Yisroel Ben-Porat’s recent TRADITION essay offered an historical investigation of an enigmatic 18th-century figure, “Rabbi” Judah Monis—the first Jewish-born faculty member at Harvard, where he taught Hebrew for almost four decades. Monis converted in advance of his appointment, but seems to have maintained a complicated relationship with the Judaism he tried to leave behind. The Tradition Podcast spoke with Ben-Porat about this little-known chapter which opens very many questions about early (and contemporary) American Jewish identity.

Writing from Israel, our editor Jeffrey Saks considers the war’s challenges for our religious community, the heartening reality of Jewish unity, and some sharp questions it all poses for our way forward. Listen to this Audio Editor’s Note accompanying TRADITION’s forthcoming Winter 2024 issue, with special content related to the ongoing war in Gaza.

TRADITION’s Summer 2023 issue, recently made fully open access, contained a fascinating offering penned by Michael A. Shmidman, our distinguished editor emeritus, titled “Isadore Twersky’s Unique Contribution to the Study of The Guide of the Perplexed”—a presentation and analysis of interlocking components of Rabbi Professor Isadore (Yitzhak) Twersky’s understanding of Maimonides’ formulation of the relationship between law and philosophy, particularly as expressed in the Moreh Nevukhim. In this podcast episode we share the recording of Shmidman’s lecture on which the essay is based, presented at a conference in memory of R. Twersky at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies.