Arts & Culture


Darwin and Gods — for Kids

By Beth Schwartzapfel

Children’s book author Deborah Heiligman has been interested in religion since she was a teenager, majoring in religious studies in college. “When you look at a people and its religion, you’re looking at sociology, psychology, history, anthropology,” she said. “You really are studying every aspect of their society.” Meanwhile, her husband, science writer Jonathan Weiner, has always been fascinated by science. His 1994 book, “The Beak of the Finch,” about the ongoing process of evolution on the Galapagos Islands, won the Pulitzer Prize. Heiligman and Weiner’s marriage is, you could say, one of science and religion. Now, Heiligman has a new book about one of science and religion’s most formidable pairings; it was a finalist for this year’s National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.Read More

Pannonica

By Dan Friedman

Music, namely hearing Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight,” caused Nina Rothschild to abandon her family to embrace the vulnerable, dangerous world of New York bebop in the late 1940s. A documentary made by her great-niece provides testimony to Rothschild’s influence.Read More

Magen Tzedek: Model of the Jewish Future or Show Without an Audience?

By Jay Michaelson

The problem seems not to have changed. Back when I was at college, the egalitarian services couldn’t get a minyan, and so, while I didn’t like Orthodox liturgy, and didn’t approve of the mechitza (prayer barrier), I still schlepped up the extra flight of stairs to the traditional minyan, week after week. Whatever my personal preferences, it seemed that only Orthodox Jews cared enough to make the system work.Read More

Mahmoud Darwish: If He Were Another

By Jo-Ann Mort

Two summers ago, I dined at a Ramallah restaurant with a Fatah leader. I ordered Taibeh, the local beer, but my host chose Heineken, remarking: “I just dined with Mahmoud Darwish, and he told me, ‘My stomach knows no nationality.’”Read More

Internet: The Hatred Super-Highway

By Jordana Horn

“What’s the difference between Jews and Nazis? The Jews are guilty of the crimes they’re accused of.”: The boldfaced quotes are real. They were written within the past few months by people who believe they are true. They are quotes from hateful blogs and Web sites — some written in America, some abroad. Antisemitism pulses, alive and well, on the Internet.Read More

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