Best of
Jewish

1976

It Could Always Be Worse: A Yiddish Folk Tale


Margot Zemach - 1976
    When the poor man was unable to stand it any longer, he ran to the Rabbi for help.As he follows the Rabbi's unlikely advice, the poor man's life goes from bad to worse, with increasingly uproarious results. In his little hut, silly calamity follows foolish catastrophe, all memorably depicted in full-color illustrations that are both funnier and lovelier than any this distinguished artist has done in the past.It Could Always Be Worse is a 1977 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, and a 1978 Caldecott Honor Book.

The Essential Talmud


Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz - 1976
    The first book to capture the flavor and spirit of the Talmud as a human document and to summarize its main principles as an expression of divine law.

World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made


Irving Howe - 1976
    Beginning in the 1880s, it offers a rich portrayal of the East European Jewish experience in New York, and shows how the immigrant generation tried to maintain their Yiddish culture while becoming American. It is essential reading for those interested in understanding why these forebears to many of today's American Jews made the decision to leave their homelands, the challenges these new Jewish Americans faced, and how they experienced every aspect of immigrant life in the early part of the twentieth century.This invaluable contribution to Jewish literature and culture is now back in print in a new paperback edition, which includes a new foreword by noted author and literary critic Morris Dickstein.

The Diary of Trilby Frost


Dianne Glaser - 1976
    Her mother disapproves of her romance with Saul Edwards, the rebellious half-Indian boy who helps with the chores on the Frost farm. Then there are the Frosts' two boarders--a disreputable bootlegger who tries to woo Trilby's older sister, and a sophisticated teacher who tries to win Trilby's heart. Trilby writes everything in her diary, from her turbulent relationship with Saul to her days at finishing school. Her words tell of the tragedies and joys of life in a log cabin in the early twentieth century and show that the trials of growing up are timeless.

A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time


Howard M. Sachar - 1976
    Sachar’s A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time was regarded one of the most valuable works available detailing the history of this still relatively young country. More than 30 years later, readers can again be immersed in this monumental work. The second edition of this volume covers topics such as the first of the Aliyahs in the 1880s; the rise of Jewish nationalism; the beginning of the political Zionist movement and, later, how the movement changed after Theodor Herzl; the Balfour Declaration; the factors that led to the Arab-Jewish confrontation; Palestine and its role both during the Second World War and after; the war of independence and the many wars that followed it over the next few decades; and the development of the Israeli republic and the many challenges it faced, both domestic and foreign, and still faces today.This is a truly enriching and exhaustive history of a nation that holds claim to one of the most complicated and controversial histories in the world.

Allegra Maud Goldman


Edith Konecky - 1976
    magazine). This endearing novel chronicles the growth of the young Allegra in pre-World War II Brooklyn as she learns about sex, death, bigotry, family limitations, and what it means to be young and female and independent.Marketing Plans for Allegra Maud Goldman: • Advance review copies to booksellers • Twenty-fifth anniversary press kit • Strong media pushEdith Konecky is the author of a second novel, A Place at the Table, as well as short fiction and poetry.

The Real Messiah?: A Jewish Response to Missionaries


Aryeh Kaplan - 1976
    A Jewish response to Christian missionaries, providing both a practical guide and sources that counter missionary claims about Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures.

Difficult Freedom: Essays on Judaism


Emmanuel Levinas - 1976
    Derrida has paid him homage as "master." An original philosopher who combines the insights of phenomenological analysis with those of Jewish spirituality, Emmanuel Levinas has proven to be of extraordinary importance in the history of modern thought. Collecting Levinas's important writings on religion, Difficult Freedom contributes to a growing debate about the significance of religion—particularly Judaism and Jewish spiritualism—in European philosophy. Topics include ethics, aesthetics, politics, messianism, Judaism and women, and Jewish-Christian relations, as well as the work of Spinoza, Hegel, Heidegger, Franz Rosenzweig, Simone Weil, and Jules Issac.

Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest


David Hartman - 1976
    Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest demonstrates that Maimonides' total philosophic endeavor was an attempt to show how the free search for truth, established through the study of logic, physics, and metaphysics, can live harmoniously with a way of life defined by the normative traditions of Judaism.

Yenne Velt: The Great Works of Jewish Fantasy & Occult


Joachim Neugroschel - 1976
    

The Rabbi and the Twenty-Nine Witches


Marilyn Hirsh - 1976
    . . until one day the wise rabbi invents a plan to rid his village of those wicked witches forever.The rabbi's clever plan works with hilarious results!

On Jews and Judaism in Crisis


Gershom Scholem - 1976
    . . . He is coming to be seen as one of the greatest shapers of contemporary thought, possibly the boldest mind-adventurer of our generation."—Cynthia Ozick, The New York Times Book ReviewOn Jews and Judaism in Crisis presents Gershom Scholem confronting, studying, and judging the important ideas, events, and figures of twentieth-century Judaism. It includes essays on Martin Buber, S. Y. Agnon, and Scholem's friend Walter Benjamin; also his famous 1964 letter to Hannah Arendt. In a 1975 interview, Scholem provides fascinating information about his own life.

Shir Hashirim/Song of Songs: An Allegorical Translation Based Upon Rashi with a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources


Meir Zlotowitz - 1976
    The first English translation faithful to the allegory that is the Song's authentic meaning.