Four Columns. One Deepening Conversation about Jews and the West.

Ethics, art, politics, literature—four writers tackling the big ideas at the heart of Jewish and Western culture.

The Columns

New columns will be published on Mondays in rotation.

"Via Maris"

"Etzem"

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour

Devorah Goldman

Named for the ancient coastal road connecting Egypt to Damascus, "Via Maris" will cover the history, ideology, politics, and theology of the Middle East, with a depth of thinking and seriousness that goes far beyond the headlines.

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour will consider topics like: 

  • The ideological foundations of anti-Zionism
  • The intellectual history of the Arab world
  • Decolonization, third-worldism, and their offshoots
  • How national interest collides with popular fervor

As advances in medicine, technology, and AI force us to confront deep human questions about dignity, mortality, the meaning of work, and more, "Etzem" probes what it means today to understand human beings as created in the image of God and living in the digital age. 


Devorah Goldman will explore topics like:

  • The rise of physician-assisted suicide
  • The ethics of AI
  • The erosion of the doctor-patient relationship
  • Stem cells, cloning, and medical technology

"Etzem" is generously sponsored by Dr. Sheldon Rubenfeld and dedicated to a bright and ethical future for medicine.

"The Seeing Eye"

"Gleanings"

Jacob Wisse

Gary Saul Morson

Why did history's greatest artists turn to the Hebrew Bible for inspiration? And how can the visual culture of the Jewish people help us see more clearly the ideas and passions at the heart of Western civilization? Explore these questions and more in "The Seeing Eye." 


Jacob Wisse will look at works by: 

  • Michelangelo
  • Raphael
  • Rembrandt
  • And other artistic masters through the ages

Placing itself at the "bloody crossroads" where literature and politics meet, "Gleanings" will illuminate the great works of the Western literary canon in search of insight about ethics, freedom, groupthink, utopianism, and the life well lived.


Gary Saul Morson will illuminate the writing of: 

  • Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • George Eliot
  • Vasily Grossman
  • And other great authors of Western literature

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