne – somewhere around the end of the 1980’s and early 1990’s – taking her seriously was a thing that was hard to take seriously. Yet, even when her remarks were confused, not always[…]

During Sukkot, ushpizin – Aramaic for guests – are invited to the sukkah. According to the Jewish faith, the spirits of exalted ushpizin come to the sukkah on each day of the seven days of the holiday. One of them heads the ‘delegation’ and the others accompany him. The order of the ushpizin visits varies somewhat between Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are always the first three guests, and that protocol is not up for debate. But after them, the order of the visits of Joseph, Moses, Aaron and David can vary between the Ashkenazi custom which[…]

From 1502 to 1504, the Inquisition in Cordoba conducted an investigation against Juan de Cordoba Membreque, a judge and one of the city’s elders. Those titles were of no use to him when forced to contest a serious allegation that reflected the spirit of the time. He was accused of observing the “fast of the Jews” in his home and, to make matters worse, in the company of other people. The charges relied on testimony provided by a Muslim female servant who worked in the judge’s home. She testified that the master of the house and his guests bathed, put[…]

She had plenty of reasons not to go to Moscow. Israel was less than a month old, the War of Independence was raging, and she was in the middle of a fundraising campaign in the United States. She had left Kiev when it was still part of the Russian Empire. She was 8 years old when her family emigrated to the United States in search of livelihood and a new life. She didn’t even speak Russian. And, in general, there was finally an independent Jewish state and she wanted to be in Israel. On the other hand, she was an[…]