My Hebrew name is Ya’akov, Hebrew for Jacob. When I celebrated becoming a bar mitzvah years ago at the age of 13, the observance coincidentally coincided with readings in the Torah about the life of ...

What is love? It’s a simple question that writers and artists have asked repeatedly through the centuries, from Bernard of Clairvaux and Mildred Bangs Wynkoop to Tina Turner and Haddaway. It’s also ...

Parashat Toldot tells the story of two twin brothers, the sons of Isaac and Rebecca: Esau and Jacob. The parasha opens with a pregnant Rebecca, in much discomfort. And the sons struggled inside her ...

We all know that America is deeply divided, and our bodily politic suffers from wounds that will not easily mend. In this cold, dark season, it would be easy to despair for our national future. Yet ...

Isaac appreciated Esau’s ability to hunt and dominate the beasts, the trait needed to dominate bestial peoples. Could Yaakov do the same?

Imagine you are at a wide open assemblage of all types of people. Strewn across the scene, there are entertainers and artists, entrepreneurs and scholars of every interest and field. Everyone is there ...

This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. I was thrilled ...

IN 1997 Gary Paul Morson, an American professor of Slavic literature, reflected on the work of Constance Garnett, the translator who introduced Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky to the English-speaking ...