In this issue: Moti Benmelech | From the Sambatyon to Tiberias: An Unknown Version of ‘MaꜤaseh Akdamut’ Rella Kushelevsky | Affinities between Orality and Literacy in Medieval Folktales in Western Europe: ‘The Tale of a Rich Man who used to seat Himself among the Poor’ David Manrique | Yohanan ben Zakkai meets Vespasianus: A Study of Midrashic History according to ‘MeꜤam Loez’ by Argüete Zeev Kitsis | The Baal Shem Tov’s Neighbor in the Garden of Eden ‒ A story from ‘Once There Was a Hasidic Man’ and its Connection to the Hasidic-Israeli Identity

Examining the convergence of cafés, their urban milieu, and Jewish creativity, Shachar Pinsker shows how cafés anchored a silk road of modern Jewish culture. He uncovers a network of interconnected cafés that were central to the modern Jewish experience in a time of migration and urbanization, from Odessa, Warsaw, Vienna, and Berlin to New York City, Tel Aviv, as well as cities in the Arab world. A Rich Brew explores the Jewish culture created in these social spaces, drawing on a vivid collection of newspaper articles, memoirs, archival documents, photographs, caricatures, and artwork, as well as stories, novels, and poems in many languages set in cafés. Pinsker shows how Jewish modernity was born in the café, nourished, and sent out into the world by way of print, politics, literature, art, and theater. What was experienced and created in the space of the coffeehouse touched thousands who read, saw, and imbibed a modern culture that redefined what it meant to be a Jew in the world.

Dan Perry was born and raised on Mount Carmel. From childhood, encouraged by his father, he often wandered on the mountain, getting to know its surroundings and connecting with its flora and fauna. As an adult, he became involved in the newly formed Nature Conservation Authority - first as a tour guide, and later as part of the Society for the Protection of Nature. In 1965 he started working within the Nature Conservation Authority, established in 1964, as an inspector in the Galilee as part of a collaboration between the Society and the Authority. Immediately after the Six-Day War, he established a magnificent system of nature reserves on the Golan Heights. He ran the Hermon Development Authority which established the Hermon site, and then joined the Authority's management and held a variety of positions. This unique volume includes color photographs.

Atlas of East Galilee Caves is published in a challenging period for the Upper Galilee, with hopes for a swift return to routine in this beautiful and region, bountiful with caves. The Atlas is published following studies and surveys conducted over the past decades. The boundaries of the area defined in the Atlas are the Hula Valley in the east, the border of Lebanon in the north and northwest, the sources of the streams flowing eastward in the west and the Issachar highlands in the south. The Atlas presents the basic data of the caves, and contains a concise multidisciplinary overview of what is known about them from a geological, historical, archaeological and biological point of view. The data is accompanied by plans and illustrations that expand the overall picture of each cave.

In 1925, teacher David Idelson shared a pivotal insight with his colleague Yehuda Polani, reflecting on their educational endeavors in Tel Aviv: 'We were the novelty!' Both had migrated to Jerusalem from Germany in 1905 and were united by a vision for innovative Jewish education, inspired by cutting-edge Central European pedagogical methods. This journey from theory to practice reached its peak in 1922 with the founding of a distinctive school in Tel Aviv, promoting autonomy for teachers and child-led learning. The Children Community School stands as one of four key studies in this book, examining significant themes in the educational discourse in pre-state Israel and the formation of Hebrew education. The work delves into important milestones in the history of Hebrew education spanning more than half a century: the revival of the Hebrew language; building Hebrew teacher training; pedagogical innovation and its relationship with political ideologies; and the role of Eros in education. This historical perspective offers valuable insights, pertinent to ongoing educational debates.

After four volumes primarily focused on the British Mandate period, the fifth volume of the History of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem series delves into the first two decades of the State of Israel: 1948–1967. This comprehensive and diverse volume explores the intricate relationship between the university and the nation-state. The 1948 war and the “sovereign turn” sharply altered the university's status from an institution of higher education under British rule to an institution pertaining to an independent state. The university of the Jewish people, located on Mount Scopus, became an Israeli university with campuses scattered across a divided Jerusalem. Bringing together articles by senior and early-career researchers, this volume analyzes the university's history between rupture and continuity, as an autonomous institution strongly tied to the establishment of the state. It examines the university within its external geo-political context on one hand and considers its internal structure as a research and teaching institution on the other. Editorial assistance: Amit Levy

This is the story of an adventurous journey into a magical, unknown and incomprehensible world where nature is alive and has a psyche, including trees. Do trees have a spirit? Does a tree have a soul? Scientists may question the notion that trees have a mind, soul or spirit, but there are cultures where trees have a soul and a mind of their own. The book describes the mind-blowing experience of entry into a world of spirits and trees, a world of animism – the field of anthropology that ascribes a psyche to all natural elements. Written in the form of travel log accompanied by illustrations, the book reveals the wisdom and sensitivities of villagers in northern Burma, who opened their home, their trees and their hearts to the author, allowing him to touch and understand their beliefs, and through them understand his own self.

According to the conventional understanding, the ultimate goal of Zionism as a national political movement was the establishment of a nation-state. In his new book on the history of the Zionist political imagination from the beginning of the idea of modern Zionism to the establishment of the State of Israel, Dimitri Shomsky challenges a deterministic view by examining unknown writings by the founding fathers of Zionism and by re-examining the known sources, which were interpreted in a tendentious and ahistorical way in the classical literature on Zionism. The author reveals that the leaders of Zionism envisioned the realization of Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel within a multinational framework. First, they envisioned an autonomous province in the multinational Ottoman Empire, and then - during the British Mandate - a multinational democracy. The book shows that the models of a Jewish state, which were established and developed by the founding fathers of the State of Israel, included recognition of a collective national existence of the Arabs of the Land of Israel. Such political patterns were not the property of marginal figures among Zionists (such as the "Brit Shalom" people), but on the contrary, were presented by the most mainstream Zionists: Yehuda Leib Pinsker, Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Ze'ev Jabotinsky and David Ben-Gurion. The book focuses on these five figures and presents them and their views in an innovative way, which is known to have an impact on contemporary Israeli discourse.

In 1491 the renowned goldsmith Salomone da Sesso converted to Catholicism. Born to a Jewish family in Florence, Salomone later settled in Ferrara, where he was regarded as a virtuoso artist. But rumors circulated about Salomone’s behavior, scandalizing the Mantuan Jewish community, who turned him over to the civil authorities. Salomone was condemned to death for sodomy but agreed to renounce Judaism to save his life. He was baptized, taking the name Ercole “de’ Fedeli” (“One of the Faithful”). Drawing on newly discovered archival sources, Tamar Herzig traces the dramatic story of his life, half a century before ecclesiastical authorities made Jewish conversion a priority of the Catholic Church. The book explores the Jewish world in which Salomone was raised; the glittering objects he crafted, and their status as courtly hallmarks; and Ercole’s relations with his wealthy patrons. Herzig also examines the response of Jewish communities and Christian authorities to allegations of sexual crimes, and attitudes toward homosexual acts among Christians and Jews. In Salomone/Ercole’s story we see how precarious life was for converts from Judaism, and how contested was the meaning of conversion for both the apostates’ former coreligionists and those tasked with welcoming them to their new faith.

In a broken world, in which even God Himself is in a state of deep crisis, what is required in order to mend the rupture? How can one heal God and His world? Moreover, what might allow our actions to be effective? These questions stand at the heart of the Lurianic Kabbalah, the apex of the Safedian intellectual and religious renaissance of the sixteenth century, and one of the constituting phenomena of Modern Jewish thought. God as Patient presents medical discourse – the knowledge, language, and practice of medicine – as a significant key to our understanding of the Lurianic search for a way to mend reality, and first and foremost the Godhead. The book reads together the Lurianic texts alongside the medical writings of R. Hayyim Vital, R. Isaac Luria's chief disciple, and a medical practitioner. Consequently, the book analyzes how medicine becomes the model for the Lurianic language of action. In its final part, the book shows how God becomes in this Kabbalah the ultimate patient of the Lurianic Kabbalist, who in turn becomes the private court physician of the King of Kings, and needs, like every physician, the proper modes of healing to accomplish his task.

This collection presents short stories by Yiddish writers who worked in Israel and wrote about it. The stories chosen and translated into Hebrew especially for this book unfold a fascinating mosaic, a synthesis between the literary traditions of Yiddish in Eastern Europe and America and the Israeli language, landscape, characters, and world of images; Between the Jewish home that was destroyed in the Holocaust and the formulating reality in Israel. Yiddish fiction written in Israel confronts the reader with the kibbutz and the urban landscape, Holocaust survivors and Sabars, Arabs, Bedouins, and Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and all over the world. The stories can also be read as an expression of the changes that took place in Israel, from the establishment of the state to the Lebanon War and the first Intifada, from the waves of mass immigration of the Mizrahim and of Holocaust survivors and their settlement in "abandoned villages" to the immigration of Soviet Union Jews in the 1990s.

This book delves into the narrative of Fethullah Gülen and his movement, which essentially encapsulates the broader story of Turkey. The book explores the origins of this movement that undeniably left an unprecedented impact on Turkey, surpassing the influence of any preceding religious movement. This movement, centered around the figure of Gülen, born in 1938, gained prominence mainly during the 1990s when it unfurled its banner of inter-religious tolerance. Gülen actively advocated for the establishment of a global network of schools and even universities, aiming to cultivate a new generation of devout Muslims who were educated and inclined towards Western ideals. By the late 1990s, Gülen's health issues led him to relocate to the United States, ostensibly. With the ascent of the AKP party to power, connections burgeoned between the movement's members and the party, particularly its leader Erdoğan. This mutually beneficial relationship faced turbulence at the onset of the second decade of the 2000s, culminating in the attempted religious coup in 2016, during which Gülen and his movement were accused. Subsequently, Gülen emerged as the foremost adversary of Turkey, rendering his return to the country implausible.This book illuminates the intricacies of the Gülenist movement and endeavors to unravel the persona of its leader. The text delves into the origins of the Gülenist movement, its underlying ideology, and its enduring significance within Turkey. By employing comprehensive research techniques and utilizing archival materials in various languages Dr. Aviv provides insight in an objective as possible way into the dynamic interplay between religion and state in Turkey, as well as the ascent and decline of religious movements within the nation.