History

Games of chance and society in the Middle East

A historical look at how chance-based games shaped culture, law, and society in the Middle East.
Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief Gadi Eisenkot is consoled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as he attends the funeral of his son Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, an Israeli solider, who was killed in northern Gaza during the ground operation by Israel's military in Gaza.

Was Netanyahu chosen by God, or judged too harshly by man? - opinion

Kai Wegner (L,CDU), Governing Mayor of Berlin, Manja Schreiner (C,CDU), Senator for Mobility, Transport, and Christian Gaebler (L,SPD), Senator for Urban Development, view a public housing construction project

Outcry in Germany over controversial plans to demolish Nazi bunker for luxury apartment building

 Demonstrators hold signs against what they describe as international silence over sexual violence perpetrated against Israeli women during the attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, at a protest in Jerusalem, November 27, 2023.

Breaking the individual to break the collective - opinion


Grapevine: Remembrance, appreciation

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

Israelis commemorate Remembrance Day at Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square, April 20, 2026.

British professor uncovers location of Shakespeare’s London home using previously unknown documents

Munro’s find is historically significant, painting a very different picture of where Shakespeare may have spent time in his later years then what was originally thought. 

File Photo: A Sothebys employee handles a copy of William Shakespeare, The First Folio 1623  in London, England, July 7, 2006.

When refusal becomes a strategy - opinion

The Islamic Republic isn’t serious when it says it won’t participate in the US talks in Pakistan. Rather, it is leveraging refusal as a strategy

IRANIAN PRESIDENT Masoud Pezeshkian meets with Pakistan army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir in Tehran last week.

Countries you didn’t know are named after people

Who is the hero Bolivia is named after, after whom Saudi Arabia is named, and who was Rus from whom Russia was born? A few examples of countries named after historical figures.

“Israel” is the new name of Jacob our patriarch, which was given to him by the angel who wrestled with him before he met Esau

Israel at 78: An appropriate birthday gift - opinion

Nations, like individuals, are not defined by how they celebrate their birthdays, but by how they respond to the clarity those moments provide.

The  turbulence of the past year fuelled by the Iranian regime’s war on Israel has fashioned Israel’s 78th birthday as a critical moment for self reflection.

Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, and the Jewish question we still haven’t answered

The unfinished synthesis between sovereignty and civilization has now matured into something more dangerous than exile: a crisis of intelligibility.

Theodor Herzl and Ahad Ha'am Asher Ginsberg.

Steeped in history, Pensacola Jews celebrate the 150th anniversary of Florida’s oldest synagogue

In 1876, when Pensacola’s Temple Beth El was founded, Florida had 200,000 inhabitants, just 2,000 of them Jews.

Interior of Pensacola’s Temple Beth El, founded in 1876 as Florida’s oldest synagogue.

What I discovered about Herzl’s room in Basel

When we celebrate Independence Day, it is easy to forget that the idea of the Jewish State was not born in the desert or in the Middle East, but in Basel, on the cool banks of the Rhine River.

THEODOR HERZL leaning over the balcony of the Hotel Les Trois Rois.

Researchers say they’ve traced Shakespeare’s London lodgings at last

The precise location of William Shakespeare’s only London home was identified in Blackfriars after researchers uncovered a previously unknown floorplan.

Israeli embassy in London.

MyHeritage's Scribe AI decodes world's oldest love letter, reveals 15th century familial tensions

Brews’ letter is part of the “Paston Letters” collection of correspondence between the Paston noble family and others iduring the 15th century, including state papers and other important documents.

Margery Brews "Letter to a Lover," April 16, 2026.