Yoel Matveev
By Yoel Matveev
-
Yiddish World The Jewish Designers of North Korea’s Hydrogen Bomb
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The whole world was recently unnerved to learn that North Korea successfully tested a hydrogen bomb on September 3rd, 2017. According to an analysis of the seismic activity measured from the blast, North Korea’s nuclear scientists seem to be familiar with the Teller-Ulam design for thermonuclear weapons….
-
Yiddish World Acclaimed Yiddish Folksinger Arkady Gendler Dies at Age 95
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The legendary Yiddish folksinger, folklorist and teacher, Arkady Gendler, died at the venerable age of 95 at his home in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhe on May 22nd. Gendler, a constant ebullient presence at klezmer music festivals around the world, played an important role in the modern…
-
Books The Tragic Lives and Loves of Joyce’s Russian Translators
June 16 is Bloomsday, the day when Leopold Bloom, the Jewish-descended protagonist of James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses,” took his quasi-Homeric one-day odyssey through Dublin. It’s the day when Dubliners and Joyce’s fans throughout the world celebrate the legacy of the great Irish novelist, whose protagonist transcends all cultural and temporal borders while remaining both Irish…
-
Culture The Rebbe of Sinn Féin
Last December, 300 Israeli rabbis, many of them employees of the state, signed a declaration forbidding Jews to sell or rent property to non-Jews. For some of them, the move was inspired by the philosophy of Isaac Halevi Herzog (1888–1959), one of the main modern proponents of a “halachic state” run according to the tenets…
-
Culture Anarchic Revolution and Traditional Judaism
Gustav Landauer was born to a Jewish family in 1870, in Karlsruhe, Germany. As did most radicals, he abandoned religion in his youth, however, at the beginning of the 20th century he got interested in pantheistic, neoplatonic and kabbalah-inspired varieties of Christian mysticism. A few years later, he became friends with Martin Buber, and his…
-
The Schmooze Cobbling Together Spirituality and Anarchism
A longer version of this post appeared in Yiddish here. The son of a Jewish shoe store owner, Gustav Landauer became famous and was killed as a Jewish-German anarchist, having abandoned religion in his youth. Born in 1870, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Landauer’s interests were political and literary, not religious. By the early 20th century, however,…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
- 2
Opinion Bombing Iran, Donald Trump is triggering a tragedy that Thucydides foretold long ago
- 3
News As Israel attacks, what is life like for Jews in Iran?
- 4
Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Did Netanyahu coerce Trump into attacking Iran? No — but he tried with Obama
-
Fast Forward Florida campus roiled after antisemitic student wins law school award for paper defending white supremacy
-
Opinion Why Israel’s new military strategy would terrify the country’s founders
-
Fast Forward Kneecap rapper Mo Chara, facing U.K. terror charges over his pro-Palestinian activism, might soon headline a sold-out U.S. tour
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
