What's New
Image
The Honey Bee and the Apple Tree: A Rosh Hashanah Story
August 24, 2021
A Conversation with Author Rabbi Joseph. B. Meszler on his new book.
Image
Two Books That Lifted My Spirits in the Time of COVID
July 26, 2021
Jared Goldin discusses the lessons he took away from A Life of Meaning, Embracing Reform Judaism’s Sacred Path and What Kind of Future Will Our Children Inherit?
Image
A Conversation with Best-Selling Cookbook Author Jake Cohen
June 4, 2021
Jake Cohen’s debut cookbook, jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch (HMH), is a New York Times bestseller. Jake is a former food staffer at Saveur, food editor of Tasting Table and Time Out New York, and most recently the editorial and test kitchen director of FeedFeed (@thefeedfeed).
Social Justice Literature
Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen
By the time she was 3 years old, Jazz Jennings (not her original first name or her real last name) knew she was meant to be a girl. In her new book Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teenager, Jazz tells her story, including how she and her family became reality TV stars and outspoken advocates for transgender rights.
Children's Book Reviews
Bone Button Borscht
A tired beggar reaches a small town on a cold, wintery night, seeking food and a warm bed. When the poor locals are reluctant to assist, he promises to make a delicious soup from six bone buttons.
Book Reviews
What Remains: Selected Poems
Most of the 90 poems in What Remains (Ben Yehuda Press) grew out of David Curzon's experiences as he has wandered over the face of the earth. Some are touching recollections of precious moments in his life. Some are reflections on what he has learned by standing before great works of art from different centuries and different continents. Some are conversations with people in his life who meant the most to him and who are no longer among the living. And almost every one of them is a gem.
I Named My Dog Pushkin (and Other Immigrant Tales): Notes from a Soviet Girl on Becoming an American Woman
Margarita Gokun Silver was 20 years old when she left her homeland, the former USSR, to live in the United States. She relates her experiences as a Jewish refugee in a series of darkly funny essays about life in the Soviet Union, family dynamics, and culture shock upon entering "Amerika," as Silver and her high school friends referred to the U.S.
How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion
In How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion (Simon & Schuster), Northeastern University Psychology professor David DeSteno asserts that even skeptics, not just believers, can draw strength and comfort from religion in their personal lives. "Science and religion," he writes, "have often been at odds. But if we remove the theology -- views about the nature of God, the creation of the universe, and the like -- from the day-to-day practice of
The Forgiveness Tour: How to Find the Perfect Apology
Shocked by what she perceived as an egregious betrayal by her longtime psychotherapist, Susan Shapiro embarks on a quest for meaning in her part memoir, part self-help guide, The Forgiveness Tour (Skyhorse Publishing).
Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood
Shabbat morning, October 27, 2018 marked the day of deadliest antisemitic attack in American history at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mark Oppenheimer’s Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood (Knopf), focuses not on the killer, but on the reactions of Pittsburghers in general, and especially the responses of Squirrel Hill residents.
Discussion Guides
Image
Night, A Memoir, by Elie Wiesel
Eliezar Wiesel was born in 1928 in the small Hungarian village of Sighet, in what is today Romania.
Image
Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Prior to its publication in Spring 2002, an excerpt of Everything Is Illuminated appeared in the New Yorker'sdebut-fiction issue.
Image
The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
The cover of Anita Diamant's extraordinary book reads, The Red Tent: A Novel. A more accurate description of her rich elaboration on the biblical narrative of Dinah would be The Red Tent: A Midrash.
Image
Mr. Sammler’s Planet, by Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976, was born near Montreal in 1915 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.
Learning
Image
Building a Serious Jewish Library
A young friend and former student of mine recently asked her Facebook network for suggestions as to what books she ought to buy as first steps in building a serious Jewish library.
Image
7 Elie Wiesel Books that Show the Range of His Influence
Most people know Elie Wiesel as the author of Night, one of the first published autobiographical accounts of what life was like inside Nazi concentration camps.
Image
How to Start a Social Justice Book Club
Reform Jews across North America come together in their own communities to read, explore and discuss social justice-themed books. RAC Reads provides thought-provoking stories and tools to get your family, congregation, and community talking about racial justice.
History
Image
First They Came for the Books
In his fascinating and eminently readable new book, Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books, Rabbi Mark Glickman reminds us that Jews have always relied on books as essential sinews, binding Jews to God, to each other, and to the rest of humanity, regardless of time or space.
Making Meaning of Tisha B’Av Through the Lens of Literature
When you have come into the land that the Eternal your God is giving to you as a heritage, and you have possessed it and settled there, you shall take from among all the first fruits of the ground that you bring forth from your land- which the Eternal your God has given you- and you shall put them
Image
A Dangerous Trend in World War II-Era Novels
I understand why Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction last month. It is a beautiful, captivating and moving story.
Image
Were Shakespeare's Plays Actually Written By a Jewish Woman?
William Shakespeare's name appears on many of play, but no evidence demonstrates that he actually wrote them. Could they have actually been written by Aemelia Bassano?