Students prepare for their bar and bat mitzvahs at a camp for Jewish children of color in California.
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
Most ideas about Jewish culture in the United States come from Ashkenazi traditions, but there’s a vast landscape of Jewish cultures around the world – and represented in the US.
People cheer as a vehicle carrying hostages released by Hamas drives toward an army base in Ofakim, southern Israel, on Nov. 26, 2023.
Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
The diversity of Israel’s Jewish population has been a source of tensions, but also strength, over the decades.
Under a portrait of Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948, declares the establishment of a Jewish state to be known as the state of Israel.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Israel may no longer be a fledgling state – but it has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning.