The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered
A prism on a kitchen windowsill performs the miracle of fracturing sunlight into the complete spectrum, throwing rainbows on mundane surfaces, elevating them to something celestial and rare. Benjamin Taylor, in his compact and precise memoir, The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered (Penguin, 2017), performs the same miracle. His last year of childhood in Forth Worth, TX, explodes into multicolored fragments, illuminating intersecting themes from the Kennedy assassination to Taylor’s homosexuality and eventual diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome.
The Netanyahu Years
On November 21, 2016, Benjamin Netanyahu surpassed David Ben Gurion’s record of longest continuous service as prime minister of Israel. Though Netanyahu’s years in power have been marked by scandal and political intrigue, his popularity with the Israeli electorate over the past seven years has grown, allowing him to do practically anything he wants.
The Shoah Through Muslim Eyes
A Pakistan-born Muslim woman with a Ph.D. from a South African university who directs the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, a New York City Catholic school, has written a pioneering and courageous book about the Shoah (Holocaust).
The Mandela Plot
Adolescence, otherness, and Apartheid make a literally explosive cocktail in National Jewish Book Award winner Kenneth Bonert’s new novel, The Mandela Plot. Half hyperbolic adventure and half historical fiction, Bonert elevates his unlikely hero, Martin Helger, to almost mythic status, while reminding readers both of South Africa’s Jewish diaspora and the horrors of Apartheid.
Stories We Tell: My Grandfather's Kittel
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: Reaching the Promised Land
This week, as we move into the book of Exodus, we transition from learning about Joseph to learning about another Jewish leader: Moses.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: The Sacred Pursuit for Reparations - Parshat Bo
This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs takes a look at Parashat Bo and the behaviors of the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - B'shalach: Lifting Hands and Sharing Power
This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs discusses Parashat B'shalach and the powerful image of Aaron and Hur lifting Moses' hands as he grew weary.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah: Commanded to Honor, Compelled to Care - Yitro
In Parashat Yitro, we are instructed to honor our parents, in part so that we may live longer lives.