The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy
Simon Levis Sullam, who teaches modern history at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, has written a well-researched book that shatters the widely-held belief that Italians were brava gente, “good people,” who protected their Jewish fellow citizens from the horrors of the Holocaust.
Promised Land: A Novel of Israel
Martin Fletcher, the former NBC bureau chief in Israel, describes his 409-page novel in three words: “Exodus meets ‘Dallas.’” And indeed it is.
The Family Tabor
What do we choose to show to others, and what do we keep hidden? How do we curate our public face?
The Parting Gift
I am approaching my fiftieth wedding anniversary, but I have vague memories from my long-ago youth of what it’s like to fall in love at first sight. Such experiences did not end well for me; neither does the affair portrayed in the story The Parting Gift (Other Press), written by Evan Fallenberg, an Ohio-born writer who now lives in Israel.
Annelies: A Novel
David R. Gillham’s Annelies: A Novel (Viking and Penguin Books) is a fictionalized portrayal of Anne Frank based on the premise that she recovers from her illness in Bergen-Belsen, returns to post-war Amsterdam, and is reunited with her father, Otto, whom she calls Pim.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Nitzavim: Why Organ Donation is Jewish
Parashat Nitzavim features the phrase “choose life,” but what does it mean to choose life? One way of choosing life is by becoming an organ donor. Rabbi Jacobs discusses why this lifesaving choice is part of his Jewish values in this episode of On the Other Hand.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - T'rumah: The Right Ways to Give
In Parashat T'rumah, God asks the Israelites for gifts and there are so many different ways and reasons that people give - but is there a best way?
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Tazria: Where and How Do We Heal?
This week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs teaches us from Parashat Tazria in the book of Leviticus, asking where we start when we need healing.
Four ways to tune in:
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Metzora: Shabbat HaGadol
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, wonders if asking questions during a Passover seder is a religious mandate, or if it is actually demanded of us, and whether eating kosher for Passover bagels is really in the spirit of the holiday.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Pesach
Passover means matzah, and this week, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, talks about how, love it or hate it, eating the “bread of affliction” might actually teach us about empathy.