Article Archive

Teach Modern Hebrew

By Noah Westreich | October 17, 2013

Jewish education in American synagogues is often compartmentalized into a curriculum: an hour of Judaic Studies and an hour of Hebrew, twice weekly. Judaic studies includes watered-down lessons on holidays and Torah stories. Mastery of the alef-bet, the Hebrew alphabet, is often all students gain from the Hebrew class. By the Bat/Bar Mitzvah age of…

Philip Roth Decides To Stop

By H. B. Rubin | November 13, 2012

My older brother got to read Portnoy’s Complaint his Senior year of high school, and it was a big deal. I imagine that it was only allowed on the curriculum because his English teacher was one of those slick haired PHD types who didn’t really give a fuck– he just wanted to teach. It was…