The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate
At almost 750 pages long, it’s is a very big book, one that contains 66 essays and personal reflections. The length isn’t a surprise, actually, when you realize that the scope of the book spans four decades of women in the rabbinate: 40 years, the amount of time it took our Israelite ancestors to reach the Promised Land.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
In Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a lively look at the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, co-authors Shana Knizhnik, a law student, and Irin Carmon, a reporter for MSNBC, mix chatty stories, photographs, charts, letters, and cartoons with legal decisions to illustrate the illustrious career of the first Jewish woman Supreme Court justice.
The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel
In the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which Israel came close to losing, a traumatized Israeli public demanded to know how Israel’s Mossad failed to detect that war was imminent, given a massive buildup of Egyptian forces along the Suez Canal and Syrian troops on the Golan Heights.
We Were the Lucky Ones
Desperate times inspire bravery, creativity, resilience, and endurance.
Venice, The Jews and Europe: 1516-2016
Weighing in at more than five pounds and offering up more than 500 pages of text and illustrations, Venice, The Jews and Europe: 1516-2016 (Rizzoli) is a comprehensive and valuable resource for understanding the institution of the first Jewish ghetto, on the 500th anniversary of its establishment in Venice, Italy.
Judas
Amos Oz is one of Israel’s best known authors, and one of the most controversial. At 77, he is widely considered as the godfather of Israeli peaceniks. After fighting in the 1967 Six-Day War, he was the first Israeli to call publicly for the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the newly occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Even unavoidable occupation,” he wrote, “is a corrupting occupation.” His opposition to Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, led to his co-founding Peace Now in 1978.
Leaving Lucy Pear
Award-winning novelist Anna Solomon’s second novel Leaving Lucy Pear, now out in paperback, is a masterfully woven web of ambition and lies.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Va-et'chanan: Why We Should Bring Politics to the Pulpit
Everybody has an opinion on whether politics should be brought to the pulpit, but according to Rabbi Jacobs, this debate was settled centuries ago.
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - Eikev: A Seat at the Table
A chapter in Parashat Eikev reads, “when you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless.” What does it mean to be satisfied, and what kind of power does a good meal have?
On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah - R'eih: Eating With Compassion
Parashat R’eih includes that infamous line: “you shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” Jewish tradition categorizes the mitzvah of not mixing milk with meat as one without specific reasoning, but many scholars think th