The history of Manhattan Island in New York is both intriguing and revealing. Before emerging as one of the world’s urban economic engines, it was a swampy island principally populated by beavers. Sold to the Dutch for a pittance in 1626, and then exchanged with the British for a spice island in 1667, it seemed destined for continued oblivion.

Rabbi Dunner considers how New York would react if the original owners would demand it back, and how this question relates to the Jewish claim to Israel, based on an obscure verse in Bechuukotai.