“We must create a new people, a human people whose attitude toward other peoples is informed with the sense of human brotherhood and whose attitude toward nature and all within it is inspired by noble urges of life-loving creativity.” — A.D. Gordon, “Our Tasks Ahead,” 1920. 164 years ago today, Aharon David Gordon was born to a wealthy Orthodox family in Podolia, part of  the Russian Empire. After managing his family’s estate for many years, he left Russia for the Land of Israel, then under Ottoman control. Unlike his younger peers, Gordon had already been habituated to white-collar work, yet he threw himself into the Zionist labor enterprise with gusto, quickly becoming a mentor of sorts to his younger colleagues. At night, Gordon began to record his understanding of the Zionist idea, a dream to reinvigorate the spirit of a people through land and labor, and thus, bring forth its [...]

“Here lived…” Those travelling across Europe, especially throughout Germany and Central Europe, may, at one point, trip across an intentional protrusion in the sidewalk. Launched by the German artist, Gunter Deming in 1992, these protrusions, called stolpersteine, or stumbling stones, are meant to interrupt passersby and force them to acknowledge one of the many victims of Nazi violence. Each stone, installed at a victim’s last recorded residence of choice, begins with the words, “here lived…” Though the project initially met with resistance, especially outside of Germany, there are now more than 75,000 stolpersteine across Europe, with more on the way. Each new installation is accompanied by an announcement in the local newspaper and a remembrance gathering. Though several cities and countries still refuse to install stolpersteine, many have embraced them, not only as a fitting means of commemorating the victims of Nazism, but also as a reminder of the scale and pervasiveness of the [...]