Defining Israel: The Jewish State, Democracy, and the Law
Defining Israel: The Jewish State, Democracy, and the Law (HUC Press) is a dense, essential volume for anyone who wants to unpack the maze of documentation and thought at the heart of
A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape from the Nazis
Rabbi James Rudin reviews A Bookshop in Berlin, a story of survival and resilience, of human cruelty and human spirit.
Hitler’s True Believers: How Ordinary People Became Nazis
A widely believed myth is that Adolf Hitler was a unique personal aberration in history and his Nazi movement with its reign of terror was a one and done occurrence that lacked any real foundational ideology.
Stan Lee: A Life in Comics
Stan Lee: A Life in Comics (Yale Press) examines Lee’s work from a Jewish perspective.
Married to the Rabbi: Sixty Spouses of Retired Reform Rabbis in their Own Words
In 60 essays collected throughout a five-year period by the National Association of Retired Reform Rabbis, rabbis’ spouses share memories and insights about their lives. The pieces vary in length, tone, and writing style, even including poetry – but all add to the fascinating discussion.
Exile Music
The story is narrated by Orly Zingel, who, at age 11, journeys with her parents from Vienna to Genoa to Chile and finally to La Paz, leaving behind her older brother, Willi.
Radiance: Creative Mitzvah Living
In his introduction to Radiance: Creative Mitzvah Living, Rabbi Neal Gold writes that Danny Siegel’s teachings have profoundly shaped American Jewry – and he’s right.
The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood
In her book, The Sun and Her Stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s Exiles in the Golden Age of Hollywood, author and book critic Donna Rifkind vividly describes the 1930s and 1940s, when 10,000 German-speaking refugees, most of them Jews, found a safe haven from Nazism in Los Angeles.