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January 30 marked Eight years since the passing of Chava Rosenfarb, one of the most significant, albeit underrated, Yiddish writers of the late 20th century. Rosenfarb was born in 1923 in Lodz, Poland. At that time, Lodz was about one-third Jewish, and the experience of growing up in a city with such a strong and diverse Jewish presence would have a profound impact on Rosenfarb’s work. Additionally, her parents, Abraham and Simma, were members of the Bund, a Jewish political and cultural movement that advocated for socialism, as well as for Yiddish as the primary language of the Jewish people.[�]

“Filth, lack of discipline! Let us glimpse the site where the tragedy took place…Shattered windows, broken doors, dismantled floors…working bathrooms in only one home…How much time does it take for a European to lose his semblance of culture in conditions like these? None. Can you preserve culture with draconian punishments like denying soup or benches? How can people avoid being eaten by lice? What meaning does the word ‘culture’ have here? Did anyone among those responsible spend even one night in a hellhole like this? What do they want from these people? How could someone even dare to criticize them?[�]

He was paranoid, provocative, racist and chauvinist. But most people forgave him all of it, because he was a singular genius with an IQ over 200 and the memory of a Google server farm. Bobby Fischer, World Chess Champion from 1972-1975, harbored neuroses that spilled over into his personal and public lives. As a teen, he joined a Christian cult called the Worldwide Church of God, which believed that the apocalypse was imminent. He also developed a hobby then that would become central in his life after retirement: intense anti-Semitic activity. The brilliant chess master began at some point to[�]

For most of history, Jews have lived outside of the Land of Israel, whether in prosperous places or in poor countries. One place has always had a pretty small Jewish population – the Land of Israel. In the 17th century, some 3,000 Jews were living in Jerusalem under the Ottoman rule. During that century, they suffered, in particular, a couple of dreadful years of persecutions, arrests, and famine, that remained in the collective Jewish memory for years and decades after. The man responsible for all those hardships was Muhammad Ibn Farouk, intermittent ruler of Jerusalem from 1621-1626. The Ottoman Empire[�]

The match was about to start. In one corner of the ring, a skinny Jew with a goatee, round glasses on his nose, and a deep penetrating stare. In the other corner, an imposing looking man wearing a modern top hat and a thick beard from which only a pair of black piercing eyes could be seen, looking sharply upon reality. This was the first Titans war inside the Zionist movement, and perhaps the most crucial one, after which there were other famous rivalries such as Ben Gurion-Jabotinsky, Weizmann-Brandeis, Rabin-Peres, to name just a few. It takes some understanding of[�]

Tartan, a checkered pattern that is formed when the same set of colored bands intersect horizontally and vertically, is one of the defining visual features of Scottish culture. Tartan is taken so seriously, in fact, that there is official legislation defining tartan and the process of registering it officially. Historically, tartan was associated with the Highlanders, but as time went on tartan became popular throughout Scotland, and became of way of demonstrating an affiliation with a particular clan. As it grew in national importance, tartan became an important part of Scottish culture, and a means by which a person could[�]