Philologos
By Philologos
-
News Vexing Question of Celery vs. Parsley on the Seder Plate
The table is set; your Seder plate is ready, and on it is everything you need: the matzos, the ?shank bone,? the hardboiled egg, the ?bitter herb? of a horseradish root, the ?aroset or sweet condiment, and the karpas or celery. Or is it parsley? Of course, Jews wouldn?t be Jews if they agreed about…
-
Culture Palestine Might Still Be A Better Name Than Israel
‘He’s not going to give up one inch of Eretz Israel,” New York Times columnist Roger Cohen quotes Israeli political scientist Shlomo Avineri as saying of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 15. And Cohen adds, by way of explanation, “Eretz Israel is a biblical term widely used to refer to the area between the…
-
Culture What’s Jewish and Has Rubbery Purplish-Red Leaves?
What’s purple, crawls without legs, and is of the Mosaic persuasion? I hope you give up, because if you’re still trying to guess, I shouldn’t be telling you that it’s a Wandering Jew. Where mine originally came from, I have no idea. I only know that it’s been in my garden for a long time,…
-
Culture Why Israel Is a World Leader in Catchy Political Party Names
A Forward reader who modestly asks to remain anonymous writes: “As an American Jew, my sources of information on Israeli politics are from English-language publications, the Forward being one of them. During the recent elections in Israel, I read about the Jewish Home party — and also about the Habayit Hayehudi [“Jewish Home” in Hebrew]…
-
Culture Prisoner X and the Letter of Mystery
By now, unless you’re the type that refuses to follow the news (not that I blame you, but in that case, why are you reading this newspaper?), you know who “Prisoner X” is. Called “Mr. X” by the Israeli news service Ynet, which originally broke the story of his suicide in a high-security Israeli prison…
-
Culture Just How Orthodox Are They?
For old-time readers of this newspaper, Seth Lipsky needs no introduction: Lipsky was the English Forward’s founder and first publisher back in 1990, and continued to direct it for most of the decade. His voice continues to be heard on the politically conservative side of the ledger, and in a January 20 column in the…
-
Culture Lowliest Guards on the Israeli Totem Pole
Two headlines dominated a page of The Marker, the economic section of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, on January 29. The first, captioning a straight news item, read (in my English translation): “Hershkovitz Stuns Finance Ministry: Fires Deputy.” The second, introducing a commentary on this development by correspondent Nehemia Strassler, declared: “Instead of Tackling Problems —…
-
Culture Redemption of the First Shorn
Forward reader Susan Rogol writes: “I receive many invitations to the ceremony of cutting the hair of a boy who has reached the age of 3, and I do not understand why it is referred to as an ‘upsherenish’ rather than an ‘upsheren.’ I always associate the Yiddish suffix “-nish” with something negative, as in…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Special Report This school is fighting antisemitism all wrong. Why is it working?
- 2
Opinion Hamas made a remarkable offer — because Trump laid a remarkable trap
- 3
Books A bespectacled, Jewish hypochondriac with literary pretensions and a creepy fascination with his stepson’s girlfriend — Guess who?
- 4
Opinion Israel is at an existential pivot point. It never needed to go this far.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Could dementia be the key to saving endangered Jewish languages?
-
Opinion I know exactly why leftists aren’t celebrating this ceasefire
-
Fast Forward ‘Jewish donors play into all the stereotypes,’ Charlie Kirk wrote in leaked text messages before his murder
-
Fast Forward MIT’s Jewish president rejects Trump’s offer of ‘priority’ funding in exchange for policy changes
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
