critical / constructive

VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1 / WINTER 2016


This issue of CONTACT explores landscapes and languages that together weave a fascinatingly diverse fabric of contemporary Jewish experience.

The issue opens with the multifaceted trend of Israelis seeking fulfilment in Berlin. What drives them to leave the supposed comfort of home? What constitutes Israeli culture in a land far from Israel — a land fraught with unparalleled historical pain — and what successes, challenges and disappointments do they find?

CONTACT also explores two languages in two environments — Yiddish on a farm, and Hebrew at camp — amid recent efforts to strengthen Jewish connections among the next generation. It examines a Zionist approach to teaching Hebrew in America, and considers the underexplored phenomenon of Jewish men who do not have children. Our regular profile feature introduces three individuals who left one community to enter another community — or to forge a path entirely their own. Finally, the issue closes with another journey: the searing art of Archie Rand as he depicts the Biblical commandments in all their lurid and spectacular grandeur.

in this issue
FROM JERUSALEM TO BERLIN:
THE ISRAELI LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE GERMAN CAPITAL
A. J. Goldmann
A YIDDISH HARVEST: LIFE ON YIDDISH FARM
Shulem Deen
TEACHING HEBREW IN AMERICA: A ZIONIST APPROACH
Rabbi David Gedzelman
HEBREW IMMERSION IN CAMP
A. Chizhik-Goldschmidt
THREE PROFILES
Batya Ungar-Sargon
TO BE A MAN, JEWISH AND CHILDLESS
Elliot Jager
THE 613:
PAINTINGS BY ARCHIE RAND
Winter 2016
FRONT COVER
Winter 2016
BACK COVER