Putting God Second: How to Save Religion from Itself
Hardly a week goes by without news of religious extremists committing atrocities against people of other faiths in the name of God or some other holy cause. As a result, “religion” itself has been put on trial.
The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964
To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow (1915-2005), Zachary Leader, professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton, has published the first of a two-volume definitive biography.
Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books
In his fascinating and eminently readable new book, Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books(Jewish Publication Society, 2016), 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.
Disraeli: The Novel Politician
In Disraeli: The Novel Politician (Yale Jewish Life series), a brilliant portrait of one of Europe’s leading nineteenth-century statesman, Professor David Cesarani debunks the myth that Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) was sympathetic to Jewish issues. The author argues that Disraeli is at fault for acts of omission and that his claims in novels and political campaigns that Jews were a superior race with ubiquitous power unintentionally “played a formative part in the construction of anti-Semitic discourse,” prefiguring the English version ofProtocols of the Elders of Zion and Nazi propaganda.
American Ghost: A Family’s Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest
In American Ghost: A Family’s Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest (HarperCollins), award-winning author Hannah Nordhaus treats us to a genealogical detective story that combines memoir, cultural history, and ghost hunting in her quest to discover the truth about her great great-great-grandmother.
The Good Book: Writers Reflect on Favorite Bible Passages
The Bible continues to be the best-selling book in history, perhaps because each reader can identify with some aspect of its ancient text. It is this notion that informs the essays of the 24 novelists, poets, scholars, and journalists who answered Andrew Blauner’s call to write an essay centered on a Biblical book or passage with personal meaning to them.
The Abba Eban Paradox
While serving as the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Rockford, IL, in the late 1970s, I introduced the legendary Israeli statesman Abba Eban at a community event sponsored by a local college. After enlightening us with his Churcillian eloquence on Israel and the international situation, a frightening mishap ensued. As Eban sat down heavily in the large armchair provided for him, it rolled backward, tipped over, and deposited the diplomat behind the Rockford College banner. To everyone’s great relief, he reemerged unscathed.
Homesick: A Novel
If you appreciate the literary style and works of Amos Oz you will enjoy Homesick by Eshkol Nevo. The narrative's locale is Mevasseret, a suburb of Jerusalem. In 1947 it was abandoned by the Arabs who were fearful of suffering the same fate as the Arabs massacred at Deir Yassin. It was the fall of 1995, Yitzhak Rabin had been assassinated and there were ongoing hostilities in Lebanon. The principal characters all resided in or were in some way connected to Mevasseret.
Wherever You Go
Anton Chekov famously advised "it is not the role of the novelist to solve problems, only to present them correctly". Anita Diamant indicated that "a novelist may take license with character development, but the attendant facts must be accurate or else the reader will lose trust in the narrative". Joan Leegant has religiously adhered to those principles in her novelWherever You Go as she has woven together three lives caught in the grip of a volatile and demanding faith.
By Fire, By Water
Palace intrigue, ethnic cleansing, murder, unrequited love, and the quest for new lands and their riches are all woven together in Michael James Kaplan's novel By Fire and By Water. The story takes place in Spain during the mid 1480's through the late 1490's in the reign of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. In that time frame four world-changing events were simultaneously occurring: the establishment of the New Inquisition in Castile and Aragon, the reconquest of Granada, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and Cristobal Colon's (Christopher Columbus) so-called discovery of the Western Hemisphere.