His whole family died in Auschwitz. He barely survived. Now he spends his nights haunted by nightmares and his days solving cases the police won’t handle.Hired to find a missing boy, Adam thinks the case is hopeless. But he can’t turn down a mother searching for her only child.What Adam doesn’t realize is that this case will soon put him in mortal danger. For at the root of the mystery lies a double murder that has stayed unsolved for ten long years.Adam must untangle a web of lies and betrayal to get to the truth. And he’d better watch his back because some of the suspects are willing to kill to keep their dark secrets buried.

    S. Byatt’s Possession and Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book.Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.   As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and in a race with another fast-moving team of historians, Helen embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents’ scribe, the elusive “Aleph.”   Electrifying and ambitious, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Weight of Ink is a sophisticated work of historical fiction about women separated by centuries, and the choices and sacrifices they must make in order reconcile the life of the heart and mind.

    If the diagnosis they present is right, then we have a great problem in Poland.” —Olga Tokarczuk, Nobel Prize laureate and author of FlightsMikołaj Grynberg is a psychologist and photographer who has spent years collecting and publishing oral histories of Polish Jews. In his first work of fiction—a book that has been widely praised by critics and was shortlisted for Poland’s top literary prize—Grynberg recrafts those histories into little jewels, fictionalized short stories with the ring of truth.Both biting and knowing, I’d Like to Say Sorry, but There’s No One to Say Sorry To takes the form of first-person vignettes, through which Grynberg explores the daily lives and tensions within Poland between Jews and gentiles haunted by the Holocaust and its continuing presence.In “Unnecessary Trouble,” a grandmother discloses on her deathbed that she is Jewish; she does not want to die without her family knowing. What is passed on to the family is fear and the struggle of what to do with this information. In “Cacophony,” Jewish identity is explored through names, as Miron and his son Jurek demonstrate how heritage is both accepted and denied. In “My Five Jews,” a non-Jewish narrator remembers five interactions with her Jewish countrymen, and her own anti-Semitism, ruefully noting that perhaps she was wrong and should apologize, but no one is left to say “I’m sorry” to.Each of the thirty-one stories is a dazzling and haunting mini-monologue that highlights a different facet of modern Poland’s complex and difficult relationship with its Jewish past.

    He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness..." --Albert EinsteinWhen Rabbi Naomi Levy came across this poignant letter by Einstein it shook her to her core. His words perfectly captured what she has come to believe about the human condition: That we are intimately connected, and that we are blind to this truth. Levy wondered what had elicited such spiritual wisdom from a man of science? Thus began a three-year search into the mystery of Einstein's letter, and into the mystery of the human soul. What emerges is an inspiring, deeply affecting book for people of all faiths filled with universal truths that will help us reclaim our own souls and glimpse the unity that has been evading us. We all long to see more expansively, to live up to our gifts, to understand why we are here. Levy leads us on a breathtaking journey full of wisdom, empathy and humor, challenging us to wake up and heed the voice calling from within--a voice beckoning us to become who we were born be.

    It is a tale of heroism and resistance, of friendship and romance, and of unwavering devotion—including the readiness to risk one’s life—to literature and art. And it is entirely true. Based on Jewish, German, and Soviet documents, including diaries, letters, memoirs, and the author’s interviews with several of the story’s participants, The Book Smugglers chronicles the daring activities of a group of poets turned partisans and scholars turned smugglers in Vilna, “The Jerusalem of Lithuania.” The rescuers were pitted against Johannes Pohl, a Nazi “expert” on the Jews, who had been dispatched to Vilna by the Nazi looting agency, Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, to organize the seizure of the city’s great collections of Jewish books. Pohl and his Einsatzstab staff planned to ship the most valuable materials to Germany and incinerate the rest. The Germans used forty ghetto inmates as slave-laborers to sort, select, pack, and transport the materials, either to Germany or to nearby paper mills. This group, nicknamed “the Paper Brigade,” and informally led by poet Shmerke Kaczerginski, a garrulous, street-smart adventurer and master of deception, smuggled thousands of books and manuscripts past German guards. If caught, the men would have faced death by firing squad at Ponar, the mass-murder site outside of Vilna. To store the rescued manuscripts, poet Abraham Sutzkever helped build an underground book-bunker sixty feet beneath the Vilna ghetto. Kaczerginski smuggled weapons as well, using the group’s worksite, the former building of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, to purchase arms for the ghetto’s secret partisan organization. All the while, both men wrote poetry that was recited and sung by the fast-dwindling population of ghetto inhabitants. With the Soviet “liberation” of Vilna (now known as Vilnius), the Paper Brigade thought themselves and their precious cultural treasures saved—only to learn that their new masters were no more welcoming toward Jewish culture than the old, and the books must now be smuggled out of the USSR. Thoroughly researched by the foremost scholar of the Vilna Ghetto—a writer of exceptional daring, style, and reach—The Book Smugglers is an epic story of human heroism, a little-known tale from the blackest days of the war.

     Golda Meir was a world figure unlike any other. Born in czarist Russia in 1898, she immigrated to America in 1906 and grew up in Milwaukee, where from her earliest years she displayed the political consciousness and organizational skills that would eventually catapult her into the inner circles of Israel's founding generation. Moving to mandatory Palestine in 1921 with her husband, the passionate socialist joined a kibbutz but soon left and was hired at a public works office by the man who would become the great love of her life. A series of public service jobs brought her to the attention of David Ben-Gurion, and her political career took off. Fund-raising in America in 1948, secretly meeting in Amman with King Abdullah right before Israel's declaration of independence, mobbed by thousands of Jews in a Moscow synagogue in 1948 as Israel's first representative to the USSR, serving as minister of labor and foreign minister in the 1950s and 1960s, Golda brought fiery oratory, plainspoken appeals, and shrewd deal-making to the cause to which she had dedicated her life--the welfare and security of the State of Israel and its inhabitants. As prime minister Golda negotiated arms agreements with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, agonized over the mixed signals being sent by newly installed Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, and had dozens of clandestine meetings with Jordan's King Hussein in the unsuccessful pursuit of a land-for-peace agreement with Israel's neighbors. But her time in office ended in tragedy, when Israel was caught off guard by Egypt and Syria's surprise attack on Yom Kippur in 1973. Resigning in the war's aftermath, Golda spent her final years keeping a hand in national affairs and bemusedly enjoying international acclaim. Francine Klagsbrun's superbly researched and masterly recounted story of Israel's founding mother gives us a Golda for the ages.

    In 2017, best-selling Israeli author Micah Goodman published a balanced and insightful analysis of the situation that quickly became one of Israel’s most debated books of the year. Now available in English translation with a new preface by the author, Catch-67 deftly sheds light on the ideas that have shaped Israelis’ thinking on both sides of the debate, and among secular and religious Jews about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Contrary to opinions that dominate the discussion, he shows that the paradox of Israeli political discourse is that both sides are right in what they affirm—and wrong in what they deny. Although he concludes that the conflict cannot be solved, Goodman is far from a pessimist and explores how instead it can be reduced in scope and danger through limited, practical steps. Through philosophical critique and political analysis, Goodman builds a creative, compelling case for pragmatism in a dispute where a comprehensive solution seems impossible.

    Through these incisive, perceptive, and poignant essays, readers will gain unique insight into the narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcasted nightly on the news, as well as deeper understanding of the conflict as experienced by the people who live in the occupied territories. Together, these stories stand witness to the human cost of the occupation.

    Ian is just like Avi, but he is also all sunshine, optimism, and magic. All the things that Avi doesn't know how to deal with...yet.A romantic, #ownvoices fairy tale for trans boys.

    Rabbi K. A. Schneider decodes the Book of Revelation, showing how the end-time events prophesied in the New Testament book correspond with the teachings of the Torah and the Hebrew prophets. You will discover how the Passover foreshadows the great tribulation, and what the Hebrew prophets reveal about the anti-Messiah, Armageddon, hell, the return of the Messiah, the millennial kingdom, heaven, and much more. As the world grows darker and darker, many people have a sense of impending doom. This book will teach you what to expect during the last days and how to stand firm in Christ even in the face of opposition.

    Hired as a promising young historian, he soon becomes a leading expert on Nazi methods of extermination at concentration camps in Poland during World War II and guides tours through the sites for students and visiting dignitaries. He hungrily devours every detail of life and death in the camps and takes pride in being able to recreate for his audience the excruciating last moments of the victims’ lives. The job becomes a mission, and then an obsession. Spending so much time immersed in death, his connections with the living begin to deteriorate. He resents the students lost in their iPhones, singing sentimental songs, not expressing sufficient outrage at the genocide committed by the Nazis. In fact, he even begins to detect, in the students as well as himself, a hint of admiration for the murderers—their efficiency, audacity, and determination. Force is the only way to resist force, he comes to think, and one must be prepared to kill. With the perspicuity of Kafka’s The Trial and the obsessions of Delillo’s White Noise, The Memory Monster confronts difficult questions that are all too relevant to Israel and the world today: How do we process human brutality? What makes us choose sides in conflict? And how do we honor the memory of horror without becoming consumed by it?

    After being held for five days in appalling conditions in the Vélodrome d'Hiver stadium, Joseph and his family were transported by cattle car to the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp and brutally separated: all the adults and most of the children were transported on to Auschwitz and certain death, but 1,000 children were left behind to wait for a later train. The French guards told the children left behind that they would soon be reunited with their parents, but Joseph and his new friend, Joe Kogan, chose to risk everything in a daring escape attempt. After eluding the guards and crawling under razor-sharp barbed wire, Joseph found freedom. But how would he survive the rest of the war in Nazi-occupied France and build a life for himself? His problems had just begun.Until he was 80, Joseph Weismann kept his story to himself, giving only the slightest hints of it to his wife and three children. Simone Veil, lawyer, politician, President of the European Parliament, and member of the Constitutional Council of France—herself a survivor of Auschwitz—urged him to tell his story. In the original French version of this book and in Roselyne Bosch’s 2010 film La Rafle, Joseph shares his compelling and terrifying story of the Roundup of the Vél’ d’Hiv and his escape. Now, for the first time in English, Joseph tells the rest of his dramatic story in After the Roundup.

    When they both fall on hard times, can they find a way to help each other? In Fawzia Gilani's retelling of this folktale, which has both Jewish and Arab origins, differences are not always causes for conflict and friendship can overcome any obstacle.

    Rabbi Sacks fuses Jewish tradition, Western philosophy and literature to present a highly developed understanding of the human condition under God's sovereignty.

    Held probes the portions in bold, original, and provocative ways. He mines Talmud and midrashim, great writers of world literature, and astute commentators of other religious backgrounds to ponder fundamental questions about God, human nature, and what it means to be a religious person in the modern world. Along the way he illuminates the centrality of empathy in Jewish ethics, the predominance of divine love in Jewish theology, the primacy of gratitude and generosity, and God’s summoning of each of us—with all our limitations—into the dignity of a covenantal relationship.

    HIs faith shattered, Jacob flees the comforts of his community and disappears. He lands up in a predominantly black town in rural Alabama, where he meets Rosie, the single mother of a young son. Their developing relationship, along with the rekindling of his love of music, precipitate events that will change both their lives. This debut novel is a powerful page-turner that follows a complex man on a journey of salvation after tragedy.J.J. Gesher is the pen name for co-authors Joyce Gittlin and Janet B. Fattal. Together, Janet and Joyce have won several prestigious screenwriting awards, including the Geller Prize and the Screenwriting Award at the Austin Film Festival. Their first screenwriting collaboration was produced as a Lifetime Television feature.Joyce Gittlin has written and directed such television shows as Wings, Frasier, and Everybody Loves Raymond and has written more than ten feature films for Disney, Paramount, and 20th Century Fox. She has an MFA from NYU.Janet B. Fattal has a masters in Comparative Literature from UCLA and has taught literature and writing at the college level. The editor of several memoirs, Janet leads many Los Angeles–area book groups, including for the Skirball Cultural Center, Hadassah, and the Brandeis alumni association. The co-authors both live in Los Angeles.

    Intersecting Artur’s tale is that of Suzy Kohn, a Toronto teenager whose seemingly tranquil life is shattered when her uncle’s sudden death tears her family apart, leading her into a troubled relationship with a charismatic musician. Their stories eventually come together in Israel following the Six-Day War, where love and understanding become the threads that bind the two narratives together.

    Sometimes banned, often controversial and always hilarious, Valley’s work has helped to energize a generation exasperated by American complicity in an Israeli occupation now entering its fiftieth year.This, the first full-scale anthology of Valley’s art, provides an essential retrospective of America and Israel at a turning point. With meticulously detailed line work and a richly satirical palette peppered with perseverating turtles, xenophobic Jedi knights, sputtering superheroes, mutating golems and zombie billionaires, Valley’s comics unmask the hypocrisy and horror behind the headlines. This collection supplements the satires with historical background and contexts, insights into the creative process, selected reactions to the works, and behind-the-scenes tales of tensions over what was permissible for publication.Brutally riotous and irreverent, the comics in this volume are a vital contribution to a centuries-old tradition of graphic protest and polemics.

    Her curiosity led her to embark on an entire year of intensive research, observation, and writing about the milestones on the Jewish religious calendar.

    In a flash she was gone.In the ten months of Kerryn’s dying, I prepared myself for everything except for her death.Now that she is gone, I am desperate to know her as I never knew her. Thirty Days is a portrait of grief, of a marriage and of a family. It is the moving memoir of Mark’s wife of 32 years, Kerryn Baker, who died ten months after her diagnosis, aged 55, from stomach cancer. It is also a study in how we construct our own version of the past, after Mark discovers a cache of Kerryn’s letters in the laundry cupboard and has to rethink their relationship. It is a book about memory and its uncertainties, as Mark sifts through photos and home movies, as his wife gets sicker, and his search for clues about their relationship grows more desperate. In her last days, Kerryn reveals her traumatic childhood to Mark for the first time. She emerges as the rock of the family, a brave and wise woman, clear-eyed about her treatment, focused on finding the path to a peaceful death. Paradoxically, her dying brings the couple back to the intensity of their first love. In the tradition of Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air and Cory Taylor’s remarkable memoir, Dying, Mark Baker’s THIRTY DAYS is an inspirational book about death and dying.

     With enthusiasm and flair, Anita Diamant provides choices for every stage of a wedding—including celebrations before and after the ceremony itself—providing both traditional and contemporary options. She explains the Jewish tradition of love and marriage with references drawn from Biblical, Talmudic, and mystical texts and stories. She guides you step by step through planning the ceremony and the party that follows—from finding a rabbi and wording the invitation to organizing a processional and hiring a caterer. Samples of wedding invitations and ketubot (marriage contracts) are provided for inspiration and guidance, as well as poems that can be incorporated into the wedding ceremony or party and a variety of translations of traditional texts. “There is no such thing as a generic Jewish wedding,” writes Anita Diamant, “no matter what the rabbi tells you, no matter what the caterer tells you, no matter what your mother tells you.” Complete, authoritative, and indispensable, The Jewish Wedding Now provides personalized options—some new, some old—to create a wedding that combines spiritual meaning and joyous celebration and reflects your individual values and beliefs.

    These Hasidim, now settled primarily in North America and Israel have reversed the losses they suffered and rebuilt their communities. The once unimaginable is today routine. Hasidism is alive and growing. How? "Who Will Lead Us?" is the story of five contemporary Hasidic dynasties and how they have handled the delicate issue of leadership and succession. It explores two groups with too few successors, two with too many successors, and one that claims there is no need for a successor, as they claim their leader never died"--Provided by publisher.

    

    In Modern Jewish Baker, Sarna pays homage to those traditions while reinvigorating them with modern flavors and new ideas. One kosher dough at a time, she offers the basics for challah, babka, bagels, hamantaschen, rugelach, pita, and matzah. Never one to shy away from innovation, Sarna sends her readers off on a bake-your-own adventure with twists on these classics. Recipes include:Chocolate Chip HamantaschenTomato-Basil ChallahEverything-Bagel RugelachS’mores BabkaDetailed instructions, as well as notes on make-ahead strategies, ideas for using leftovers, and other practical tips will have even novice bakers braiding beautiful shiny loaves that will make any bubbe proud.

    Held probes the portions in bold, original, and provocative ways. He mines Talmud and midrashim, great writers of world literature, and astute commentators of other religious backgrounds to ponder fundamental questions about God, human nature, and what it means to be a religious person in the modern world. Along the way he illuminates the centrality of empathy in Jewish ethics, the predominance of divine love in Jewish theology, the primacy of gratitude and generosity, and God’s summoning of each of us—with all our limitations—into the dignity of a covenantal relationship.

    When almost half of all Europeans believe that Israel treats the Palestinians just like the Nazis treated the Jews, when leading politicians assert that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the central cause of violence in the world, and when prominent intellectuals argue that Israel is an apartheid state, the unfortunate reality is that the lies are winning.As a result, Israel has become the devil incarnate in the eyes of many otherwise good and reasonable people - people who genuinely want to see peace but inadvertently contribute to the continuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The tragedy is that they are neither helping the Palestinians nor promoting agreement or reconciliation. Instead, they lend legitimacy to the most fallacious claims of the most extreme activists, empowering not moderates but the worst of the radicals who have no interest in attaining peace.Israel is not free from flaws. However, this book draws a clear distinction between legitimate criticism and the industry of lies that has emerged from two unlikely sources - the media and academia - undermining their reputation as bastions of truth and knowledge. Ben-Dror Yemini presents an in-depth analysis of the many inaccurate and malicious accusations leveled against Israel and refutes them one by one in this thought-provoking and well-researched volume that invites us to rethink the causes and consequences of the Israeli-Arab conflict.Praise for Industry of LiesBen-Dror Yemini’s book is a must-read for readers of independent mind. A brilliant and creative Israeli writer-scholar, Yemini is a realistic centrist of high integrity who believes in the two-state solution. In Industry of Lies, he exposes the deliberate fakery of the anti-Israel propaganda industry. Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel In a world where we’re trying to sort out the truth, the forgotten facts that Ben-Dror Yemini has assembled should be known by all those trying to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict. Robert Bernstein, former president of Random House and founder of Human Rights Watch This book ... reveals and explains the big and small lies that underpin contemporary anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli discourse. Yemini himself is a critic of current Israeli policy and believes in a two-state solution. But he asserts that the distortions purveyed in Western university campuses and in the Western media about Israel and the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict are actually an impediment to Arab-Israeli peace. Professor Benny Morris, author and historian Ben-Dror Yemini ... criticizes Israel’s settlement policy and advocates a rapprochement with the Palestinians through the two-state solution. Nevertheless, he takes up arms against the anti-Israel web of outlandish lies and vitriolic propaganda and exposes them for what they truly are: a sophisticated form of hate speech directing its all too familiar venom against the Jewish state and the Zionist idea. This book should be read by all truth-seeking people. Professor Amnon Rubinstein, former Israeli Education Minister on behalf of Meretz Ben-Dror Yemini and I have some fundamental differences of opinion. And yet, I think his new book on the global rise of anti-Israeli propaganda is important, thorough, and thought-provoking. For too long, too many good people have been swayed by the derisive campaign that describes the Jewish-democratic state in a distorted, pernicious manner. Industry of Lies offers a robust rebuttal to this campaign.

    Israel is only nineteen years old, the same age as Motti's brave older brother, Gideon and the tiny country is surrounded by enemies. It's only a matter of time before Egypt, Jordan and Syria attack. Motti wishes he could join the Israeli army like Gideon and be a hero. But when his best friend's family flees the country and his brother goes off to fight, Motti realizes this war isn't a game. His family is in danger, and Israel's very survival is at stake.

    Preserved by the Jews across two millennia, Hebrew endured long after it ceased to be a mother tongue, resulting in one of the most intense textual cultures ever known. It was a bridge to Greek and Arab science. It unlocked the biblical sources for Jerome and the Reformation. Kabbalists and humanists sought philosophical truth in it, and Colonial Americans used it to shape their own Israelite political identity. Today, it is the first language of millions of Israelis.The Story of Hebrew takes readers from the opening verses of Genesis--which seemingly describe the creation of Hebrew itself--to the reincarnation of Hebrew as the everyday language of the Jewish state. Lewis Glinert explains the uses and meanings of Hebrew in ancient Israel and its role as a medium for wisdom and prayer. He describes the early rabbis' preservation of Hebrew following the Babylonian exile, the challenges posed by Arabic, and the prolific use of Hebrew in Diaspora art, spirituality, and science. Glinert looks at the conflicted relationship Christians had with Hebrew from the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation, the language's fatal rivalry with Yiddish, the dreamers and schemers that made modern Hebrew a reality, and how a lost pre-Holocaust textual ethos is being renewed today by Orthodox Jews.A major work of scholarship, The Story of Hebrew is an unforgettable account of what one language has meant to those possessing it.

    But who are the Americans, the people who make up America? Tuvia Tenenbom travels through America to find out. His wanderings take him across regional frontiers, partisan lines, and socioeconomic boundaries in a fearless quest for the flesh-and-blood American. He visits black ghettos and white gated communities, megachurches and Indian reservations. He schmoozes with robbers who teach him the true meaning of love and meets Jews who dedicate day and night to hatred of their brethren. He finagles his way into a prison where skinheads pray, goes to the Senate where no Senator seems to be working, experiments with drugs on American streets and ponders the deeper meaning of life with rednecks. He mingles with soldiers who teach him how to invade foreign countries and intellectuals who teach him the beautiful nature of Mother Earth, the goodness of man, and the sadism of the Israeli. The characters he encounters, the adventures he eagerly embraces and the findings of his journey are always unique and often unexpected.

     Five hundred years later, Alma Ben-Ami journeys to Madrid to fulfill her ancestor’s final wish. She has recruited an unlikely research partner: Manuel Aguilar, a young Catholic Spaniard whose beloved priest always warned him about getting too friendly with Jews. As their quest takes them from Greenwich Village to the windswept mountain fortresses of southern Spain, their friendship deepens and threatens to cross boundaries sacred to them both; and what they finally discover in the Spanish archives will force them to confront the truth about who they are and what their faiths mean to them. At times humorous, at times deeply moving, this beautifully written and meticulously researched book will appeal to anyone interested in the history of Inquisition-era Spain, Sephardic Jews, or falling in love. "Engaging characters, a 500-year-old family mystery, and romance — what more could a reader want? I had a hard time putting it down!" — Maggie Anton, award-winning author of the Rashi’s Daughters trilogy “A well-researched and engaging debut — By Light of Hidden Candles is an enchanting read!” — Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of multiple-award-winner Even in Darkness

    A runner, a reader and a romantic, Kurshan adapted to its pace, attuned her ear to its poetry, and discovered her passions in its pages. She brought the Talmud with her wherever she went, studying in airplanes, supermarket lines, and over a plate of pasta at home, careful not to drip tomato sauce upon discussions about the sprinkling of blood on the Temple altar. By the time she completed the Talmud after seven and a half years, Kurshan was remarried with three young children. With each pregnancy, her Talmud sat perched atop her growing belly.This memoir is a tale of heartache and humor, of love and loss, of marriage and motherhood, and of learning to put one foot in front of the other by turning page after page. Kurshan takes us on a deeply accessible and personal guided tour of the Talmud, shedding new light on its stories and offering insights into its arguments both for those already familiar with the text and for those who have never encountered it. For people of the book both Jewish and non-Jewish If All the Seas Were Ink is a celebration of learning through literature how to fall in love once again.

     Millions read it, retell it, and celebrate it.  But did it happen?Biblical scholars, Egyptologists, archaeologists, historians, literary scholars, anthropologists, and filmmakers are drawn to it.  Unable to find physical evidence until now, many archaeologists and scholars claim this mass migration is just a story, not history.  Others oppose this conclusion, defending the biblical account.Like a detective on an intricate case no one has yet solved, pioneering Bible scholar and bestselling author of Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Elliott Friedman cuts through the noise — the serious studies and the wild theories — merging new findings with new insight.  From a spectrum of disciplines, state-of-the-art archeological breakthroughs, and fresh discoveries within scripture, he brings real evidence of a historical basis for the exodus — the history behind the story.  The biblical account of millions fleeing Egypt may be an exaggeration, but the exodus itself is not a myth.Friedman does not stop there.  Known for his ability to make Bible scholarship accessible to readers, Friedman proceeds to reveal how much is at stake when we explore the historicity of the exodus.  The implications, he writes, are monumental.  We learn that it became the starting-point of the formation of monotheism, the defining concept of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Moreover, we learn that it precipitated the foundational ethic of loving one’s neighbors — including strangers — as oneself.  He concludes, the actual exodus was the cradle of global values of compassion and equal rights today.

    Rav Kook was one of the most spiritual and open minded thinkers in modern Jewish history. God'spresence in the world was so real to Rav Kook that he believed spirituality must focus on the transformation of the individual, the nation, humanity, and all of existence.

    They appeared suddenly, from thin air.It was summer and scorching hot, but the two women wore old-fashioned heavy winter dresses. They spoke with an accent like Grandma, from a land far away.They had stories to tell. Nice stories that Jacob loved hearing, and awful, painful stories that made him cover his ears.Now, years have passed and Grandma Rachel is dying. Will Jacob finally be able to listen to what the ghosts have to tell him before it's too late?You will love Grandma Rachel's Ghosts because it is a Jewish fantasy story about love, family, loss, and the connection between past, present, and future.

    Antisemitism is harmful and real in our society. What must also be addressed is how the deployment of false charges of antisemitism or redefining antisemitism can suppress the global progressive fight for justice. There is no one definitive voice on antisemitism and its impact.Jewish Voice for Peace has curated a collection of essays that provides a diversity of perspectives and standpoints. Each contribution explores critical questions concerning uses and abuses of antisemitism in the twenty-first-century, focusing on the intersection between anti-Semitism, accusations of anti-Semitism, and Palestinian human rights activism.This anthology provides a much-needed tool for Palestinian solidarity activists, teachers, as well as Jewish communities. Featuring contributions from Omar Barghouti, Judith Butler, and Rebecca Vilkomerson, as well as activists, academics, students, and cultural workers, On Political Solidarity and Justice includes the voices of Palestinian students and activists, and Jews that are often marginalized in mainstream discussions of anti-Semitism, including Jews of Color and Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews.Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters, over sixty chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.

    When confronted with alarming changes in political and societal mores, the family decide to flee and chart a course that will forever alter their lives. Will her dreams be washed away on the shores of Buenos Aires or will Leah finally achieve the freedom to design her own destiny?

    Children will enjoy being carried away by the illustrations and rhyming language. Parents and educators will appreciate the detail and opportunity to share pictures and words that reflect the richness of Jewish ritual and community. It is well worth a look by librarians and community organizations who seek to add cultural diversity to their children’s collections. All told, Almost a Minyan is a solid example of children’s literature that will give readers the ultimate gift – the opportunity to create memories of learning together." - Rabbi Deborah Miller, booksandblintzes.com

    He had great success. But he couldn't find happiness. Then he found a 2000-year-old prayer. In it were hidden elements of Jewish wisdom. They became a part of his life and those of his congregation and transformed them and him.In the tradition of Rabbi Harold Kushner, Moffic opens up wisdom that has been at the heart Judaism for thousands of years. He distills the "Eilu Devarim" an ancient prayer for happiness found in the Talmud into ten practices that empower us to thrive through setbacks, so nothing can hamper our happiness.The ten practices are simple:· Honor Those Who Gave You Life· Be Kind· Keep Learning· Invite Others into Your Life· Be There When Others Need You· Celebrate Good Times· Support Yourself and Others During Times of Loss· Pray with Intention· Forgive· Look Inside and CommitThe rabbi unpacks these practices of the 2000-year-old prayer with insights for today, that will help you find ways to live with greater happiness and meaning. He draws from interactions with thousands of congregants, as well as his own experience. His conclusion that these actions bring happiness is corroborated by science: people who conduct authentic lives of faith live, on average, seven years longer than others, have more friends and are healthier. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Times; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 28.8px; text-indent: -24.0px; font: 13.0px Times; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font: 13.0px 'Lucida Grande'; font-kerning: none} span.s3 {font: 9.0px 'Times New Roman'; font-kerning: none} Filled with relatable stories of real people, accessible commentary from contemporary psychologists, and warm humor, this rabbi of a new generation sheds light on an enduring prayer that captures the means and meaning of joyous living that will appeal to everyone.

    If we are to fully understand how and why the Holocaust happened, Götz Aly argues in this groundbreaking study, we must examine its prehistory throughout Europe. We must look at countries as far-flung as Romania and France, Russia and Greece, where, decades before the Nazis came to power, a deadly combination of envy, competition, nationalism, and social upheaval fueled a surge of anti-Semitism, creating the preconditions for the deportations and murder to come.In the late nineteenth century, new opportunities for education and social advancement were opening up, and Jewish minorities took particular advantage of them, leading to widespread resentment. At the same time, newly created nation-states, especially in the east, were striving for ethnic homogeneity and national renewal, goals which they saw as inextricably linked. Drawing upon a wide range of previously unpublished sources, Aly traces the sequence of events that made persecution of Jews an increasingly acceptable European practice.Ultimately, the German architects of genocide found support for the Final Solution in nearly all the countries they occupied or were allied with.Without diminishing the guilt of German perpetrators, Aly documents the involvement of all of Europe in the destruction of the Jews, once again deepening our understanding of this most tormented history.

    The book's unique blend of intellectual, religious, and social history offers perspectives on the movement's leaders as well as its followers, and demonstrates that, far from being a throwback to the Middle Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity as a radical alternative to the secular world.Hasidism originated in southeastern Poland, in mystical circles centered on the figure of Israel Ba'al Shem Tov, but it was only after his death in 1760 that a movement began to spread. Challenging the notion that Hasidism ceased to be a creative movement after the eighteenth century, this book argues that its first golden age was in the nineteenth century, when it conquered new territory, won a mass following, and became a mainstay of Jewish Orthodoxy. World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Holocaust decimated eastern European Hasidism. But following World War II, the movement enjoyed a second golden age, growing exponentially. Today, it is witnessing a remarkable renaissance in Israel, the United States, and other countries around the world.Written by an international team of scholars, Hasidism is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand this vibrant and influential modern Jewish movement.

    But between her father's conditional tuition payments and her mother's nagging concern over her emotional state, Talia's suffocating.So when Talia meets doctoral student Sean Poole, she can't figure out why she wants him to control her. Why she wants him to boss her around. Why she wants him to hurt her.Talia learns the hard way that not all control is created equal, and sometimes submitting is the most empowering thing in the world.

    When did Rosh HaShana, the anniversary of creation, become a day of judgement? How does Yom Kippur unite the priest's atonement with the prophet's repentance? What makes Kohelet, read on Sukkot, the most joyful book in the Bible? Why is the remembrance of the Pesah story so central to Jewish morality? And which does Shavuot really celebrate the law or the land?Bringing together Rabbi Sacks's acclaimed introductions to the Koren Sacks Mahzorim, Ceremony & Celebration reveals the stunning interplay of biblical laws, rabbinic edicts, liturgical themes, communal rituals and profound religious meaning of each of the five central Jewish holidays.

    Now, finally, with this deft translation of his utterly charming story collection that comes laced with 21 mouthwatering recipes, English-speaking readers will be able to appreciate why. Hovav is a masterful storyteller, a born raconteur. An unforgettable gallery of colorful uncles, aunts, and other family member—with food woven through as a lemotif--makes these autobiographical accounts of growing up in Jerusalem in the 60s and 70s read like short stories in the great tradition of Sholem Aleichem: tales told with great wisdom, tenderness, insight, and wit as tart as a bowl of Yemenite pickles. And who wouldn’t salivate over Hovav’s family recipes for sweet sour chorba tomato soup or his Aunt Levana’s eggplant and feta bourekas? Dig in, dear readers, pleasure is served.

    

    He advocates a life centered on the service of God, but recognizes multiple paths to this goal. Acknowledging that both the Jewish value system and human experience are multifaceted, he examines the relevant issues from an unusually wide perspective. Rabbi Lichtenstein's essays reflect not only a staunch commitment to Halakha and a firm grounding in rigorous Torah study, but also a deep spirituality, a profound moral sensitivity, and a keen awareness of both the challenges and opportunities of modernity. While being enlightened by Rabbi Lichtenstein's penetrating analyses and wide-ranging learning, the reader will also be inspired by the beauty of his vision of the religious life. These essays originated as lectures, and have been selected and adapted for print by Rabbi Reuven Ziegler.

    Since that terrible day last year, she wants no part in their Jewish community. At least at Quartz Creek Ranch, she feels worlds away from home among the Colorado scenery, goofy ranch owners, and baby animals.Other parts of Quartz Creek, however, are too familiar, including the unsettling wave of anti-immigrant threats to ranch workers. On a trip to the country, Rivka is also surprised to learn the history of Jewish pioneers in the area. When she and her defiant cabinmate, Cat, face disaster in the wild, Rivka will need to find strength deep within her to help them both get home safely.

    But this book is not about the success stories. It's a paean to the bunglers, the blockheads, and the just plain weird-Jews who were flung from small, impoverished eastern European towns into the urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw, where, as they say in Yiddish, their bread landed butter side down in the dirt. These marginal Jews may have found their way into the history books far less frequently than their more socially upstanding neighbors, but there's one place you can find them in force: in the Yiddish newspapers that had their heyday from the 1880s to the 1930s. Disaster, misery, and misfortune: you will find no better chronicle of the daily ignominies of urban Jewish life than in the pages of the Yiddish press.An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Bad Rabbi exposes the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With true stories plucked from the pages of the Yiddish papers, Eddy Portnoy introduces us to the drunks, thieves, murderers, wrestlers, poets, and beauty queens whose misadventures were immortalized in print. There's the Polish rabbi blackmailed by an American widow, mass brawls at weddings and funerals, a psychic who specialized in locating missing husbands, and violent gangs of Jewish mothers on the prowl-in short, not quite the Jews you'd expect. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

    This second volume in Library of America’s definitive edition of her collected essays gathers Under the Sign of Saturn (1980), AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989), Where the Stress Falls (2001), Regarding the Pain of Others (2003), and At the Same Time (2007), brilliant books in which Sontag did not merely comment on the cultural and political landscape, but helped shape it, solidifying her place as the most provocative and influential critic of her time.“You might say that she has diverted the mainstream,” Hillary Mantel has written. “Her private islands of thought now look like the territory on which we’ve always lived.” Sontag once observed how reading books in translation gave her, from an early age, a sense of literature as “mental travel.” Here is the extraordinary logbook of her literary adventures, scintillating examinations of the writers she most admired and championed: Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, Nadine Gordimer, Jorge Luis Borges, Antonin Artaud, Marina Tsvetaeva, W. G. Sebald, Elias Canetti, Machado de Assis, Halldór Laxness, Joseph Brodsky, and Robert Walser among them. The names alone reflect her passion for broadening the cultural frame of reference to encompass the whole world.Sontag writes with unwavering rigor and intensity,asking the most difficult questions and affirming a deep commitment to “extending our sense of what a human life can be,” as she said on accepting the Jerusalem Prize in 2000. In “Fascinating Fascism,” her incisive reading of the films of Leni Riefenstahl, she ponders the insidious allure of Fascist aesthetics. AIDS and Its Metaphors reckons with the HIV crisis through an elaboration of the central themes of her 1978 classic Illness as Metaphor. Regarding the Pain of Others extends her lifelong absorption with photography to explore the troubling moral issues surrounding visual depictions of violence, cruelty, and atrocity. In “A Century of Cinema” she evokes the time, only recently passed, when movies were experienced as “poetic and mysterious and erotic and moral—all at the same time.” “Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo,” an account of staging a production of Beckett’s play in a city under siege, becomes a meditation on the meaning of culture: “Culture, serious culture, is an expression of human dignity—which is what people in Sarajevo feel they have lost.”

    Harvey Belovski, Jewish Chronicle"A book to be read again and again."—Burton L. Visotzky, The Forward Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was the greatest rabbi of his time and one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today. Traditional sources tell how he was raised in poverty and unschooled in religious tradition but began to learn the Torah as an adult. In the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 C.E., he helped shape a new direction for Judaism through his brilliance and his character. Mystic, legalist, theologian, and interpreter, he disputed with his colleagues in dramatic fashion yet was admired and beloved by his peers. Executed by Roman authorities for his insistence on teaching Torah in public, he became the exemplar of Jewish martyrdom.   Drawing on the latest historical and literary scholarship, this book goes beyond older biographies, untangling a complex assortment of ancient sources to present a clear and nuanced portrait of Talmudic hero Rabbi Akiva.About Jewish Lives:  Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present. In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.More praise for Jewish Lives: "Excellent." –New York Times "Exemplary." –Wall Street Journal "Distinguished." –New Yorker "Superb." –The Guardian

    Possessing the rare ability to stare into the abyss of doubt with an unflinching gaze, Rabbi Shagar offers profound and often acutely personal insights that marry existentialist philosophy and Hasidism, Talmud and postmodernism.With a preface by Aryeh Rubin and an afterword by Rabbi Shalom Carmy. Edited by Rabbi Dr. Zohar Maor, Translated by Elie Leshem.Faith Shattered and Restored is the first authoritative attempt to introduce the English-speaking public to one of Israel's most creative and influential thinkers. These seminal essays set out a new path for preserving and cultivating Jewish spirituality in the twenty-first century and beyond.

     Few American college students who study abroad receive constant accusations of being a spy. But that’s what happens to Michael Bassin, enrolled for a semester exchange at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. When Michael, despite advice to the contrary, reveals his Jewish identity to his new classmates, students, faculty, and the secret police respond with shock and suspicion. In between visiting Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and northern India during breaks from class, Michael develops die-hard enemies and loyal allies on campus. He is thrown into the role of reluctant ambassador for the Jewish people, for America, and Israel as he responds to the conspiracies and threats made against him. Nevertheless, he finds his efforts to promote understanding are not in vain. As he develops genuine friendships, he sees the positive effects of face-to-face interaction with people who had never met a Jew before. But Michael’s fight for peace doesn’t end with his university experience. He moves to Israel and joins the Israeli army as a combat Arabic translator, becoming the face and voice of his unit during both friendly and hostile interactions with Palestinians in the West Bank. While enforcing an occupation about which he feels conflicted, Michael once again finds that person to person relationships provide the best path to peace in the Middle East.

    But can she create works of art as beautiful as the ones Grandma makes?

    

    Jewish cooks, even casual ones, are proud of the history of preserved foods in Jewish life, from the time of living in a desert two millennia ago, to the era in which Jews lived in European ghettoes with no refrigeration during the last century. In a significant sense, the Jewish tradition of preserved foods is a symbol of the Jewish will to survive.About 35 of the 75 recipes in The Joys of Jewish Preserving are for fruit jams and preserves, from Queen Esther's Apricot-Poppyseed Jam or Slow Cooker Peach Levkar to Quince Paste, Pear Butter, and Dried Fig, Apple, and Raisin Jam. About 30 are for pickles and other savory preserves, including Shakshuka, Pickled Carrots Two Ways, and Lacto-Fermented Kosher Dills. The remaining 10 recipes bear the tag "Use Your Preserves," and these cover some of the ways that preserves are used in holiday preparations, like Sephardic Date Charoset, Rugelach, or Hamantaschen.Many recipes are the author's own creations and have never appeared before in print or online. With terrific color photos by the Seattle photographer Leigh Olson, rich and detailed background info about Jewish food traditions, and, above all, with terrific and tasty recipes both sweet and savory, this book is a celebration of some of the best foods Jewish cooks have ever created.

    Zvi Grumet explores the Book of Genesis in search for answers to the fundamental questions of human existence: Who are we? Why are we here? What does God want from us and what can we expect of Him? Shuttling deftly back and forth between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic, Rabbi Grumet offers a sensitive verse-by-verse reading of the biblical text, occasionally stepping back to reveal the magnificent themes that underlie the narrative as a whole: Creation and God, mortality and sin, family and covenant. Ambitious in scope and meticulous in execution, Genesis: From Creation to Covenant presents a remarkably original interpretation of the Book of Genesis and the Divine quest at its heart – the quest for a meaningful relationship with humankind.

    This book looks at the kind of antisemitism which is tolerated or which goes unacknowledged in apparently democratic spaces: trade unions, churches, left-wing and liberal politics, the social gatherings of the chattering classes and the seminars and journals of the radical intellectuals. It analyses how criticism of Israel can mushroom into antisemitism and it looks at struggles over how antisemitism is defined. It focuses on ways in which those who raise the issue of antisemitism are often accused of doing so in bad faith for nationalist reasons. Hostility to Zionism has become a language in which opposition to imperialism, to neo-liberalism and to global capitalism is articulated and so it sets up a toxic way of imagining most Jews.Weaving together theoretical discussion with case study narrative in an engaging and interesting way, this book is a global study which is essential reading for scholars working in sociology, politics, Middle East studies, Israel studies, Jewish studies, philosophy, anthropology, journalism and history, as well as anyone interested in current affairs and politics.

    This volume offers readers a thought-provoking collection of essays by rabbis, cantors, and other scholars who differ, sometimes passionately, over religious practice, experience, and belief. Its goal is to situate Judaism in a contemporary context, and it is uniquely suited for community discussion as well as study groups.

    There were three children in the Rozenblum family — Rose, Felix, and Maria. Fela and Rose became best friends, while Felix kept his distance. Five years later, Fela and Felix discovered that they liked each other, and soon became sweethearts.When war broke out not long after, the Jews of Lodz found themselves under German occupation, and were soon forced into a ghetto. For Fela and her family, and her community, it was the start of a descent into hell. Fela eventually survived the ghetto, forced labour in Germany, and then the last 17 months of Auschwitz’s existence and the death march out of it.For Felix, the Germans’ intentions were crystal clear. Late in November 1939, as a 17-year-old, he decided to flee eastward, to Soviet-controlled Polish territory. He begged his family to come with him, but they felt unable to. Felix spent the war doing forced labour in the Soviet Union, often in very harsh conditions.After the war, miraculously, Fela and Felix found each other. None of Fela’s family had survived. Of Felix’s immediate family, only his two sisters had survived — and they were now in Sweden. The young couple were bereft and alone. This is their story.

    With over a million and a half copies sold, Jews, God and History introduced readers to “the fascinating reasoning” of acclaimed scholar Max I. Dimont’s “bright and unorthodox mind” (San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle). In these three volumes, Dimont builds on the themes and insights presented in that seminal work, providing a rich and comprehensive portrait of the cultural and religious history of the Jewish people.  The Indestructible Jews traces the four-thousand-year journey of the Jewish people from an ancient tribe with a simple faith to a global religion with adherents in every nation. Through countless expulsions and migrations, the great tragedy of the Holocaust and the joy of founding a homeland in Israel, this compelling history evokes a proud heritage while offering a hopeful vision of the future.  The Jews in America offers an overview of Judaism in the United States from colonial times to twentieth-century Zionism. Dimont follows the various waves of immigration, recounts the cultural achievements of those who escaped oppression in their native lands, and discusses the attitudes of American Jews—both religious and secular—toward Israel.  Appointment in Jerusalem explores the mystery surrounding the predictions Jesus made about his fate. Dimont re-creates the drama in three acts using his knowledge of the events recorded in the Bible. Thoughtful and fascinating, his account offers fresh insights into questions that have surrounded religion for centuries. Who was Jesus—the Christian messiah or a member of a Jewish sect?

    Striking workers clash with police…illness and injury lurk around every corner…and twelve-year-old Addie must find her way through it all. Torn between her gruff Papa—who owns a hat shop and thinks the workers should be content with their American lives—and her beloved Uncle Chaim—who is active in the protests for the eight-hour day—Addie struggles to understand her topsy-turvy world, while also keeping her family intact. Set in a Jewish neighborhood of Chicago during the days surrounding the Haymarket Affair, this novel vividly portrays one immigrant family’s experience, while also eloquently depicting the timeless conflict between the haves and the have-nots.

    Yet even though the Holy Day is approaching, Rabbi Aviva Cohen rushes off to Boston to be at the bedside of her mother, who was found unconscious in her apartment at an assisted living facility. The big question is: was it an accident or an attack? The search for the truth uncovers everything from old grudges to family secrets to fraud - and possibly murder.

    Published in 1960 under the Hebrew title Aish Kodesh, the notes of Rabbi Shapira’s weekly Sabbath sermons and annotations have been studied by pious Hasidim and secular academics alike, seeking his answers to the searing theological questions posed by the war. Why do the righteous suffer? Where was God during the Holocaust? Torah from the Years of Wrath provides a new and essential scholarly contribution by placing Rabbi Shapira’s writings in their immediate historical context. Using a wide variety of primary sources, Abramson situates the sermons within the daily experience of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, demonstrating that Rabbi Shapira’s often enigmatic discourses contained veiled messages—opaque to later readers, but readily understood by his congregants at the time—that related directly to the traumatic events endured by his Hasidim. Abramson’s reconstruction of the micro-history of the Ghetto reveals that Rabbi Shapira’s work represents a sustained act of spiritual heroism, helping his followers place their individual tragedies within the cosmic meta-history of the Jewish people, as expressed in the Torah itself. Torah from the Years of Wrath provides a new and essential scholarly contribution by placing Rabbi Shapira’s writings in their immediate historical context. Using a wide variety of primary sources in Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish and German, Abramson situates the sermons within the daily experience of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, demonstrating that Rabbi Shapira’s often enigmatic discourses contained veiled messages—opaque to later readers, but readily understood by his congregants at the time—that related directly to the traumatic events endured by his Hasidim. Abramson’s reconstruction of the micro-history of the Ghetto reveals that Rabbi Shapira’s work represents a sustained act of spiritual heroism, helping his followers place their individual tragedies within the cosmic meta-history of the Jewish people, as expressed in the Torah itself. "Extraordinary." Rabbi Moshe Weinberger "A groundbreaking study, a great achievement and a major contribution." Dr. Daniel Reiser

    Many of these stories are published here for the first time, while others are more complete versions of the popular weekly Here's My Story publication. With incredible insight and sensitivity, the Rebbe's wisdom and sensitivity shine an unexpected ray of hope in the face of challenge and adversity. The outcomes have a transformational impact on the lives of the storytellers, and are sure to do the same for you.

    I recommend it to everyone.” Rabbi Mark S. Golub, JBS TV, jbstv.orgTHE LOST ARTIST1934: a 13-year-old Jewish boy escapes Nazi Germany to become the highest decorated WWII Palestinian (future Israeli) soldier in the British Army.2010: a top Israeli computer scientist searches for the favorite artist of her youth. From the rise of the Nazi Party through the formation of the State of Israel, across a sea of time to present day, their worlds collide inLOVE PASSION WAR.PART 1(BASED ON A TRUE STORY)PART 1 ends in North Africa, July 3, 1942, El Alamein, when the Nazis had won the war, they just didn’t know it. It had taken sixty years, but a top Israeli computer scientist, racing against time, finally discovered the identity of the illustrator of “the pearl of Israeli children’s literature,” And There Was Evening, a bestseller and timeless classic, now in its 42nd edition. The celebrated, but unknown, artist was Fred Hausman, who also happened to be the highest decorated WWII Palestinian soldier in the British Army, the only one to earn the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM), the highest gallantry award for a non-British citizen in the British Army, making it the most important WWII medal to Israel.The present and the past collide in The Lost Artist: Love Passion War (Part 1) written by Fred Hausman’s son, Eric Hausman-Houston. The Israeli researcher’s quest to find her favorite illustrator serves as a present-day backdrop to tell Fred Hausman’s harrowing story of escaping Nazi Germany at age thirteen and traveling alone to Palestine. There, he befriended an untamable horse, King Abdullah of Jordan, along with many other Arabs and joins the Haganah to help save illegal Jewish immigrants. The Lost Artist chronicles Hausman’s time in the British Army up until the decisive moment of WWII’s North Africa Campaign; July 3, 1942, the El Alamein line, 65 miles west of Alexandria, Egypt, when the Nazis won the war but just didn’t know it. Fred Hausman’s journey offers personal insight into the history of Palestine and Israel, the rise of the Nazi Party, Zionism, the Holocaust, WWII, and the seeds of our present day Middle East Crisis. The Lost Artist exposes neglected history and government coverups, including British atrocities in Palestine to both Arabs and Jews, why Winston Churchill had to perpetuate the Rommel myth, and how German resistance working at a Berlin radio station gave their lives to stop the Nazis from winning the war.Fred Hausman’s Distinguished Conduct Medal was unlawfully sold to a British lord under false terms. At the end of the book, there is a bonus chapter with information on these seedy misdoings, followed by documentation of Eric Hausman-Houston’s correspondence with Scotland Yard, the British Ministry of Defense, DNW Auction House, and billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, who is currently in possession of the stolen medal.All proceeds from The Lost Artist will go to reuniting Fred Hausman’s Distinguished Conduct Medal, and other medals stolen from within the British Ministry of Defense, with their rightful owners. The Hausman medals will then be donated to an orphanage in Israel so that they may sell the Hausman medals to a museum.

    Candid, incisive, and passionate, he was fiercely devoted to G-d, Torah, and the Jewish people -- every single one of them.Rav Noach's most famous and impactful course in reaching Jews was the 48 Ways to Wisdom. Tens of thousands of Jews from all walks of life have benefited from Rav Noach's groundbreaking series.The Mishnah describes 48 essential tools to acquire Torah. Rav Noach taught these 48 Ways as all-encompassing guidelines to achieving success in every facet of our lives.Rav Noach used these 48 ways to show: How to listen effectivelyHow to achieve understanding of ourselvesHow to harness the power of awe and capture the "wow" in lifeHow to maximize timeThe secret to peace of mindThe power of joyNow, for the first time ever, Rav Noach's 48 Ways to Wisdom is available in print. In these pages, you will hear his beloved voice - funny, direct, and above all, exceptionally wise.

    Written by Jewish poet and liturgist Alden Solovy, the collection provides nearly 100 readings, spanning topics from the simple delights of daily living to the complexities of grief; from the celebration of major turning points like bar and bat mitzvah to the more solemn commemoration of lost lives and ended relationships; and from the awe-filled moments of the High Holy Days to the observance of secular holidays. For clergy, this collection offers supplementary material for use in services and life cycle rituals; for the individual, this collection can serve as a way to give voice to the joys and sorrows of everyday life.

    Written in lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of mystical literature, comprising over twenty sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of mystical interpretation of the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy.The ninth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition completes this running commentary on the Torah. Rabbi Shim'on and his Companions explore passages from the middle of the book of Numbers through the end of Deuteronomy. Among the remarkable sections is Rav Metivta, an account of a visionary journey by Rabbi Shim'on and some of the Companions to the Garden of Eden, where they discover secrets of the afterlife. Later in the volume appears the story of the Yanuqa (Child)—a wunderkind-and-enfant-terrible who amazes and teases, challenges and stumps the rabbis.Near the very end of the Zohar on the Torah comes the remarkable section known as Idra Zuta (The Small Assembly). This dramatic narrative describes the last gathering of Rabbi Shim'on and the Companions before his death. Here the master reveals profound mysteries of divine being, and then departs from this world to unite ecstatically with the Divine Feminine, Shekhinah. Before departing, Rabbi Shim'on invites all of the Companions to his wedding celebration above.

    Shari Rabin recounts the journey of Jewish people as they left Eastern cities and ventured into the American West and South during the nineteenth century. It brings to life the successes and obstacles of these travels, from the unprecedented economic opportunities to the anonymity and loneliness that complicated the many legal obligations of traditional Jewish life. Without government-supported communities or reliable authorities, where could one procure kosher meat? Alone in the American wilderness, how could one find nine co-religionists for a minyan (prayer quorum)? Without identity documents, how could one really know that someone was Jewish?Rabin argues that Jewish mobility during this time was pivotal to the development of American Judaism. In the absence of key institutions like synagogues or charitable organizations which had played such a pivotal role in assimilating East Coast immigrants, ordinary Jews on the frontier created religious life from scratch, expanding and transforming Jewish thought and practice.Jews on the Frontier vividly recounts the story of a neglected era in American Jewish history, offering a new interpretation of American religions, rooted not in congregations or denominations, but in the politics and experiences of being on the move. This book shows that by focusing on everyday people, we gain a more complete view of how American religion has taken shape. This book follows a group of dynamic and diverse individuals as they searched for resources for stability, certainty, and identity in a nation where there was little to be found.

    This book provides an extensive and intensive examination of those principles.

    However little known the feelings or views of the single in question is unimportant—nor is it vital to determine if she already has family acting on her behalf: she is single, therefore, they must do their duty by her and see her to the chupah." The Jewish community of Boxton, Vermont has a problem. Six problems, actually. Their names are Ariella, Yocheved, Shuli, Batsheva, Malca Dina and Liora. These young women aren't getting any younger. Fortunately, the local yeshiva high school has just hired an eligible bachelor to serve as dorm counselor--and he's brought a friend along. Could it be that Boxton's dating crisis is over? Join the young women of Boxton as they navigate the highs and lows of traditional Jewish dating in this retelling of Jane Austen's classic novel.

    It's always too easy to find! So this year, Rachel decides to take over. She finds the perfect hiding spot and creates a series of clues for her cousins to follow. Can you guess where the hunt will lead them?-- "Journal"

    The new book The Last Witnesses tells the powerful stories behind several dozen artifacts from the Museum's collection. These items show what happened in one of the darkest chapters of human history and help us recognize that the Holocaust took place in a world not unlike our own and could occur again if we do not heed the lessons of the past."

    To examine the linguistic traces of this contact we first retrace the background of Jewish immigration to the United States and present a history of Yiddish as a “contact language”. We then proceed to the diachronic, synchronic and sociolinguistic analysis of Yiddish features in American English as expressed by the New York Ashkenazi Jewish people. Our primary sources are of four different types and cover a time span of sixty years: shops signs, books, articles from The Forward in English; extensive extracts from American Jewish websites and forums. In these sources we examine the lexical, morphological and syntactic features characterizing the presence of Yiddish in American English. When we study the evolution which took place in the last sixty years regarding Yiddish and its presence in American English, our conclusion, when making the link between this data and the sociological determiners involved, is that after a period of assimilation and fading, we witness today the revival of Yiddish words features in American English, especially morphological ones; the ethnic/ religious commitment of a young generation of “connected” observant Jews brings about a modified American English compared to the previous generation.

    Little do they know, the dragon is watching Vasily's expert domination, and he likes what he sees! This story features a sentient but not human narrator.

    Starting with the core components of Peoplehood, and ending with his ideas about the future of the Jewish People.

    Don't know what those things are? Read the book!

    In the first-ever biography of Weil, Leonard Rogoff tells the story of a modest southern Jewish woman who, while famously private, fought publicly and passionately for the progressive causes of her age. Born to a prominent family in Goldsboro, North Carolina, Weil never married and there remained ensconced--in many ways a proper southern lady--for nearly a century. From her hometown, she fought for women's suffrage, founded her state's League of Women Voters, pushed for labor reform and social welfare, and advocated for world peace. Weil made national headlines during an election in 1922 when, casting her vote, she spotted and ripped up a stack of illegally marked ballots. She campaigned against lynching, convened a biracial council in her home, and in her eighties desegregated a swimming pool by diving in headfirst. Rogoff also highlights Weil's place in the broader Jewish American experience. Whether attempting to promote the causes of southern Jewry, save her European family members from the Holocaust, or support the creation of a Jewish state, Weil fought for systemic change, all the while insisting that she had not done much beyond the ordinary duty of any citizen.

    When the Nazis came to power, the wide-eyed boy and his family found themselves living a twentieth-century version of that exodus, escaping oppression and persecution in Germany for Cuba and ultimately a life of freedom and happiness in the United States. Behrend's childhood came to a crashing end with Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) and his father's harrowing internment at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. But he would not be defined by these harrowing circumstances. Behrend would go on to experience brushes with history involving the defeated Germans. By the age of twenty, he had run a POW camp full of Nazis, been an instructor in a program aimed at denazifying specially selected prisoners, and been assigned by the U.S. Army to watch over Wernher von Braun, the designer of the V-2 rocket that terrorized Europe and later chief architect of the Saturn V rocket that sent Americans to the moon. Behrend went from a sheltered life of wealth in a long-gone, old-world Germany, dwelling in the gilded compound once belonging to the manufacturer of the zeppelin airships, to a poor Jewish immigrant in New York City learning English from Humphrey Bogart films. Upon returning from service in the U.S. Army, he rose out of poverty, built a successful business in Manhattan, and returned to visit Germany a dozen times, giving him unique perspective into Germany's attempts to surmount its Nazi past.

    He accidentally discovers that the city’s most prominent Klan minister, his girlfriend’s father, is having an affair with the Orthodox rabbi. Donny, his girlfriend and his black prostitute friend, her war hero minister lover, and a cast of only-in-the South characters collude, by choice or blackmail, to free his hero.

    This is my story, woven from the threads of rumour and legend.Jakub Rand flees his village for Prague, only to find himself trapped by the Nazi occupation. Deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, he is forced to sort through Jewish books for a so-called Museum of the Extinct Race. Hidden among the rare texts is a tattered prayer book, hollow inside, containing a small pile of dirt.Back in the city, Františka Roubíčková picks over the embers of her failed marriage, despairing of her conversion to Judaism. When the Nazis summon her two eldest daughters for transport, she must sacrifice everything to save the girls from certain death.Decades later, Bram Presser embarks on a quest to find the truth behind the stories his family built around these remarkable survivors.The Book of Dirt is a completely original novel about love, family secrets, and Jewish myths. And it is a heart-warming story about a grandson’s devotion to the power of storytelling and his family’s legacy.

    As an adult, he used thought experiments to solve some of the universe's greatest mysteries. Einstein loved to think about math and science. He worked for a while at a patent office, but his mind wasn't focused on inventions. Instead, he thought about the universe. In 1905, Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity solved questions that scientists had grappled with for hundreds of years. Learn how Einstein's imagination became a powerful tool that helped him understand the nature of space and time.

    Some skeptics have even sought to debunk the very idea that the Jews have a common origin. In this book, Steven Weitzman takes a learned and lively look at what we know--or think we know--about where the Jews came from, when they arose, and how they came to be.Scholars have written hundreds of books on the topic and come up with scores of explanations, theories, and historical reconstructions, but this is the first book to trace the history of the different approaches that have been applied to the question, including genealogy, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and genetics. Weitzman shows how this quest has been fraught since its inception with religious and political agendas, how anti-Semitism cast its long shadow over generations of learning, and how recent claims about Jewish origins have been difficult to disentangle from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He does not offer neatly packaged conclusions but invites readers on an intellectual adventure, shedding new light on the assumptions and biases of those seeking answers--and the challenges that have made finding answers so elusive.Spanning more than two centuries and drawing on the latest findings, The Origin of the Jews brings needed clarity and historical context to this enduring and often divisive topic.

    It is told through actual diary entries and letters, spanning through the 60's, 70's, and 80's.This groundbreaking book will not only help those with eating disorders, but anyone with an addiction or doubt about their faith - no matter the culture, race, or religion. The reader will also get to share in this Harvard grad's growing appreciation of the vital role of mothers. Welcome to a transformative experience that speaks to our souls, nurturing the beauty in each of us.

    Comprising 15 percent of the settler population today, these immigrants have established major communities, transformed domestic politics and international relations, and committed shocking acts of terrorism. They demand attention in both Israel and the United States, but little is known about who they are and why they chose to leave America to live at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.In this deeply researched, engaging work, Sara Yael Hirschhorn unsettles stereotypes, showing that the 1960s generation who moved to the occupied territories were not messianic zealots or right-wing extremists but idealists engaged in liberal causes. They did not abandon their progressive heritage when they crossed the Green Line. Rather, they saw a historic opportunity to create new communities to serve as a beacon a city on a hilltop to Jews across the globe. This pioneering vision was realized in their ventures at Yamit in the Sinai and Efrat and Tekoa in the West Bank. Later, the movement mobilized the rhetoric of civil rights to rebrand itself, especially in the wake of the 1994 Hebron massacre perpetrated by Baruch Goldstein, one of their own.On the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 war, Hirschhorn illuminates the changing face of the settlements and the clash between liberal values and political realities at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

    However, in The Invention of Judaism, John J. Collins persuasively argues this was not always the case. The Torah became the touchstone for most of Judaism’s adherents only in the hands of the rabbis of late antiquity. For 600 years prior, from the Babylonian Exile to the Roman destruction of the Second Temple, there was enormous variation in the way the Torah was understood. Collins provides a comprehensive account of the role of the Torah in ancient Judaism, exploring key moments in its history, beginning with the formation of Deuteronomy and continuing through the Maccabean revolt and the rise of Jewish sectarianism and early Christianity.

    For Fress, her melting pot of inspiration embraces Poland and Russia, Jewish recipes learned from her mother, travels in Israel, Egypt, Jordan and North Africa, as well as Algerian recipes shared by her mother-in-law. Recipes in Fress range from Slow-cooked Moroccan Chutney to Duck with Black Za'atar & Puy Lentils, Baharat Spiced Chicken to Apricot & Orange Blossom Frangipane - recipes that are packed with punchy flavours and delicous spices. Family recipes are included too, from Grandpa 'Bugga's' Turkey Schnitzel and Aunty Rochele's Cabbage Salad to Mummy's Golden Chicken Soup. Big on flavour and spice, Fress is full of happy, sociable food to feed the soul.

    But this year, Grandpa is sick and can't lead the seder like he always does. Jessica knows Passover won't be the same. But maybe she can find a way to include Grandpa in the seder--and make the holiday as joyful as ever.-- "Journal"

    Many see themselves primarily as Turks and only then as Jews, while some believe quite the opposite. Some deny there are any expressions of antisemitism in Turkey while others would call it xenophobia and would claim that the other non-Muslim communities in Turkey share the same antagonism.'Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism in Turkey' provides a comprehensive history of the extent of antisemitism in Turkey, from the time of the Ottomans, through the establishing of the Turkish Republic, and up to recent times and the AK Party. It also provides an in-depth analysis of the effect of Israeli military operations on antisemitism, from the Second Lebanon War in 2006 to Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Much emphasis is given to the last decade, as scholars and local Jews assert that antisemitism has increased during this period. An illustrated overview of antisemitism in Turkish media, covering newspapers, books, entertainment, and education, is provided. The book also analyses Turkish society's attitude towards Jews in contrast with other minorities, and examines how the other minorities see the Jews according to their experience with Turkish society and government.A unique poll, data collected from personal interviews and the use of both Turkish and Israeli research resources, all help to provide a fresh insight into antisemitism in Turkey. This book will therefore be a key resource for students and scholars of antisemitism and anti-zionism studies, Turkish Studies and Middle East Studies.

    This powerful collection, woven together by the common thread of resistance, features a wide variety of narrative styles, including prose, poetry and diary excerpts.

    No man will take a wife who towers head and shoulders above him. She lives in isolation with her father, until she is discovered by the Philistine priests. They betroth her to Goliath, to give him warrior sons. What happens when Nara's fate collides with that of David, who is destined to face Goliath in combat, will forever transform how you experience this pivotal moment in the Bible... Boorstin reimagines David s dangerous path from shepherd to charismatic leader, interweaving his life not only with Nara's, but with key Biblical characters including King Saul, and Saul's daughter Michal, who will later become David s wife. While faithful to the spirit of the Bible, Boorstin reads between the lines of the ancient narrative to bring immediacy, relevance and even greater meaning to the life of the young Israelite who would become the most beloved character in the Old Testament. David and the Philistine Woman combines exciting storytelling and rich characters to fashion an unforgettable epic.

    But as she helps the people in her neighborhood, she is soon so busy saving the world that she doesn't have time for her own family! It turns out, though, that the greatest acts of tikkun olam--repairing the world--start in her own home.

    Except she drives a light rail train, and today is a special day. It's Israel's Independence Day! Arielle works all day taking people to their holiday destinations--but how will Arielle celebrate? Her brother Ezra, a pilot in the Israeli Air Force, has something special in mind.

    In this story, a young boy and his family move to the desert Southwest where they are the only Jewish family in their small town. Despite keeping busy with chores, adapting to their new home among strangers proves challenging. Every Shabbat, Mama complains that there is "too much soup, not enough family." The young boy has an idea to help relieve Mama's homesickness and invites their new neighbors for Shabbat dinner. By honoring the Jewish value of inviting guests into their home for a meal, the family creates a sense of community in their new town.

    Supreme Court: Louis D. Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Goldberg, Abe Fortas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Elena Kagan.David Dalin discusses the relationship that these Jewish justices have had with the presidents who appointed them, and given the judges’ Jewish background, investigates the antisemitism some of the justices encountered in their ascent within the legal profession before their appointment, as well as the role that antisemitism played in the attendant political debates and Senate confirmation battles.Other topics and themes include the changing role of Jews within the American legal profession and the views and judicial opinions of each of the justices on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the death penalty, the right to privacy, gender equality, and the rights of criminal defendants, among other issues.

    In a collection of insightful, poignant, and often humorous essays, Lapid takes on the topics that have shaped his country: the conflict with the Palestinians, anti-Semitism, terrorism, and the legacy of the Holocaust.A popular newspaper columnist and TV host before he entered politics, Lapid for the first time shares with American readers the tough-minded but hopeful vision that won over so many voters, bringing a calm, levelheaded voice to topics usually dominated by vitriol and denunciation. A fervent secularist who attends synagogue, Lapid addresses hot-button issues such as the role of religion in Israeli society. A devoted father with a passion for history, Lapid also reflects on the personal and family milestones that reflect Israel’s differences from other countries, such as watching his oldest son join the army and seeing four generations attend the same Passover seder.Lapid assesses his country’s greatest accomplishments and most horrific failures, its miraculous survival and the gathering threats it faces, the burdens of the past and reasons to think a bright future lies ahead.

    But music also reaches horizontally across our social fractures and dogmas and connect us one with the other. Just as it cuts the nonsense away from our hearts, music opens our ears so that we can listen to the subtle nuances and sacred whispers of the world around us. In every moment, music encourages us to ask ourselves: Can we hear the songs that are already being sung by all of creation? In The Torah of Music, Joey Weisenberg brings together a comprehensive collection of 180 curated texts from the Jewish musical-spiritual imagination. In the first half, Weisenberg reflects on ancient texts alongside stories from his life as a musician. In the second half, Weisenberg presents a bilingual 'open library' of traditional texts on the subject of music and song, garnered from over three thousand years of Jewish history, to open up the world of Jewish musical thought to all who are willing to join the song"--front flap.

    This book covers the peak of the USSR's direct military involvement in the Egyptian-Israeli conflict. The head-on clash between US-armed Israeli forces and some 20,000 Soviet servicemen with state-of-the-art weaponry turned the Middle East into the hottest front of the Cold War. The Soviets' success in this war of attrition paved the way for their planning and support of Egypt's cross-canal offensive in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Ginor and Remez challenge a series of long-accepted notions as to the scope, timeline and character of the Soviet intervention and overturn the conventional view that détente with the US induced Moscow to restrainthat a US-Moscow detente led to a curtailment of Egyptian ambitions to recapture of the land it lost to Israel in 1967. Between this analytical rethink and the introduction of an entirely new genre of sources--memoirs and other publications by Soviet veterans themselves--The Soviet-Israeli War paves the way for scholars to revisit this pivotal moment in world history.

     This is a guidebook with over 70 pages filled with easy explanations, examples and lots of practice activities, to help anyone to learn pronounce the Hebrew Nikud with no hassle. Learn to recognize and pronounce the Kamatz | Patach | Hiriq | Segol | Tzere | Holam | Shva | Dagesh and other signs which are essential to be able to read Hebrew properly. 'Ivrit' Vowels Made Easy - No complicated rules, no deep grammar, just the straight forward things you need to know to be able to read Hebrew with the vowels and get it right. Best for those who know the Hebrew Aleph-Bet letters, but can't read words and pronounce the words correctly. Who Can Use This Book? Boys learning for Bar Mitzva, need to practice how to read Hebrew. Christians who learn the Holy Bible, can use this book. For kids and grownups, for teachers or students, for those who plan to visit Israel and wish to be able to read Hebrew alphabet more fluently.

    A family and their adorable dog celebrate the kid-friendly holiday of Tu B'Shevat, the birthday of trees!

    Twenty-eight-year old Andrew Whelan is happy to oblige. But when one night becomes a weekend, and a weekend turns into a relationship, Sabrina knows she's in trouble. Because Sabrina's desire for Andrew is rivaled only by her desire for a child. And the responsibility of fatherhood is something Andrew definitely does not want. Sure, Andrew's young, and maybe he'll change his mind . . . in time. But time is the one thing Sabrina cannot give him. Her clock is ticking and forcing her to choose--the love of her life or motherhood. With colorful characters, pitch-perfect dialogue, razor-sharp observations, and her signature wit, Beth Orsoff crafts a modern love story for every grown-up who's ever fallen for a Peter Pan.