(Author: Gwynne Schrire, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter 2026) Said Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, “There are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty, but the crown of a good name is above them all [1].” Sir Moses
[Author: Lyonell Fliss, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter2026) EDITOR’S NOTE: In the Summer-Spring 2023 issue of Jewish Affairs appeared Expedition “Escape” – Journey Diaries, Lyonell Fliss’ memoir of escaping with his wife Liliana from Communist Romania in 1969 and how fifty years later he revisited each
[Author: Simon Berg, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter 2026} Karaite Judaism is a non-rabbinic alternative form of Judaism that emerged from the mid-8th Century CE in the Islamic world in Iraq. It challenged rabbinic Judaism’s beliefs in the ‘Oral Laws’ of the Torah which were
[Author: Michel Levine, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter 2026] Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, in December 1914 the Ottoman Empire – allied with the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary – decided to expel from its colony of Palestine the nationals of
(Author: Kenneth Wright, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter 2026) EDITOR’S NOTE: In its Winter 2024 (Vol. 79, #1) issue, JA published Alon Shapira’s article ‘”What on earth is there to talk about?” – An act of wartime heroism remembered’ regarding the sinking of the
(Author: Zita Nurok, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn-Winter 2026) We lived across the road from the railway track. I often could be found standing at the fence watching people in the passenger trains going back and forth between Johannesburg and our small town of
(Reviewer: Milton Shain, Vol. 81, #1, Summer 2026) In A History of Christianity, the Oxford scholar Diarmaid MacCulloch – a keen observer of ecclesiastical history and religious conflict – warns against facile and glib constructions of the past. “There is no surer basis for
(Author: Steven Katzew, Vol. 81, #1, Autumn 2026) Picture the scene: the 27th of July 1974, Ellis Park, Johannesburg, considered the fortress of South African rugby. A crowd of 75 000 predominantly South African supporters hoping for the salvaging of some pride by the
The Grandmaster (All In The Game) (Author: Charlotte Cohen, Vol. 80, No. 2, Summer 2025) The King was placed in a prostrate position: face-forward on to the chess-board. His grandfather stood up, shook hands with his friend and walked him to the
(Reviewer: David Saks, Vol. 80, #2, Summer 2025) As the adage has it, “many hands make light work”, and that is true of many things. It is not always so, however, when it comes to writing community histories, where it can all too