Resources recently added to the Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Community Learning Center. http://www.cbict.org/lifelonglearning/library.html Resources recently added to the Ellen Jeanne Goldfarb Community Learning Center. http://www.cbict.org/lifelonglearning/library.html 1175 Twelve-year-old Reyna Li isn't psychic, although sometimes it seems that way. She has an uncanny ability to see people's hearts through their body language. Reyna's gift has helped her father, Yehuda – a leader in Old China's Jewish community – become a successful trader, but it has also alienated Reyna from her friends. When the mysterious Mr. Virat makes Yehuda an offer he can't refuse, Reyna's intuition leads her into a daring rescue attempt in the desert hundreds of miles from home. Join Reyna as she discovers and rediscovers herself, the blessings of the mother she never knew, and the true meaning of being Jewish. http://www.librarything.com/work/6353152/book/62240701 1662 In Hebrew, her name means 'rose' - but Shoshana Levy has never seen one. Not even in Brazil, from where she and 22 other "secret Jews" fled, before getting raided by pirates, stranded on an island, and eventually becoming the first Jews to permanently settle in America despite overwhelming odds. Eight years later, Shoshana stumbles upon a wild rose bush - a seemingly mundane event, but one that dramatically shapes her future. Join Shoshana as her budding friendship with an Indian girl reveals hidden biases, plunges her into danger, and spreads the light of Judaism where cultures collide. http://www.librarything.com/work/10171765/book/62240730 1914 When 10-year-old Miriam Bloom and her sisters learn they are finally joining their father in America, they are overjoyed. The pogroms against their little Russian shtetl have grown more frequent and destructive. But when they finally arrive on Ellis Island, the Bloom girls and their mother are greeted by a tragedy that threatens to banish them immediately back to Russia. Inspired by actual events, Miriam's extraordinary journey from the Old World to the New demonstrates how Jewish values restore hope and strength to her family. http://www.librarything.com/work/7737533/book/62240713 Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide. In other words, Christopher Hitchens contains multitudes. He sees all sides of an argument. And he believes the personal is political. This is the story of his life, lived large. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/62190238 This powerful, emotionally wrenching story opens in Jerusalem one steamy September when three Americans, unknown to each other, seek personal salvation in a foreign land. Yona Stern longs to make amends with her estranged sister who lives in a radical Jewish settlement. Mark Greenglass, a Talmud teacher, has inexplicably lost his once fierce devotion to Orthodox Judaism and now wonders if he’s done with God. Enter Aaron Blinder, an unstable college dropout whose famous father endlessly—some say obsessively—mines the Holocaust for his best-selling, melodramatic novels. In a sweeping, beautifully written story of the lengths to which we will go in search of spiritual fulfillment, Joan Leegant weaves together the stories of three lives in the grip of a volatile, demanding faith, and ultimately bound together by a tragic act of violence. Haunting and wise, Wherever You Go is a gripping and prescient debut novel. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/62190228 The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd's wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva-and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed and old passions are reawakened. Then Jen delivers the clincher: she's pregnant. This Is Where I Leave You is Jonathan Tropper's most accomplished work to date, and a riotously funny, emotionally raw novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind-whether we like it or not. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372575/book/62162643 Piri is a city girl, but every year she goes to visit her grandmother Babi on her farm in the Ukrainian village of Komjaty. There is a lot that Piri finds strange, even scary, in Komjaty, such as the ghost in the form of a rooster who supposedly haunts the cemetery! But Piri loves country life: making corn bread, eating plums right off the tree, venturing out with her grandmother in the early morning to hunt for mushrooms. And during her time with Babi, Piri learns lessons that will stay with her all of her life, about the importance of honest hard work, of caring for the less fortunate, and of having the courage to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. In these nine stories, Aranka Siegal paints a tender portrait of the love between a grandmother and granddaughter, inspired by her own experiences with her grandmother. http://www.librarything.com/work/5293716/61268792 Diving for sea urchins at the bottom of the frigid sea, marine biologist David Ginsburg brings Hanukkah to Antarctica with a most unusual holiday celebration. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61269276 It is 1595, and the rabbi’s son Jacob is frustrated with having to live in the walled ghetto known as Jewish Town. Why can’t he venture outside of the gates and explore the beautiful city? His father warns him that Passover is a dangerous time to be a Jew and that the people from outside accuse the Jews of dreadful deeds. But one night, Jacob follows his father and two companions as they unlock the ghetto gates and proceed to the river, where they mold a human shape from the mud of the riverbank. When the rabbi speaks strange words, the shape is infused with life and the Golem of Prague is born. In this breathtaking retelling of a timeless tale, Irene N. Watts’s beautiful words are complemented by the haunting black-and-white images of artist Kathryn E. Shoemaker. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61268975 When all the people in the world spoke one language, life was convenient, but boring. So the townsfolk in the Valley of Shinar decided to build a tower. As they reached the heavens, and congratulated themselves on their achievement, thunder and lightning struck. Suddenly people could no longer understand one another. They could only babble. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61268885 It's the first night of Hanukkah, and the mouse family secretly looks on as Mr. Silman lights the first Hanukkah candle. Then they watch Rachel Silman open a gift from her family, a beautiful dollhouse with a wraparound porch and tiny lace curtains. Just the right size for us, whispers Mindy Mouse. While the Silmans are asleep, the mouse family explores the dollhouse. On each night of the holiday, they enjoy the small pieces of furniture and dishes of food that magically appear. Finally, on the eighth night of Hanukkah, a small miracle occurs, showcased nicely in Michelle Shapiro's colorful gouache illustrations. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61268865 An Egyptian-Jewish Under the Tuscan Sun, Dream Homes chronicles Joyce Zonana’s quest to find a sense of home among people, foods, and places as far from her native Cairo as Oklahoma and Katrina-stricken New Orleans. After the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, newlyweds Felix and Nellie Zonana flee Cairo with their infant daughter Joyce, ending up in Brooklyn. Growing up, Joyce swiftly realizes that her Jewish family and their Egyptian culture are neither typically American nor typically American-Jewish; they eat kobeba instead of kugel and speak French instead of Yiddish. Struggling with her feelings of isolation from other Americans and frustrated by never getting full access to Egyptian-Jewish culture, Zonana strikes out on a life-long journey to find her place in the world. She meets her extended family living in Colombia and Brazil and travels to Cairo to get a glimpse of her parents’ past. After she and her mother survive the devastation of Katrina, Zonana comes to see that “home” is not a location, but a spiritual state of mind. Zonana’s heritage and quest are also evoked in numerous photos and family recipes. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61269217 This JPS ethics series confronts some of the most critical moral issues of our time In the newest addition to the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices series, co-editors Elliot Dorff and Danya Ruttenberg have brought together a diverse group of Jews to comment on how Judaism affects their views and actions regarding sex. Contributors range from adult movie actor Ron Jeremy, to renowned feminist scholar Martha Ackelsberg, to noted writer and blogger Esther Kustanowitz, as well as rabbis, doctors, social workers, and activists. They discuss issues of monogamy, honesty, and communication in dating and marriage; testing for and disclosure of STDs; abortion, sex education, sex work, and sexuality. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61269231 "Hear O Israel, the Eternal is Our God, the Eternal is One!" There is arguably no more important statement in Judaism than the Sh'ma. Its words--calling us to hear, to listen, to pay attention--defy direct translation and have meant different things throughout history. In a deeply personal exploration of this sacred proclamation, command and prayer, Rabbi Joseph Meszler delves into the spiritual history of the Sh'ma, inspiring you to claim your own personal meaning in these enduring words. By examining how the Sh'ma has been commented upon by ancient sages and contemporary thinkers, he opens the doors between each generation that has found a different dimension of truth in the Sh'ma. Each chapter focuses on a major historical figure and includes a sacred story, an exploration into the story's many meanings and a suggestion for a new way of "hearing" the voice in the story. Experience the Sh'ma through the lives of: * Moses--Fighting Idolatry * Akiba ben Joseph--The Sages Offer Their Lives * Saaida Gaon--Proving the One * Moses Maimonides--Nothing Like God * Haim Vital--Communing with the One * Moses Haim Luzzatto-- "Master of the Universe" * Abraham Isaac Kook--A Nation Reborn * Leo Baeck--One Moral Standard * Abraham Joshua Heschel--A Prophecy: "One World or No World" http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61269268 Rebecca loves everything about summer camp, but making friends turns out to be harder than she expected. What secret is her bunkmate hiding--and why? When camp pranks start getting out of hand and a girl goes missing, Rebecca is determined to find out what's really going on at Camp Nokomis. At the end of the story, the Looking Back section provides interesting facts about summer camps in Rebecca's time. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/61269241 Halter returns with a remarkable tale, based on truth, of the little-known crusade by a 16C Jew to marshal support for a Jewish state, 4 centuries before the creation of modern-day Israel. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592642160/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 In May of 1939 the Cuban government turned away the Hamburg-America Line’s MS St. Louis, which carried more than 900 hopeful Jewish refugees escaping Nazi Germany. The passengers subsequently sought safe haven in the United States, but were rejected once again, and the St. Louis had to embark on an uncertain return voyage to Europe. Finally, the St. Louis passengers found refuge in four western European countries, but only the 288 passengers sent to England evaded the Nazi grip that closed upon continental Europe a year later. Over the years, the fateful voyage of the St. Louis has come to symbolize U.S. indifference to the plight of European Jewry on the eve of World War II. Although the episode of the St. Louis is well known, the actual fates of the passengers, once they disembarked, slipped into historical obscurity. Prompted by a former passenger’s curiosity, Sarah Ogilvie and Scott Miller of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum set out in 1996 to discover what happened to each of the 937 passengers. Their investigation, spanning nine years and half the globe, took them to unexpected places and produced surprising results. Refuge Denied chronicles the unraveling of the mystery, from Los Angeles to Havana and from New York to Jerusalem. Some of the most memorable stories include the fate of a young toolmaker who survived initial selection at Auschwitz because his glasses had gone flying moments before and a Jewish child whose apprenticeship with a baker in wartime France later translated into the establishment of a successful business in the United States. Unfolding like a compelling detective thriller, Refuge Denied is a must-read for anyone interested in the Holocaust and its impact on the lives of ordinary people. http://www.librarything.com/work/3300823/book/60336991 “Everyone curls up inside a Sabbath at some point or other. Religion need not be involved.” The Sabbath is not just the holy day of rest. It’s also a utopian idea about a less pressured, more sociable, purer world. Where did this notion come from? Is there value in withdrawing from the world one day in seven, despite its obvious inconvenience in an age of convenience? And what will be lost if the Sabbath goes away? In this erudite, elegantly written book, critic Judith Shulevitz weaves together histories of the Jewish and Christian sabbaths, speculations on the nature of time, and a rueful account of her personal struggle with the day. Shulevitz has found insights into the Sabbath in both cultural and contemporary sources—the Torah, the Gospels, the Talmud, and the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, as well as in the poetry of William Wordsworth, the life of Sigmund Freud, and the science of neuropsychology. She tells stories of martyrdom by Jews who died en masse rather than fight on the Sabbath and describes the feverish Sabbatarianism of the American Puritans. And she counterposes the tyranny of religious law with the equally oppressive tyranny of the clock. Can we really flourish under the yoke of communal discipline, as preachers and rabbis like to tell us? What about being free to live as we please? Can we preserve what the Sabbath gives us—a time outside time—without following its rules? Whatever our faith or lack thereof, this rich and resonant meditation on the day of rest will remind us of the danger of letting time drive us heedlessly forward without ever stopping to reflect. http://www.librarything.com/work/9731084/book/60336967 Written for observant and non-observant Jews and anyone interested in religion, this remarkable book by the distinguished scholar David Gelernter seeks to answer the deceptively simple question: What is Judaism really about? Gelernter views Judaism as one of humanity’s most profound and sublimely beautiful achievements. But because Judaism is a way of life rather than a formal system of thought, it has been difficult for anyone but a practicing Jew to understand its unique intellectual and spiritual structure. Gelernter explores compelling questions, such as: How does Judaism’s obsession with life on earth versus the world-to-come separate it fundamentally from Christianity and Islam? Why do Jews believe in God, and how can they after the Holocaust?What makes Classical Judaism the most important intellectual development in Western history? Why does Judaism teach that, in the course of the Jewish people’s coming-of-age, God moved out of history and into the human mind, abandoning all power but the capacity to talk to each person from inside and thereby to influence events only indirectly? In discussing these and other questions, Gelernter seeks to lay out Jewish beliefs on four basic topics—the sanctity of everyday life; man and God; the meaning of sexuality and family; good, evil, and the nature of God’s justice in a cruel world—and to convey a profound and stirring sense of what it means to be Jewish. http://www.librarything.com/work/9190232/book/60336957 Inspiring and stimulating discussions on the interplay between scientific and religious inquiry, featuring some of today's greatest thinkers Drawn from American Public Media's Peabody Award-winning program Speaking of Faith, the conversations in this profoundly illuminating book reach for a place too rarely explored in our ongoing exchange of ideas-the nexus of science and spirituality. In fascinating interviews with such luminaries as Freeman Dyson, Paul Davies, V. V. Raman, Sherwin Nuland, and Mehmet Oz, Tippett revels in the connections between the two, showing how even those most wedded to hard truths find spiritual enlightenment. The result is a theologically evocative dialogue on the changing way we think about science, medicine, and the expansive realm of belief. http://www.librarything.com/work/9156428/book/60336944 From the authors of the bestselling Small Miracles series comes this inspirational collection of over 50 stories - each with the upbeat twist ending that has become the trademark of this remarkable series. The authors, both second-generation Holocaust survivors, have culled stories from before, during, and after the Holocaust that demonstrate the full strength and power of the human spirit. Stories reaffirming that nothing truly happens by accident… Even during the worst of times small miracles did happen - and the legacies of those individuals live on. http://www.librarything.com/work/6023321/book/60088654 A sweeping and sensuous novel of a son’s quest to recover his family’s lost masterpieces, looted by the Nazis during the occupation. Max Berenzon’s father is the most successful art dealer in Paris, owner of the Berenzon Gallery, home to both Picasso and Matisse. To Max’s great surprise, his father forbids him from entering the family business, choosing instead to hire a beautiful and brilliant gallery assistant named Rose Clément. When Paris falls to the Nazis, the Berenzons survive in hiding, but when they return in 1944 their gallery is empty, their priceless collection vanished. In a city darkened by corruption and black martketers, Max chases his twin obsessions: the lost paintings and Rose Clément. http://www.librarything.com/work/6417904/book/60086450 A long-lost novel by the author of As a Driven Leaf. Infidelity, faith, and power all come together in a gripping story of the prophet Hosea and his wife, Gomer. This extraordinary literary find includes a foreword by Ari Goldman and commentaries by Harold Kushner and Norma Rosen. The Lord said unto Hosea: Go, take unto thee a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry; for the land doth commit great harlotry, departing from the Lord. HOSEA 1:2 From the moment young Hosea saw the maiden Gomer dancing at the Festival of Booths, he loved her. It was the most beautiful vision he had ever seen, and he would never forget it, despite the scornful laughter of his older brother Iddo, despite the lack of piety of Gomer s household, and despite her admission that she did not love him. And so Hosea marries Gomer, in a troubled land where idol-worshiping neighbors offer up their daughters purity in the sacred groves, where arrogant high priests will stop at nothing to silence troublesome prophets, and where the blood of brothers can be the strongest bond, or the most destructive. When Milton Steinberg died in 1950, he left one manuscript tantalizingly unfinished. Like As a Driven Leaf, it is grand in scope, while told as a compelling personal tale. Set against a backdrop of unrest in ancient Israel, The Prophet s Wife is a stirring portrait of the biblical prophet Hosea, his passionate and free-spirited wife Gomer, and a people seduced by the lures of power and idolatry to betray their faith. http://www.librarything.com/work/9643665/book/60086391 Whoever saves a single life saves the entire world . . . In 1592, as the Catholic Church and the Protestants battle for control of the soul of Europe, Prague is a relatively safe harbor in the religious storm. Ruled by Emperor Rudolph II, the city is a refuge for Jews who live within the gated walls of its ghetto. But their lives are jeopardized when a young Christian girl is found with her throat slashed in a Jewish shop on the eve of Passover. Charged with blood libel, the shopkeeper and his family are arrested. All that stands in the way of a rabid Christian mob is a clever Talmudic scholar, newly arrived from Poland, named Benyamin Ben-Akiva. Pleading the shopkeeper's innocence to the city's sheriff, Benyamin is given three days to bring the true killer to justice. But the search will not be easy. Hampered by rabbinic law, and with no allies or connections, Benyamin has only his wits, knowledge, and faith to guide him on his quest—a trail that weaves from the city's teeming streets to the quiet of a shul, from the forbidden back rooms of a ghetto brothel to the emperor's lavish palace. The Talmud says many things in life depend on mazl, luck. Fortunately, Benyamin is blessed, for an unlikely group of heroes will risk their own lives to help him discover the truth: Anya, a Christian butcher's daughter; the renowned reformist rabbi Judah Loew; a wise herbal healer known as Kassandra the Bohemian; and even the emperor himself. Who would most profit from the girl's murder—and from having the entire ghetto sealed off? Is the killer a Christian indebted to the girl's apothecary father? Or a messianic Jew bent on the destruction of his people to precipitate the Messiah's coming? The desperate search for answers is complicated by the arrival of a new Holy Inquisitor determined to root out witchcraft and heresy, and reclaim the fractious Bohemian territory for Rome. With time running out, Benyamin must dare the impossible—and commit the unthinkable—to save the Jews of Prague . . . and his own life. Infused with history and spiritual insight, rich in atmosphere and color, The Fifth Servant vividly re-creates sixteenth-century Prague—a bustling city where superstition, ignorance, and hatred clash with curiosity, knowledge, and tolerance; a world in which innocent lives are swept away by political and religious struggles, and righteous men and women sacrifice everything in the name of justice and truth. http://www.librarything.com/work/9135146/book/60086381 From the acclaimed author of The Whiskey Rebels and A Conspiracy of Paper comes a superb historical thriller set in the splendor and squalor of eighteenth-century London. In Benjamin Weaver, David Liss has created one of fiction’s most enthralling characters. The year is 1722. Ruffian for hire, ex-boxer, and master of disguise, Weaver finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, pitted against Jerome Cobb, a wealthy and mysterious schemer who needs Weaver’s strength and guile for his own treacherous plans. Weaver is blackmailed into stealing documents from England’s most heavily guarded estate, the headquarters of the ruthless British East India Company, but the theft of corporate secrets is only the first move in a daring conspiracy within the eighteenth century’s most powerful corporation. To save his friends and family from Cobb’s reach, Weaver must infiltrate the Company, navigate its warring factions, and uncover a secret plot of corporate rivals, foreign spies, and government operatives. With the security of the nation at stake, Weaver will find himself in a labyrinth of hidden agendas, daring enemies, and unexpected allies. With the explosive action and scrupulous period research that are David Liss’s trademarks, The Devil’s Company, depicting the birth of the modern corporation, is the most impressive achievement yet from an author who continues to set ever higher standards for historical suspense. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58768484 From bestselling author and Quill award nominee Pam Jenoff comes a rich, ambitious, and startling novel about a woman who must face a past she'd rather forget in order to uncover a dangerous legacy that threatens her future. Ten years ago, American Jordan Weiss's idyllic experience as a graduate student and coxswain at Cambridge was shattered when her boyfriend and fellow crewmember, Jared Short, drowned in the River Cam the night before the biggest race of the year. Since that time, Jordan, a State Department intelligence officer, has traveled the world on dangerous assignments but has managed to avoid returning to face her painful memories in England. When her terminally ill friend Sarah asks her to come to London, though, Jordan finds herself requesting a transfer to the one place she swore she'd never go again. In London, Jordan attempts to settle into her new life, pushing aside her haunting memories and taking on an urgent mission beside rakish agent Sebastian Hodges. Shortly after her arrival, just when she thinks there's hope for a fresh start in England, she is approached by a former college classmate who makes a startling assertion. He tells her that Jared's death was not an accident, but that he was murdered. Jordan quickly learns that Jared's death was indeed not an accident, and that his research on World War II had uncovered a shameful secret. But powerful forces with everything to lose will stop at nothing to keep the past buried. Soon, Jordan finds herself in grave peril as she struggles to find the answers that lie treacherously close to home, the truth that threatens to change her life forever, and the love that makes it all worth fighting for. It is a journey that sweeps readers across England and back in time to reveal the incalculable dangers that lie in the wake of war. Fast-paced and impossible to put down, Almost Home establishes Pam Jenoff as one of the best new writers in the genre. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58768400 Bernie Madoff was a king of the financial world and a beloved philanthropist. But very few people knew that he was quietly running the largest hedge fund in the world, a fund that eventually spread to over forty nations and handled tens of billions of dollars. Harry Markopolos was a little-known number cruncher at a Boston equity derivatives firm analyzing investment products. A marketer for that firm, Frank Casey, handed Harry a prospectus outlining Madoff’s strategy and asked him to create a similar product. Harry sat down and looked at the numbers. The numbers didn’t add up. For the next ten years, the investigative team Markopolos recruited warned the government, the industry, and the financial press that the largest and most successful hedge fund in the industry was a total fraud and that the respected and admired Bernie Madoff was a crook. But no one would listen. This is the thrilling, complete story of the pursuit of the greatest financial criminal in history. The incredible investigation takes listeners inside the financial industry, revealing the never-before-told stories behind the headlines. No One Would Listen is the frighteningly true story of massive fraud, governmental incompetence, and criminal collusion that has changed thousands of lives forever—as well as the world’s financial system. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58768349 In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again. Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak'spink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce? LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart. Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58652534 Crafting a richly textured, absorbing novel based on the life of her ancestor, renowned thirteenth-century Jewish scholar Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg, Michelle Cameron paints a page-turning and deeply personal portrait of Judaism in medieval France and Germany. Imagined through the eyes of Rabbi Meir's wife, Shira, this opulent drama reveals a devout but independent woman who struggles to preserve her religious traditions while remaining true to herself as she and her family witness the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. Raised by her widowed rabbi father and a Christian nursemaid in Normandy, Shira is a free-spirited, inquisitive girl whose love of learning shocks the community. But in Meir ben Baruch, a brilliant scholar, she finds her soul mate and a window on the world of Talmudic scholarship that fascinates her. Married to Meir in Paris, Shira blossoms as a wife and mother, savoring the intellectual and social challenges that come with being the wife of a prominent scholar. After every copy of the Talmud in Paris is confiscated and burned, Shira and her family seek refuge in Germany. Yet even there they experience bloody pogroms and intensifying hatred. As Shira weathers heartbreak and works to find a middle ground between two warring religions, she shows her children and grandchildren how to embrace the joys of life, both secular and religious. A multigenerational novel that captures a hitherto little-known part of history with deep emotion and riveting authenticity -- and includes an illuminating author's note and a Hebrew glossary -- The Fruit of Her Hands is a powerful novel about the enduring spirit of the Jewish people. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58652524 In the last months of the Nazi occupation of Poland, two children are left by their father and stepmother to find safety in a dense forest. Because their real names will reveal their Jewishness, they are renamed "Hansel" and "Gretel." They wander in the woods until they are taken in by Magda, an eccentric and stubborn old woman called "witch" by the nearby villagers. Magda is determined to save them, even as a German officer arrives in the village with his own plans for the children. Combining classic themes of fairy tales and war literature, this haunting novel of journey and survival, of redemption and memory, powerfully depicts how war is experienced by families and especially by children, and tells a resonant, riveting story. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58652513 Arriving to visit his son in a heavily Palestinian area of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Omar Yussef discovers the beheaded body of one of the boy’s roommates. When his son is arrested as a suspect, Omar Yussef must prove his innocence. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58652497 Greater Hartford Jewish women who served in the military and on the home front during World War II tell their stories of friendship, adventure and sacrifice and opportunity. Blending narrative, original photos, memorabilia, historical news footage and music, this important documentary captures the voices and memories of women of the Greatest Generation. http://www.librarything.com/work/9793535/book/58652442 Just over 100 years ago, Theodor Herzl launched the Zionist Movement. They called for a Jewish State in their ancestral land, Palestine. Fifty years later, the State of Israel came into being. Israel was established so that Jews anywhere in the world could have a homeland of their own. The Story of Israel contains approximately 30 rare facsimile documents of historical importance some of which have never been published before http://www.librarything.com/work/28495/book/58544046 http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58361739 "You are opening a Pandora's box," Marton was warned when she filed for her family's secret police files in Budapest. But her family history, during both the Nazi and the Communist periods, was too full of shadows. The files revealed terrifying truths: secret love affairs, betrayals inside the family circle, torture and brutalities alongside acts of stunning courage and, above all, deep family love. In this true-life thriller, Kati Marton, an accomplished journalist, exposes the cruel mechanics of the Communist Terror State, using the secret police files on her journalist parents as well as dozens of interviews that reveal how her family was spied on and betrayed by friends and colleagues, and even their children's babysitter. In this moving and brave memoir, Marton searches for and finds her parents, and love. Marton relates her eyewitness account of her mother's and father's arrests in Cold War Budapest and the terrible separation that followed. She describes the pain her parents endured in prison -- isolated from each other and their children. She reveals the secret war between Washington and Moscow, in which Marton and her family were pawns in a much larger game. By the acclaimed author of The Great Escape, Enemies of the People is a tour de force, an important work of history as it was lived, a narrative of multiple betrayals on both sides of the Cold War that ends with triumph and a new beginning in America. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/58361584 Think Jewish music = Klezmer? Then you need to hear Divahn's Middle-Eastern/Sephardic groove. The all-female quartet infuses traditional songs with creative sophistication, using tabla, cello, rabel and other acoustics. Lyrics in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/divahn The biggest traditional Jewish artist of all time is back! For those who know Debbie's music, it has become a treasured part of their lives. Debbie has recorded over 19 albums, sold over 250,000 units and was originally influenced by the music of the 1960?s and 70?s- Peter Paul And Mary, Judy Collins and Joni Mitchell. Hallmark greeting cards designed and marketed over 12 holiday cards using Debbie?s inspired lyrics. Debbie's 1996 Carnegie Hall performance celebrated the 25th anniversary of her distinguished career. Debbie has performed concerts in hundreds of cities throughout the USA, Canada, Europe and Israel. http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Spirit-Debbie-Friedman-Anthology/dp/B000BO0LOK From the first notes of this remarkable recording you'll know it's not the "same old Chanukah music." With joyful exuberance, Julie Silver brings a refreshing new sound to many of our Chanukah favorites. From the bluesey slide guitar of "The Dreidel Song" to the Latin rhythms of "Chanukah, O Chanukah," from the middle eastern strains of "Maoz Tzur/Rock of Ages" to the reggae arrangement of the gospel classic, "This Little Light of Mine," this CD weaves threads of rock and folk with musical traditions from around the globe. Producer Tor Hyams' innovative arrangements and Julie's clear, soulful vocals perfectly capture the powerful message and enduring spirit of Chanukah. Traditional favorites like "S'vivon Sov, Sov, Sov" and "Maoz Tzur" blend seamlessly with contemporary favorites like Rabbi Joe Black's "Judah Maccabee" and Julie's own "It's Chanukah Time." A perfect holiday companion for the car or home, It's Chanukah Time will be an instant favorite for listeners of all ages. http://www.urjbooksandmusic.com/product.php?productid=856 A fun-filled CD by the spirited SHIRETTES. The 14 Hebrew and English selections include catchy original new songs: Cha Cha Chanukah, My New Chanukiah, Bubi Makes Latkes, and Red Candle. There are also fresh takes on well known holiday favorites: I Have a Little Dreidle (with new verses), Take a Potato, a medley of Oh Chanukah, Svivon, the Chanukah blessings, etc. http://www.chaikids.com/site/776828/product/CHP45 One of the iconic musical figures of our age, Leonard Bernstein left a singular legacy as a composer of classical symphonies and Broadway shows, a compelling conductor, and a uniquely gifted communicator. Also central to his creative outlook and artistic identity was the highly individual way in which he expanded fundamental elements of his Jewish heritage to communicate universal values and concerns. It is in his Kaddish, Symphony No. 3, perhaps more than in any other of his compositions, that Bernstein brings together his Jewish spiritual roots and his lifelong concern for the plight of a floundering humanity. Born in the crucible of the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation, this work seems just as timely today, when humanity faces daunting challenges ranging from terrorism to AIDS, and grapples with the same consequences of misunderstanding that so troubled the composer. Bernstein's plea for peace and reconciliation resounds louder than ever in our own ears. Never completely satisfied with this intensely personal cri de coeur, which he dedicated to the memory of John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated as it was being completed, the composer constantly reworked the piece for 14 years. His final authorized version of 1977 is the basis of this Milken Archive CD. The disc also includes Chichester Psalms, another Bernstein work of Judaic inspiration firmly established in the mainstream classical repertoire. Gerard Schwarz conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, with Willard White as the speaker and soprano Yvonne Kenny, on these all-new recordings. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AMMSOO?tag=wwwnaxoscom-20# "What are the Jewish roots I long for?" wrote Leonard Bernstein as he pondered one of his many Jewish-inspired compositions. This unique collection of rarely heard works—including several world-premiere recordings—reveals many possible answers to Bernstein’s question. Triumphal processions, mysterious invocations, intimate Jewish character portraits, rousing dances; all of these musical offerings present the great eclectic imagination of one of America’s foremost 20th century composers. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DD77Y?tag=wwwnaxoscom-20# The American Yiddish musical theater, a vibrant expression of the immigrant experience, became famous during its heyday in the 1920s–1940s. Combining the musical flavors of Viennese operetta, Tin Pan Alley, and eastern European nostalgia, these songs and duets are quintessential American popular music—with a Yiddish voice. Volume 1 spotlights the hit songs of Abe Ellstein, one of the genre’s premier songwriters. New, historically accurate orchestrations re-create the unforgettable glory days of Yiddish radio and film, the uproarious vaudeville houses, and the thrill of a night at the theater on old New York’s fabled "Second Avenue." http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000C508K?tag=wwwnaxoscom-20# The Milken Archive of American Jewish Music is a vast recorded panorama of the rich body of Jewish music, both sacred and secular, that has developed over the course of American history. This recording features nineteen tracks representing the broad scope of the Archive recordings. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B0000C508H/ Free to Be the Jew in Me (2002) is a revolutionary Jewish kids CD focusing on themes of diversity, Jewish identity, and Jewish culture with 21 electrifying tracks including 13 songs, several educational short stories, poems, and skits. Free to Be the Jew in Me features Rick Recht Band's trademark harmonies soaring over a variety of musical styles including rock, country, and funk. Free to Be the Jew in Me is also a Multimedia CD that can be put in your computer to see a short movie, slide show, screensavers and a 'Kidzone' with fun interactive family games. http://store.jewishrockrecords.com/store/details.cfm?item=10006 15 Jewish favorites for kids and the grownups who love them! Join us on this captivating journey of fun and familiar Jewish songs! From the jungle-drum infused rhythms of Zum Gali Gali to a swinging jazz rendition of Eitz Chayim, this is one children’s CD parents won’t mind listening to again and again. Lead musicians (and sisters) Stephanie Schneiderman, Lisa Schneiderman, and Kim Palumbis create soaring harmonies and soothing melodies on songs such as Ma Yafeh Hayom, Eli Eli, and Hiney Matov. Other tracks feature solo piano, a spirited group of children singers, and a rousing rendition of the Yiddish party classic Cheri Bim Bam. This CD features the music from the popular and critically acclaimed OyBaby DVD. Plus, we’ve added 3 bonus tracks available exclusively on this CD. http://www.oybaby.com/products/jewish-childrens-music This fabulous new recording features 18 tracks of top Shabbat music for children and their families as well as all Shabbat lovers! Its a new sound and a new approach to Jewish music and Shabbat celebration. Shira Kline, as seen at New York City's: The Jewish Museum, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, Temple Emanu-El, Central Synagogue, Park Avenue Synagogue, 14th Street Y, Congregation B'nai Jesherun, Storahtelling, and numerous other Jewish communal settings nationally and internationally, brings you the first of her ShirLaLa Holiday Series, ShirLaLa Shabbat! Her unique and hip sound will enrich your Shabbat experience. You will sing, dance, clap, jump around - all the time coming closer to yourself and to God. L'chaiim!! Featuring the musical talents of Dan Nadel, Tomer Tzur, Dave Richards, and produced by David Morgan, ShirLaLa Shabbat! includes the sweet voices of over 40 children. Parents, educators, rabbis - This recording is perfect at home and in the classroom. To nurture Jewish identity and enhance the Shabbat celebration with meditative prayer, blessings, and a diverse collection of rockin' Shabbat music! http://www.amazon.com/ShirLaLa-Shabbat-Sing-Shira-Kline/dp/B00023J740/ Sammy wants nothing more than to be cast as one of the ten plagues in his Hebrew school's Passover play. But when his teacher assigns him the role of the matzoh, Sammy can't believe his bad luck. No Matzoh for Me! presents the Passover story of the Jewish holiday in a humorous, accessible, and kid-friendly way. Illustrated by Bryan Hendrix. http://www.librarything.com/work/29321/book/57511485 Israel is the crucial battlefield for Capitalism and Freedom in our time. George Gilder's global best-seller Wealth and Poverty made the moral case for capitalism. Now Gilder makes the case for Israel, portraying a conflict of barbarism and envy against civilization and creativity. Gilder reveals Israel as a leader of human civilization, technological progress, and scientific advance. Tiny Israel stands behind only the United States in its contributions to the hi-tech economy. Israel has become the world's paramount example of the blessings of freedom. Hatred of Israel, like anti-Semitism through history, arises from resentment of Jewish success. Rooted in a Marxist zero-sum-game theory of economics, this vision has fueled the anti-Semitic rantings of Hitler, Arafat, Osama, and history's other notorious haters. Faced with a contest between murderous regimes sustained by envy and Nazi ideology, and a free, prosperous, and capitalist, Israel—whose side are you on? http://www.librarything.com/work/book/57472315 A love poem as old as the Bible, as contemporary as today... One love poem the Bible's Song of Songs continues to be read and to inspire after thousands of years. Using the best of biblical scholarship and sharp literary analysis,Benjamin Segal's new translation and commentary reveal a picture of ideal love so appealing that it became for centuries the monotheistic model of human-divine attachment. Here one also finds a rare ancient effort to capture the female voice. Segal's literary analysis captures the pulsating rhythm of the poem,and allows the reader to confront its ever-contemporary and challenging view of love. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/57472309 From one of the most innovative and acclaimed biblical commentators at work today, here is a revolutionary analysis of the intersection between religion and psychoanalysis in the stories of the men and women of the Bible. For centuries scholars and rabbis have wrestled with the biblical narrative, attempting to answer the questions that arise from a plain reading of the text. In The Murmuring Deep, Avivah Zornberg informs her literary analysis of the text with concepts drawn from Freud, Winnicott, Laplanche, and other psychoanalytic thinkers to give us a new understanding of the desires and motivations of the men and women whose stories form the basis of the Bible. Through close readings of the biblical and midrashic texts, Zornberg makes a powerful argument for the idea that the creators of the midrashic commentary, the med­ieval rabbinic commentators, and the Hassidic commentators were themselves on some level aware of the complex interplay between conscious and unconscious levels of experience and used this knowledge in their interpretations. In her analysis of the stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Jonah, Abraham, Rebecca, Isaac, Joseph and his brothers, Ruth, and Esther–how they communicated with the world around them, with God, and with the various parts of their selves–Zornberg offers fascinating insights into the interaction between consciousness and unconsciousness. In discussing why God has to “seduce” Adam into entering the Garden of Eden or why Jonah thinks he can hide from God by getting on a ship, Zornberg enhances our appreciation of the Bible as the foundational text in our quest to understand what it means to be human. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/57472293 Brad Pitt takes no prisoners in Quentin Tarantino’s high-octane WWII revenge fantasy Inglourious Basterds. As war rages in Europe, a Nazi-scalping squad of American soldiers, known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” is on a daring mission to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. Bursting with “action, hair-trigger suspense and a machine-gun spray of killer dialogue” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone), Inglourious Basterds is “another Tarantino masterpiece” (Jake Hamilton, CBS-TV)! http://www.amazon.com/Inglourious-Basterds-Single-Disc-Brad-Pitt/dp/B002T9H2LA/ French film icons Gérard Depardieu and Fanny Ardant star in this romantic comedy about a Parisian couple in their fifties who share a comfortable life, a beautiful home, a posh country club and a midlife crisis. Following a dream vacation to Israel where Alain (Depardieu) explores his Jewish roots, Gisèle (Ardant) insists they change their life and move to Tel Aviv. While Gisèle, a Jewish convert, finds her new life inspiring; Alain fights to embrace Hebrew, Jewish tradition and a new circumcision. Will Alain and Gisèle learn whether Shalom represents Hello or Goodbye? Bonus material includes the feature trailer, photo gallery and making of the film. http://www.amazon.com/Hello-Goodbye-Gerard-Depardieu/dp/B002RZVHWG/ From girlhood through middle age, Rachel and Miri -- two Jewish women living in Colorado -- struggle to sustain a complex, often competitive friendship throughout the challenges that arise over many decades. Miri's young daughter, Tamar, initially appears to offer the long-time friends a link that will strengthen their uneasy bond. But when Tamar develops a passion for a dangerous sport even before the girl reaches puberty, Rachel and Miri's friendship faces a test more severe than any the women have ever experienced. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1932727094/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 In this sweeping narrative that takes us from the Stone Age to the Information Age, Robert Wright unveils an astonishing discovery: there is a hidden pattern that the great monotheistic faiths have followed as they have evolved. Through the prisms of archaeology, theology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright's findings overturn basic assumptions about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and are sure to cause controversy. He explains why spirituality has a role today, and why science, contrary to conventional wisdom, affirms the validity of the religious quest. And this previously unrecognized evolutionary logic points not toward continued religious extremism, but future harmony. Nearly a decade in the making, The Evolution of God is a breathtaking re-examination of the past, and a visionary look forward. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/57353235 In 1920, Albert Einstein wrote to Max Born, "Theoretical physics will flourish wherever you happen to be; there is no other Born to be found in Germany today." The End of the Certain World presents for the first time Born's full story: Nobel physicist, a discoverer of quantum theory, exile from Hitler's Germany, teacher of nine Nobel physicists. Born's role in the "Golden Age of Physics" helped to shape the science of the twentieth century and open the door to the modern era. Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, and Eugene Wigner, among others, flocked to Gšttingen, Germany in the 1920's to work with Born, the physicist who had discovered one of the most profound principles of the century - the physics of indeterminacy. In a cruel twist of fate Born, a pacifist who loved science for its beauty, had educated these renowned scientists who developed the atom bomb. Not everyone embraced Born's revolutionary quantum principle. Throughout much of his forty year friendship with Einstein, the two debated the nature of the universe - deterministic versus non-deterministic - with Einstein declaring "God does not play dice", even though the Nobel Committee supported Born's position when they awarded him the 1954 Prize. A social history and a history of science as well as an intimate biography, The End of the Certain World reveals the story of a great physicist and humanitarian and his struggle with the forces of religion, politics, and war during the upheavals of the twentieth century. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/57353229 After Cass Seltzer’s book becomes a surprise best seller, he’s dubbed “the atheist with a soul” and becomes a celebrity. He wins over the stunning Lucinda Mandelbaum, “the goddess of game theory,” and loses himself in a spiritually expansive infatuation. A former girlfriend appears: an anthropologist who invites him to join in her quest for immortality through biochemistry. And he is haunted by reminders of the two people who ignited his passion to understand religion: his mentor and professor—a renowned literary scholar with a suspicious obsession with messianism—and an angelic six-year-old mathematical genius who is heir to the leadership of a Hasidic sect. Each encounter reinforces Cass’s theory that the religious impulse spills over into life at large. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God plunges into the great debate of our day: the clash between faith and reason. World events are being shaped by fervent believers at home and abroad, while a new atheism is asserting itself in the public sphere. On purely intellectual grounds the skeptics would seem to have everything on their side. Yet people refuse to accept their seemingly irrefutable arguments and continue to embrace faith in God as their source of meaning, purpose, and comfort. Through the enchantment of fiction, award-winning novelist and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Newberger Goldstein shows that the tension between religion and doubt cannot be understood through rational argument alone. It also must be explored from the point of view of individual people caught in the raptures and torments of religious experience in all their variety. Using her gifts in fiction and philosophy, Goldstein has produced a true crossover novel, complete with a nail-biting debate (“Resolved: God Exists”) and a stand-alone appendix with the thirty-six arguments (and responses) that propelled Seltzer to stardom. http://www.librarything.com/work/9025103/57353206 From the authors of classic commentaries on Lamentations, Jonah, Ruth, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Pirke Avot comes this new volume on the Book of Esther. Rabbis Kravitz and Olitzky shed new light on this familiar story by combining traditional rabbinic views and contemporary literary criticism to create a readable and relevant commentary. More than the centerpiece of Purim celebrations, Esther is unique in the biblical canon, and raises as many questions as it reveals answers. It is a rich source for text study, at Purim and throughout the year. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/56543103 Betsy Klein is summoned from her home in the United States to the bedside of her dying father in a South African hospital. Faced with having to say goodbye, she delves into his mind, speaking to him in the lyrical second-person. She imaginatively recreates his life—his struggles to become a doctor after being orphaned young and his fight to win the respect of his Boer patients as a Jew—as well as her own experiences with him as a father. http://www.librarything.com/work/4213502/book/56543082 Since the late eighteenth century, Shakers have exerted an influence on our nation wholly disproportionate to the size of their communities. Their approach has helped shape everything from craftsmanship and ingenuity to concepts of communal living and work ethic. And while much of our modern-day fascination with the United Society of Shakers centers upon their unique attention to craftsmanship, the innovative spirit they brought to simple, Godly living is indeed the most timeless aspect of their legacy. From their earliest days, the Shakers have depended on innovations of every sort to secure their place in a world that was, initially, hostile to their so-called "peculiar" beliefs: community, celibacy, and primitive Christianity. These innovations included improvements, adaptations, refinements, and inventions. Inspired Innovations is the first book devoted to this widely acknowledged but long neglected aspect of Shakerism. A group of thirteen distinguished Shaker scholars, led by M. Stephen Miller, presents in this lavishly illustrated volume their research on the many "zones" of innovation that are considered here. Historians Scott T. Swank, Glendyne R. Wergland, and Stephen J. Paterwic "set the table" for a feast of words and images. The book features 350 full-color images, complete with descriptive captions and technical data. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584658509/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Though basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield, MA, the game spread like wildfire through turn-of-the-century New York settlement houses and proved a perfect fit for urban Jewish kids. By the 1920s, basketball had become a staple of life in American Jewish communities, and many of the top teams grew out of these neighborhoods. THE FIRST BASKET is the first comprehensive documentary to examine both the role that Jewish players had in the evolution of the game and the impact that basketball played in the assimilation of American Jews. In THE FIRST BASKET, writer/producer/director David Vyorst and narrator Peter Riegert explore the little-known, yet very important, Jewish history of the game. Chock full of vivid anecdotes and distinctive characters, the film brings back famous as well as unsung basketball legends such as Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Dolph Schayes, Red Sarachek, Barney Sedran, Eddie Gottlieb, Abe Saperstein, Ossie Schectman (that kid from New York who scored the eponymous First Basket in the NBA), Ralph Kaplowitz, Sammy Kaplan and many more. These legendary players of professional basketball became role models and heroes of generations of fans and changed the face and perception, to this very day, of Jews in all athletics. http://www.thefirstbasket.com/ Charming and imaginative music for a controversial film that follows the Jewish basketball experience from ash cans placed on the stoops of brownstones to the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. Composed by Roberto Juan Rodriguez, whose CDs of modern Cuban-Jewish fusion have become Tzadik best sellers, the score jumps from klezmer to classical, dixieland, pop, rock and back again. Featuring an astounding array of downtown musicians, The First Basket establishes Roberto as a versatile composer who is capable of just about anything. http://www.amazon.com/First-Basket-Roberto-Juan-Rodriguez/dp/B001OBBRK6/ Pete Dizinoff has spent years working toward a life that would be, by all measures, deemed successful. A skilled internist, he’s built a thriving practice in suburban New Jersey. He has a devoted wife, a network of close friends, and an impressive house, and most important, he has a son, Alec, on whom he’s pinned all his hopes. Pete has afforded Alec every opportunity, bailed him out of close calls with the law, and even ensured his acceptance into a good college. But Pete never counted on the wild card: Laura, his best friend’s daughter—ten years older than Alec, irresistibly beautiful, with a past so shocking that it’s never spoken of. When Laura sets her sights on Alec, Pete sees his plans for his son not just unraveling but being destroyed completely. Believing he has only the best of intentions, he sets out to derail this romance and rescue his son. He could never have foreseen how his whole world would shatter in the process. Lauren Grodstein delivers a riveting story in the tradition of The Ice Storm, American Beauty, and Little Children, charting a father’s fall from grace as he struggles to save his family, his reputation, and himself. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372394/book/56104652 The Pulitzer Prize-winning author offers his first major work of nonfiction, an autobiographical narrative as inventive, beautiful, and powerful as his acclaimed, award-winning fiction. Manhood for Amateurs is the first sustained work of personal writing from Michael Chabon. In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essays, one of our most brilliant and humane writers presents his autobiography and his vision of life in the way so many of us experience our own: as a series of reflections, regrets and re-examinations, each sparked by an encounter, in the present, that holds some legacy of the past. What does it mean to be a man today? As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as a father, Chabon's memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, are like a theme played by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic. http://www.librarything.com/work/8393668/book/56104052 Levi Strauss, A.L. Gump, Yehudi Menuhin, Gertrude Stein, Adolph Sutro, Congresswoman Florence Prag Kahn--Jewish people have been so enmeshed in life in and around San Francisco that their story is a chronicle of the metropolis itself. Since the Gold Rush, Bay Area Jews have countered stereotypes, working as farmers and miners, boxers and mountaineers. They were Gold Rush pioneers, Gilded Age tycoons, and Progressive Era reformers. Told through an astonishing range of characters and events, Cosmopolitans illuminates many aspects of Jewish life in the area: the high profile of Jewish women, extraordinary achievements in the business world, the cultural creativity of the second generation, the bitter debate about the proper response to the Holocaust and Zionism, and much more. Focusing in rich detail on the first hundred years after the Gold Rush, the book also takes the story up to the present day, demonstrating how unusually strong affinities for the arts and for the struggle for social justice have characterized this community even as it has changed over time. Cosmopolitans, set in the uncommonly diverse Bay Area, is a truly unique chapter of the Jewish experience in America. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/55790262 In June 1942, Anne Frank received a red-and-white- checked diary for her thirteenth birthday, just weeks before she and her family went into hiding in an Amsterdam attic to escape the Nazis. For two years, with ever-increasing maturity, Anne crafted a memoir that has become one of the most compelling documents of modern history. She described life in vivid, unforgettable detail, explored apparently irreconcilable views of human nature—people are good at heart but capable of unimaginable evil—and grappled with the unfolding events of World War II, until the hidden attic was raided in August 1944. But Anne Frank's diary, argues Francine Prose, is as much a work of art as a historical record. Through close reading, she marvels at the teenage Frank's skillfully natural narrative voice, at her finely tuned dialogue and ability to turn living people into characters. And Prose addresses what few of the diary's millions of readers may know: this book is a deliberate work of art. During her last months in hiding, Anne Frank furiously revised and edited her work, crafting a piece of literature that she had hoped would be read by the public after the war. Read it has been. Few books have been as influential for as long, and Prose thoroughly investigates the diary's unique afterlife: the obstacles and criticism Otto Frank faced in publishing his daughter's words; the controversy surrounding the diary's Broadway and film adaptations; and the claims of conspiracy theorists who have cried fraud, along with the scientific analysis that proved them wrong. Finally, Prose, a teacher herself, considers the rewards and challenges of sharing one of the world's most read, and most banned, books with students. How has the life and death of one girl become emblematic of the lives and deaths of so many, and why do her words continue to inspire? Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife tells the extraordinary story of the book that became a force in the world. Along the way, Francine Prose definitively establishes that Anne Frank was not an accidental author or a casual teenaged chronicler, but a writer of prodigious talent and ambition. How has the life and death of one girl become emblematic of the lives and deaths of so many, and why do her words continue to inspire? Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife tells the extraordinary story of the book that became a force in the world. Along the way, Francine Prose definitively establishes that Anne Frank was not an accidental author or a casual teenage chronicler, but a writer of prodigious talent and ambition. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/55790252 This book tells the story of the Dönme, the descendents of Jews who resided in the Ottoman Empire and converted to Islam along with their messiah, Rabbi Shabbatai Tzevi, in the seventeenth century. For two centuries following their conversion, the Dönme were accepted as Muslims, and by the end of the nineteenth century rose to the top of Salonikan society. The Dönme helped transform Salonika into a cosmopolitan city, promoting the newest innovation in trade and finance, urban reform, and modern education. They eventually became the driving force behind the 1908 revolution that led to the overthrow of the Ottoman sultan and the establishment of a secular republic. To their proponents, the Dönme are enlightened secularists and Turkish nationalists who fought against the dark forces of superstition and religious obscurantism. To their opponents, they were simply crypto-Jews engaged in a plot to dissolve the Islamic empire. Both points of view assume the Dönme were anti-religious, whether couched as critique or praise. But it is time that we take these religious people seriously on their own terms. In the Ottoman Empire, the Dönme promoted morality, ethics, spirituality, and a syncretistic religion that reflected their origins at the intersection of Jewish Kabbalah and Islamic Sufism. This is the first book to tell their story, from their origins to their near total dissolution as they became secular Turks in the mid-twentieth century. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/55790247 In the early 1960s, Herb and Dorothy Vogel a postal worker and librarian began purchasing the works of unknown Minimalist and Conceptual artists, guided by two rules: the piece had to be affordable, and it had to be small enough to fit in their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. They proved themselves curatorial visionaries; most of those they supported and befriended went on to become world-renowned artists. HERB and DOROTHY provides a unique chronicle of the world of contemporary art from two unlikely collectors, whose shared passion and discipline defies stereotypes and redefines what it means to be a patron of the arts. http://www.amazon.com/Herb-Dorothy-Will-Barnet/dp/B002RB56WM/ Baby tushies. Grown-up tushies. Animal tushies. Tushies are all around us! Even the word, TUSHY, is fun to say. C’mon, say it with us: TUSHY! TUSHY! TUSHY! Here’s a celebration of this squeezably soft body part, with humor and warmth that readers of all ages will relate to. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/55790240 How do you get to the heart of a life well lived? It's all about the questions. "If you can hear the questions and apply them to the way you live your life on earth today, then when the time comes, your soul will be ready to take that stairway to heaven, prepared to answer the Seven Questions with a resounding `Yes!,' and take your rightful place among the angels." --from the Prologue In this charming, inspiring and wise guide to a well-lived life, beloved teacher Ron Wolfson provides an advance copy of the Seven Questions you'll be asked in heaven--whether you're a believer or a non-believer. The answers to these questions will help you shape a life of purpose and meaning on earth today. Supported by wisdom from the Jewish tradition, life's experiences, and personal anecdotes, Wolfson tells you about these transformative questions and explores the values that are at the heart of a life that matters. He offers funny, insightful and poignant stories of how people--ancient and contemporary--have answered the Seven Questions through their everyday actions. He encourages you to reflect on your own life goals and provides ideas both big and small for achieving them. http://www.librarything.com/work/8498158/book/55377731 The generation of the late twentieth century experienced a rupture in Jewish time. As a result of our confrontation with Modernity, the integration of Jews into the American mainstream, the shattering tragedy of the Holocaust, and the miraculous rebirth of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel, we can no longer look easily to the past for lessons of faith and models of Jewish meaning. No longer do we confidently project ourselves into the future. So much of what was taken for granted in earlier times is now open to question. In this thought-provoking book, five celebrated leaders in Judaism, representing a broad spectrum of contemporary Jewish experience, reinterpret Jewish life, re-envision its institutions, and re-imagine its future in the shadow of the events of the twentieth century. Reflecting on the unique events of this century, these eminent scholars assert a shared recognition of human responsibility as the quintessence of God's presence in the world. They imagine a new stage in the development of the ancient Covenant, a stage in which human beings take responsibility for shaping the Jewish historical experience. They explore how that new stage will find expression in the rhythms of Jewish personal and communal life--its implications for halachah, prayer, spirituality, the synagogue, and our relations with the world. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/55377724 Acclaimed storyteller and Jewish scholar Ellen Frankel has masterfully tailored 53 Bible stories that will both delight and educate today's young readers. Using the 1985 JPS translation (NJPS) of the Hebrew Bible as her foundation, Frankel retains much of the Bible's original wording and simple narrative style as she incorporates her own exceptional storytelling technique, free of personal interpretation or commentary. Included in the volume is an "Author's Notebook," in which Frankel shares with rabbis, parents, and educators the challenges she faced in translating and adapting these stories for children, such as how she deals with adult language in the original Bible text and themes inappropriate for most young readers. With his enticing, full-page color illustrations of each Bible story, award-winning artist Avi Katz ignites readers' imaginations. His brush captures the vivid personalities and many dramatic moments in this extraordinary collection. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372367/book/55377607 http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Music-Milken-Archive-American/dp/B000H4VZCG http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559450 Timeless Jewish legends and unforgettable dramatic characters come to life in these opera scenes composed by 20th-century American masters. Ellstein’s The Golem retells the ancient tale of a clay-made creature, brought to life by kabbalistic spells, who ultimately threatens the very people he was intended to serve. Strassburg’s Chelm, a series of vignettes from a “village of fools,” includes a portrayal of a hapless newlywed couple who conduct a hilarious search for an ideal wedding present. Tamkin’s The Dybbuk transforms an age-old story of demon possession into a compelling drama wherein the fate of two star-crossed lovers becomes a mystical allegory for the Jewish People and Israel. http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559424 Cyrla's neighbors have begun to whisper. Her cousin, Anneke, is pregnant and has passed the rigorous exams for admission to the Lebensborn, a maternity home for girls carrying German babies. But Anneke's soldier has disappeared, and Lebensborn babies are only ever released to their father's custody-- or taken away. A note is left under the mat. Someone knows that Cyrla, sent from Poland years before for safekeeping with her Dutch relatives, is Jewish. The Nazis are imposing more and more restrictions; she won't be safe there for long. And then in the space of an afternoon, life falls apart. Cyrla must choose between certain discovery in her cousin's home and taking Anneke's place in the Lebensborn-- Cyrla and Anneke are nearly identical. If she takes refuge in the enemy's lair, can Cyrla fool the doctors, nurses, guards, and other mothers-to-be? Can she escape before they discover she is not who she claims? Mining a lost piece of history, Sara Young takes us deep into the lives of women living in the worst of times. Part love story and part elegy for the terrible choices we must often make to survive, MY ENEMY'S CRADLE keens for what we lose in war and sings for the hope we sometimes find. http://www.librarything.com/work/4200483/55212633 With their mother caring for relatives in Israel and their father driving a cab all hours of the day, Roxanne and her sister, Gayle, spend a lot of time watching television reruns of Little House on the Prairie, The Brady Bunch, and Wonder Womanperfect examples of perfect Americans. Roxanne is desperate to be like them. When Liat, a fellow Israeli, moves into the Cursed House next door, things begin to change and Roxanne realizes that maybe real life isn't like TV maybe it's even better. The novel is set on Staten Island, New York, in the early 1980s. http://www.librarything.com/work/8200202/book/55212162 These Shabbat melodies from around the world will captivate, educate and delight the entire family. http://sheeramusic.com/cgi-bin/sheera.pl?Albums?SR005 Huddled around our campfires or standing on the camp dining room tables singing after meals on the top of our lungs, the American-Jewish Youth have created their own personal worship and celebratory music. Today, four decades later, the baby boomer campers of the 60’s are the Synagogue leaders, the new senior Rabbis, Cantors and Temple Presidents. Their songs are still being sung by their kids and grandchildren today. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BO87KK/ As a veteran secular composer, producer, and performer (via New York and Nashville) Stacy Beyer brings to Jewish contemporary music a CD that reflects thought provoking lyrics, a professional sound, and an enchanting voice. This 10 track recording of original English and Hebrew songs encompasses a vast range of musical styles. You will be captivated by the catchy and uplifting Climbing Up The Tree Of Life, the warm and meditative Haporeis Sukkat Shalom, the bluesy Gonna Be A Time with gospel-like backround vocals, and the quiet and moving With Me, an intimate accoustic guitar and vocal piece that affirms God's presence in every moment of our lives. Other favorites include Ha Makom, There's Always Hope, Hodu L'Adonai, Halleluya, I Pray (with guest vocalist Sam Glaser), and Ahavat Olam. Stacy's personal spiritual journey has led her to HA MAKOM, a place to remember! Combine gorgeous vocals, lively and inviting melodies and great accompaniment and arrive at Ha Makom: The Place. http://www.urjbooksandmusic.com/product.php?productid=663 Meet Peter Brown, a young Manhattan emergency room doctor with an unusual past that is just about to catch up with him. His morning begins with the quick disarming of a would-be mugger, followed by a steamy elevator encounter with a sexy young pharmaceutical rep, topped off by a visit with a new patient--and from there Peter's day is going to get a whole lot worse and a whole lot weirder. Because that patient knows Peter from his other life, when he had a different name and a very different job. The only reason he's a doctor now is thanks to the Witness Protection Program--and even they can't protect him from the long reach of the New Jersey mob. Now he's got to do whatever it takes to keep his patient alive so he can buy some time...and beat the reaper. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54948570 From 1912 to 1914, S. An-sky and the photographer Solomon Iudovin gathered materials and took photographs of Jewish daily life in pre-Revolutionary Russia's Pale of Settlement. Photographing the Jewish Nation offers English-language readers their first look at over 170 extraordinary, recently rediscovered photographs from their expeditions. The pictures provide visual texture--in remarkable detail--that rarely appears in written sources. This volume includes a critical introduction and five chapters that document all aspects of Jewish life inside the Pale, including work, education, and religious and cultural traditions. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54948554 A story about America in its pre-civil rights struggle, and how the brutal murder of an innocent Chicago boy forced the country to face its own ugliness. The impact of Emmett Till's brutal murder is told from the perspective of his neighborhood friends and who he was before he became an unwilling symbol of the horror of racial hatred. His courageous mother, Mrs. Mamie (Till) Bradley, exhibited her strength and sense of justice when she refused to allow her son's casket to be closed for the funeral. The truth of what happened to her son was not only etched on his bloated and broken face but on the conscience of the country's psyche. http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Chatham-Changed-America-personal/dp/1420875450/ Finding true love is possible in just 90 days. Renowned clinical psychologist, Dr. Diana Kirschner, uses the latest research, clinical and personal experience to show you how. Dr. Diana knows the questions single women everywhere face: "Why am I attracted to the wrong kind of guys?"Why is he just not that into me?"Why can't I seem to find the One?" She also knows the unconscious mistakes that women make over and over again in love-regardless of age, work success, or the type of men they are dating. Over the years Dr. Diana has received countless inquiries from single women about writing a how-to guide on her work. Love in 90 Days: The Essential Guide to Finding Your Own True Love is that book. Love in 90 Days is fun, savvy and based on the latest research on singles, online dating and healthy relationships. Loaded with step-by-step instructions, checklists, and weekly homework assignments, this revolutionary love book is also an intensely personal journey for each reader. Love in 90 Days guides you along your own path towards self discovery with proven and effective dating advice and tough love. Dr. Diana dispels common misconceptions about love relationships and dating, and share personal stories from women who have successfully completed the Love in 90 Days Program. There's also a chapter devoted to the special issues faced by African-American women, single mothers, and women forty-five and older. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54948548 Anita Diamant's story of four women, refugees from Nazi Europe, who find friendship, love, and salvation in a post-war British camp in Palestine. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54948535 "This memoir of one couple’s escape from the Nazis’ clutches reminds us of concrete factors that saved Jews in Hitler’s Europe: ingenuity and determination; getting to the right place at the right time; receiving help at strategic moments; but most of all, sheer good luck." —Michael R. Marrus, Professor of Holocaust Studies, University of Toronto At the beginning of World War II, the United States and other countries erected a "paper wall"--a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a small number of Jewish refugees from emigrating from Nazi-Occupied Europe. When the World Closed Its Doors tells the true story of a young couple who, like many European Jews, were caught between the Nazis and the "paper wall." Ida Piller-Greenspan was married in Belgium on May 9, 1940. That night the Nazis invaded Belgium. She and her new husband survived the next four months hitchhiking through occupied territory, hiding in barns and tunnels, dodging bombs near Dunkirk, crossing the Pyrenees on foot, and enduring weeks with little food and no money. Ultimately they arrived in Portugal, certain they would find sanctuary somewhere in the world beyond Europe’s borders. But their trials were not over. It took nine anxious months for them to find a country that would let them in—-months spent watching in horror as most refugees were forced back to uncertain lives in their home countries. Forty years later, Ida, an accomplished artist, created a pictorial diary of their journey. Her prints, lyrical, haunting, and compelling, are accompanied by a page-turning narrative that bears witness to this treacherous and largely forgotten chapter of World War II history. http://www.librarything.com/work/5656360/book/54910535 “It’s a great irony that Israel was more secure as an idea than it’s ever been as a nation with an army.” In AD 70, when the Second Temple was destroyed, a handful of visionaries saved Judaism by reinventing it—by taking what had been a national religion, identified with a particular place, and turning it into an idea. Jews no longer needed Jerusalem to be Jews. Whenever a Jew studied—wherever he was—he would be in the holy city. In this way, a few rabbis turned a real city into a city of the mind; in this way, they turned the Temple into a book and preserved their faith. Though you can burn a city, you cannot sack an idea or kill a book. But in our own time, Zionists have turned the book back into a temple. And unlike an idea, a temple can be destroyed. The creation of Israel has made Jews vulnerable in a way they have not been for two thousand years. In Israel Is Real, Rich Cohen’s superb new history of the Zionist idea and the Jewish state—the history of a nation chronicled as if it were the biography of a person—he brings to life dozens of fascinating figures, each driven by the same impulse: to reach Jerusalem. From false messiahs such as David Alroy (Cohen calls him the first superhero, with his tallis as a cape) and Sabbatai Zevi, who led thousands on a mad spiritual journey, to the early Zionists (many of them failed journalists), to the iconic figures of modern Jewish Sparta, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon, Cohen shows how all these lives together form a single story, a single life. In this unique book, Cohen examines the myth of the wandering Jew, the paradox of Jewish power (how can you be both holy and nuclear?), and the triumph and tragedy of the Jewish state—how the creation of modern Israel has changed what it means to be a Jew anywhere. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372317/book/54902483# When Dr. Leo Liebenstein's wife disappears, she leaves behind a single confounding clue: a woman who looks, talks, and behaves exactly like her. A simulatcrum. But Leo is not fooled, and he knows better than to trust his senses in matters of the heart. Certain that the real Rema is alive and in hiding, he embarks on a quixotic journey to reclaim her. With the help of his psychiatric patient Harvey--who believes himself to be a secret agent able to conrtol the weather--his investigation leads him from the streets of New York City to the southernmost reaches of Patagonia, in search of the woman he loves. Atmospheric Disturbances is a "witty, tender, and conceptually dazzling" (Booklist) novel about the mysterious nature of human relationships. http://www.librarything.com/work/4855947/book/54902140 It was the mid-1970s news report about twelve Syrian Jews being blown up in a minefield while trying to escape their country that brought home to Judy Feld Carr the terrible plight of Syria’s Jewish population. Like other Jews who remained trapped in Arab lands following the formation of the State of Israel, Syrian Jews lived in daily peril, virtual prisoners of a totalitarian regime, their every move closely monitored by the Muhabarat (the Syrian Secret Police), with extortion, imprisonment, and torture a constant reality. Over the next thirty years, “Mrs. Judy” (as she was known to the people she helped) publicly championed the cause of Syrian Jews as she secretly negotiated their escape–dealing with smugglers, bribing officials, haggling over travel documents, arranging medical aid, and funnelling money to those in need, even to those in prison. The Rescuer is the intensely dramatic story of the heroic and deeply humanitarian actions of one seemingly ordinary woman, a compelling glimpse into the workings of one Islamic regime, and a testament to the difference that one individual’s actions can have on the lives of thousands. http://www.librarything.com/work/4161772/book/54367277 Celebrating with Jewish Crafts is a one of a kind, inspiring and practical book with lots of full-color photographs and step-by-step instructions. In this book you will learn about the three types of Jewish Holidays: Major, Minor and Contemporary and the fun projects and decorative items that go along with them. Celebrating with Jewish Crafts is a hard cover, 10 x10 book with more than 300 pages of projects you can make with your children or students, each one with a photograph and step by step instructions. The book has beautiful and useful projects for Shabbat, such as Tzedakah boxes, candle holders, Kiddush cups, hallah plates and covers, and many more. For Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur you learn to make a honey dish, decorative apples, yahrzeit candle holders and a Tallit. Besides the traditional holydays the book has a section on making mezuzot, Jewish jewelry, bookmarks, hamsas, mobiles, siddur covers, placemats, coasters and many more. This book makes a wonderful gift for a Bat Mitzvah girl, a teacher, a school library, Synagogue or anyone that loves art. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54332186 From the author of The Song of Names (winner of the 2002 Whitbread First Novel Award), a powerful new novel that explores the reverberations of love and hate in the story of one man’s unlikely survival. In an unnamed country at the end of a world war, Paul Miller escapes from a labor camp, collapsing after running only a few hundred feet. He is taken in by a young woman named Alice, and by the time she has nursed him back to health, the war has ended. With no one to return to and learning to love the woman who saved him, Paul decides to stay where he is. Over time he marries Alice, has a family, helps to rebuild the village, and, eventually, becomes its mayor. But Paul is inescapably haunted by his life before the war, by his time in the camp, and by the fact that the people who are now his friends ignored for years the labor camp in their midst. When the camp’s commander returns to the village, Paul is at last faced with the moral dilemma that will force him to choose between vengeance and forgiveness. The Game of Opposites tells a universal tale of good and evil with extraordinary humanity and poignancy. It is a stunning evocation of the capability for both within all of us. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372445/book/54332065 Take a trip around the world to Italy, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, and beyond to see how Hanukkah is celebrated around the world. Try the delicious and unusual recipes for fried burmelos, latkes, and precipizi. http://www.librarything.com/work/8677576/book/54333035 Comic genius Jim Carey stars with Jennifer Aniston and Morgan Freeman in the entertaining comedy hit of the year that critics are applauding as a "laugh a minute" (Jim Ferguson, FOX-TV). Bruce Nolan (Carrey) is a TV reporter who believes the entire universe is stacked against him. In a life-altering encounter, the Big Guy Upstairs (Freeman) endows Bruce with all of His divine powers and challenges Bruce to take on the big job to see if he can do it any better. http://www.librarything.com/work/4969345/book/54331393 12 year-old Bernie is ignored by his own family. His obsessive compulsive father Manny (EDDIE MARSAN) is concerned about the giant supermarket opening opposite his grocery shop, and his mother Esther (HELENA BONHAM CARTER) is too busy worrying about Manny and Alvie, Bernie's mischievous older brother. With his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, however, Bernie believes he can finally gain the attention he deserves. He begins to plan the perfect ceremony and reception, where everyone assembled will acknowledge his new status as a man. Unfortunately for Bernie, things do not quite go according to plan. It's the summer of '66 and the country's soccer team makes it to the World Cup Final - set for the very same day. With England caught up in the games, Bernie is in danger of being overlooked again on his big day . Based on the real life experience of the director, Paul Weiland, "Sixty Six" is a charming comedy with heart-warming qualities reminiscent of "Billy Elliot" and "Love Actually." http://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Six-Eddie-Marsan/dp/B001V5K3AU/ A great miracle happened...and now it is time for a great celebration. DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHANUKAH is a playful holiday format that mimics a wrapped gift box. With glitter flocking and an embossed "bow," this simple story highlights the most popular Chanukah icons and traditions. From the menorah to latkes to chocolate gelt, DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHANUKAH is the gift that keeps on giving. http://www.librarything.com/work/9321454/book/54229772 The first comprehensive resource for spiritual direction in the Jewish tradition--a vital resource for people involved in spiritual leadership. The essential reference for people who are called to help others listen for God's voice--not only through prayer and sacred texts, but also through dance, art and interactions with other people--this groundbreaking volume draws on both Jewish tradition and the classical foundations of spiritual direction to provide invaluable guidance. Offering insight into all aspects of spiritual direction, including theology, practice, companionship, group work and embodied spirituality, the contributors to this guide are innovators in their fields and represent all four contemporary Jewish movements. Topics explored include: * Jewish Theologies and Jewish Spiritual Direction * The Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Direction * Spiritual Direction as a Contemplative Practice * Contemplation and Social Action * Cultivating a Hearing Heart * Spiritual Types * Community for Spiritual Direction * Spiritual Direction and the Cycle of Holy Time * Spiritual Companionship and the Passages of Life * Jewish Spiritual Direction and the Sacred Body * Integrating Spiritual Direction and Visual Creativity * and many more ... An exciting and practical addition to an emerging field, this is the definitive guide for all who accompany Jewish seekers on their spiritual journeys. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580232302/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable? Why is it that atheists and theists alike now think and speak about God in a way that veers so profoundly from the thinking of our ancestors? Answering these questions with the same depth of knowledge and profound insight that have marked all her acclaimed books, Armstrong makes clear how the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level. And she makes a powerful, convincing argument for drawing on the insights of the past in order to build a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously polarized age. Yet she cautions us that religion was never supposed to provide answers that lie within the competence of human reason; that, she says, is the role of logos. The task of religion is “to help us live creatively, peacefully, and even joyously with realities for which there are no easy explanations.” She emphasizes, too, that religion will not work automatically. It is, she says, a practical discipline: its insights are derived not from abstract speculation but from “dedicated intellectual endeavor” and a “compassionate lifestyle that enables us to break out of the prism of selfhood.” http://www.librarything.com/work/8499569/book/54127680 A compassionate tale of friends lost and found. The little boy and his teddy bear were always together. Every night, when the little boy went to sleep, his teddy bear was right there next to him. When the little boy went on a trip, his teddy bear went too-until one terrible day when the teddy bear was left behind . . . This is the wonderful story of a friend who is lost and found and lost and found again, and of a little boy who begins to understand the meaning of compassion. http://www.librarything.com/work/1750109/book/54127669 The thirst for exotic ornament among fashionable women in the metropoles of Europe and America prompted a bustling global trade in ostrich feathers that flourished from the 1880s until the First World War. When feathers fell out of fashion with consumers, the result was an economic catastrophe for many, a worldwide feather bust. In this remarkable book, Sarah Stein draws on rich archival materials to bring to light the prominent and varied roles of Jews in the feather trade. She discovers that Jews fostered and nurtured the trade across the global commodity chain and throughout the far-flung territories where ostriches were reared and plucked, and their feathers were sorted, exported, imported, auctioned, wholesaled, and finally manufactured for sale. From Yiddish-speaking Russian-Lithuanian feather handlers in South Africa to London manufacturers and wholesalers, from rival Sephardic families whose feathers were imported from the Sahara and traded across the Mediterranean, from New York’s Lower East Side to entrepreneurial farms in the American West, Stein explores the details of a remarkably vibrant yet ephemeral culture. This is a singular story of global commerce, colonial economic practices, and the rise and fall of a glamorous luxury item. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54091232 The exodus story is America's story. Moses is our real founding father. The pilgrims quoted his story. Franklin and Jefferson proposed he appear on the U.S. seal. Washington and Lincoln were called his incarnations. The Statue of Liberty and Superman were molded in his image. Martin Luther King, Jr., invoked him the night before he died. Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama cited him as inspiration. For four hundred years, one figure inspired more Americans than any other. His name is Moses. In this groundbreaking book, New York Times bestselling author Bruce Feiler travels through touchstones in American history and traces the biblical prophet's influence from the Mayflower through today. He visits the island where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath, climbs the bell tower where the Liberty Bell was inscribed with a quote from Moses, retraces the Underground Railroad where "Go Down, Moses" was the national anthem of slaves, and dons the robe Charlton Heston wore in The Ten Commandments. "Even a cursory review of American history indicates that Moses has emboldened leaders of all stripes," Feiler writes, "patriot and loyalist, slave and master, Jew and Christian. Could the persistence of his story serve as a reminder of our shared national values? Could he serve as a unifying force in a disunifying time? If Moses could split the Red Sea, could he unsplit America?" One part adventure story, one part literary detective story, one part exploration of faith in contemporary life, America's Prophet takes readers through the landmarks of America's narrative—from Gettysburg to Selma, the Silver Screen to the Oval Office—to understand how Moses has shaped the nation's character. Meticulously researched and highly readable, America's Prophet is a thrilling, original work of history that will forever change how we view America, our faith, and our future. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54091225 One woman's discovery---and the incredible, unexpected journey it takes her on---of how her grandparent's small village of Campagna, Italy, helped save Jews during the Holocaust. Take a journey with Elizabeth Bettina as she discovers much to her surprise, that her grandparent's small village, nestled in the heart of southern Italy, housed an internment camp for Jews during the Holocaust, and that it was far from the only one. Follow her discovery of survivors and their stories of gratitude to Italy and its people. Explore the little known details of how members of the Catholic church assisted and helped shelter Jews in Italy during World War II. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54091218 The Jewish People in its very being constitutes a living protest against a world of hatred, violence and war. Radical Then, Radical Now is a powerful testimony to the amazing resilience of the Jewish people who have, through their endurance of four thousand years of persecution and exile, earned a unique place in history. Without land or power, they created an identity for themselves through their shared dreams of freedom, justice, dignity and human rights. Yet far more than Jewish history is contained within the pages of this book. Jonathan Sacks reminds us all of the legacy of those dreams and of our responsibility to our fellow man. He challenges us to build a better world. 'Of all the questions of life, the two most penetrating are' Who Am? Who Are We? Rabbi Sacks answers beautifully. On matters of faith he is one of my favourite writers'. Michael Novak, Scholar at The American Enterprise Institute. http://www.librarything.com/work/1650022/book/54092050 From the author of the best-selling biography Woody Allen—the most informative, revealing, and entertaining conversations from his thirty-six years of interviewing the great comedian and filmmaker. For more than three decades, Woody Allen has been talking regularly and candidly with Eric Lax, and has given him singular and unfettered access to his film sets, his editing room, and his thoughts and observations. In discussions that begin in 1971 and continue into 2007, Allen discusses every facet of moviemaking through the prism of his own films and the work of directors he admires. In doing so, he reveals an artist’s development over the course of his career to date, from joke writer to standup comedian to world-acclaimed filmmaker. Woody talks about the seeds of his ideas and the writing of his screenplays; about casting and acting, shooting and directing, editing and scoring. He tells how he reworks screenplays even while filming them. He describes the problems he has had casting American men, and he explains why he admires the acting of (among many others) Alan Alda, Marlon Brando, Michael Caine, John Cusack, Judy Davis, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mia Farrow, Gene Hackman, Scarlett Johansson, Julie Kavner, Liam Neeson, Jack Nicholson, Charlize Theron, Tracey Ullman, Sam Waterston, and Dianne Wiest. He places Diane Keaton second only to Judy Holliday in the pantheon of great screen comediennes. He discusses his favorite films (Citizen Kane is the lone American movie on his list of sixteen “best films ever made”; Duck Soup and Airplane! are two of his preferred “comedian’s films”; Trouble in Paradise and Born Yesterday among his favorite “talking plot comedies”). He describes himself as a boy in Brooklyn enthralled by the joke-laden movies of Bob Hope and the sophisticated film stories of Manhattan. As a director, he tells us what he appreciates about Bergman, De Sica, Fellini, Welles, Kurosawa, John Huston, and Jean Renoir. Throughout he shows himself to be thoughtful, honest, self–deprecating, witty, and often hilarious. Conversations with Woody Allen is essential reading for everyone interested in the art of moviemaking and for everyone who has enjoyed the films of Woody Allen. http://www.librarything.com/work/4121407/book/54006612 Why did generations of people grow up thinking that Jews really had horns? Did Eve really eat an apple, and if not, why does everyone think she did? Did Noah s ark really exist? Did Moses really write the Torah? This fascinating book explores these and many other assumptions about Jews and Judaism. Rabbi Sonsino uses history, archeology, and other scholarship to debunk familiar myths, showing how and why they developed over time. This book is for everyone who wants to know more about Judaism and get the real story behind the myth. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807410608/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 In this striking picture book biography, an old-timer tells us what made Sandy Koufax so amazing. We learn that the beginning of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers was rocky, that he was shy with his teammates, and experienced discrimination as one of the only Jews in the game. We hear that he actually quit, only to return the next season—different—firing one rocket after another over the plate. We watch him refuse to play in the 1965 World Series because it is a Jewish high holy day. And we see him in pain because of an overused left arm, eventually retiring at the peak of his career. Finally, we are told that people are still “scratchin’ their heads over Sandy,” who remains a modest hero and a mystery to this day. Accompanied by sidebars filled with statistics, here’s a book sure to delight budding baseball fans. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/54003955 How do we use power once we've gained it? Is it completely for our individual benefit, or do we use it to help our neighborhoods, or society at-large? What kinds of decisions must CEOs and business owners make regarding suppliers and customers? How should bosses treat workers? Teachers treat students? Parents treat children? Government treats citizens? Power dynamics affect people on a political level, a social level, and a deeply personal level as well. The newest volume in the Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices series examines these dynamics and includes essays by such fine contributors as U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, NBC Universal Television-West Coast President Marc Graboff, and author and scholar James. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53908237 Along with illuminating the importance of Israel for Jews, this special book examines the Jewish return to Zion as a significant theological event that strengthens the foundations of the Christian faith and its mission. In clear and accessible language, this introduction guides Christians through the essential meanings of Israel for the Jewish People and for the world. It defines Israel as an indispensable part of Judaism's vision for the Jewish People to be "a kingdom of priests and a holy people," as a partner with God in the Bible's sacred covenant. It examines Israel, a sovereign Jewish state, as a safe refuge and home for Jews fleeing persecution anywhere in the world, and how this gives meaning to the Jewish People's convictions that the future can be more secure than the past. The State of Israel stands at the center of how Jews see themselves today as individuals as well as at the center of the Jewish People's collective self-perception. As a result, understanding Judaism and the Jewish People is possible only by grasping the Jewish hopes, dreams, and experiences that center around Israel, the promised land. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53908222 This is Jonathan Sacks' new book on the future of British society and the dangers facing liberal democracy. A counterweight to his earlier book, "The Dignity of Difference", Sacks makes the case for "integrated diversity" within a framework of shared political values. Arguing that global communications have fragmented national cultures and that multiculturalism, intended to reduce social friction, is today reinforcing it, Sacks calls for a new approach to national identity. He envisions a responsibility-based rather than rights-based model of citizenship that connects the ideas of giving and belonging. We should see society as "the home we build together", bringing the distinctive gifts of different groups to the common good. Sacks warns of the hazards free and open societies face in the 21st century, and offers an unusual religious defence of liberal democracy and the nation state. This logical sequel to Sacks' award-winning "The Dignity of Difference" (Continuum), "The Home We Build Together" makes a compelling case for "integrated diversity" within a framework of shared political values. http://www.librarything.com/work/4154765/book/53908206 Yiddish-speaking Jews thought Cuba was supposed to be a mere layover on the journey to the United States when they arrived in the island country in the 1920s. They even called it "Hotel Cuba." But then the years passed, and the many Jews who came there from Turkey, Poland, and war-torn Europe stayed in Cuba. The beloved island ceased to be a hotel, and Cuba eventually became "home." But after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, the majority of the Jews opposed his communist regime and left in a mass exodus. Though they remade their lives in the United States, they mourned the loss of the Jewish community they had built on the island. As a child of five, Ruth Behar was caught up in the Jewish exodus from Cuba. Growing up in the United States, she wondered about the Jews who stayed behind. Who were they and why had they stayed? What traces were left of the Jewish presence, of the cemeteries, synagogues, and Torahs? Who was taking care of this legacy? What Jewish memories had managed to survive the years of revolutionary atheism? An Island Called Home is the story of Behar's journey back to the island to find answers to these questions. Unlike the exotic image projected by the American media, Behar uncovers a side of Cuban Jews that is poignant and personal. Her moving vignettes of the individuals she meets are coupled with the sensitive photographs of Havana-based photographer Humberto Mayol, who traveled with her. Together, Behar's poetic and compassionate prose and Mayol's shadowy and riveting photographs create an unforgettable portrait of a community that many have seen though few have understood. This book is the first to show both the vitality and the heartbreak that lie behind the project of keeping alive the flame of Jewish memory in Cuba. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53908194 Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant, arrived in California in 1859 with very little money in his pocket and his brother Herman by his side. By the time he died, he had effectively transformed Los Angeles into the modern metropolis we see today. In Frances Dinkelspiel's groundbreaking history, the early days of California are seen through the life of a man who started out as a simple store owner only to become California's premier money-man of the late 19th and early 20th century. Growing up as a young immigrant, Hellman quickly learned the use to which "capital" could be put, founding LA's Farmers and Merchants Bank, that city's first successful bank, and transforming Wells Fargo into one of the West's biggest financial institutions. He invested money with Henry Huntington to build trolley lines, lent Edward Doheney the funds that led him to discover California's huge oil reserves, and assisted Harrison Gary Otis in acquiring full ownership of the Los Angeles Times. Hellman led the building of Los Angeles' first synagogue, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, helped start the University of Southern California and served as Regent of the University of California. His influence, however, was not limited to Los Angeles. He controlled the California wine industry for almost twenty years and, after San Francisco's devastating 1906 earthquake and fire, calmed the financial markets there in order to help that great city rise from the ashes. With all of these accomplishments, Isaias Hellman almost single-handedly brought California into modernity. Ripe with great historical events that filled the early days of California such as the Gold Rush and the San Francisco earthquake, Towers of Gold brings to life the transformation of California from a frontier society whose economy was driven by the barter of hides and exchange of gold dust into a vibrant state with the strongest economy in the nation. http://www.librarything.com/work/7471926/book/53908182 In 1996, on her 15th birthday, Bat-Chen Shahak was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Center. But the gifted teenager left behind a rich legacy of diaries, letters, poems and drawings. Following her death, her parents gathered her writings and created The Bat-Chen Diaries ; this is the first English translation of her work. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53879849 From the Creation to the death of Joseph, here is the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before. This eagerly awaited graphic work retells the first book of the Bible in a profoundly honest way. Peeling away the theological and scholarly interpretations that have often obscured its most dramatic stories, R. Crumb—using the actual text word for word—has imagined the Bible as it really was. Now, readers of every persuasion—Crumb fans, comic book lovers, history buffs, and believers—can gain astonishing new insights from these harrowing, visceral, and even juicy stories. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis reintroduces readers to Adam and Eve’s Eden, Noah’s Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Pharaoh’s Egypt. Using clues from the text, Crumb fleshes out the parade of biblical originals: from the sensitive dreamer Joseph to the crafty Jacob, to the still-fetching Sarah, to God Himself. The result, four years in the making, is a tapestry of extraordinary detail, the finest work of Crumb’s legendary career. http://www.librarything.com/work/8486527/book/53877545 This is an inspiring examination of young survivors of the Holocaust and their role in the creation of the state of Israel. Although they represented only a small portion of all displaced persons after World War II, Jewish displaced persons in postwar Europe played a central role on the international diplomatic stage. In fact, the overwhelming Zionist enthusiasm of this group, particularly in the large segment of young adults among them, was vital to the diplomatic decisions that led to the creation of the state of Israel so soon after the war. In Finding Home and Homeland, Avinoam J. Patt examines the meaning and appeal of Zionism to young Jewish displaced persons and looks for the reasons for its success among Holocaust survivors. Patt argues that Zionism was highly successful in filling a positive function for young displaced persons in the aftermath of the Holocaust because it provided a secure environment for vocational training, education, rehabilitation, and a sense of family. One of the foremost expressions of Zionist affiliation on the part of surviving Jewish youths after the war was the choice to live in kibbutzim organized within displaced persons camps in Germany and Poland, or even on estates of former Nazi leaders. By the summer of 1947, there were close to 300 kibbutzim in the American zone of occupied Germany with over 15,000 members, as well as 40 agricultural training settlements (hakhsharot) with over 3,000 members. Ultimately, these young people would be called upon to assist the state of Israel in the fighting that broke out in 1948. Patt argues that for many of the youth who joined the kibbutzim of the Zionist youth movements and journeyed to Israel, it was the search for a new home that ultimately brought them to a new homeland. Finding Home and Homeland consults previously untapped sources created by young Holocaust survivors after the war and in so doing reflects the experiences of a highly resourceful, resilient, and dedicated group that was passionate about the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Jewish studies, European history, and Israel studies scholars will appreciate the fresh perspective on the experiences of the Jewish displaced person population provided by this significant volume. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53873926 Secular and religious Jews alike will find wisdom and inspiration in this new book in which Rabbi David Aaron reveals the joy that living a Jewish life can bring. With his characteristic humor, enthusiasm, and insight, Rabbi Aaron looks at key, and often misunderstood, aspects of Jewish practice—our relationship with God, Torah study, prayer, living the commandments, celebrating the Sabbath, and keeping kosher—and shows us how they enable us to access and express the godliness within us. Celebrating Shabbat, for example, reminds us that we are created in the image of God, empowered with free choice and intention; studying the Torah releases our chen, or inner beauty and grace; and observing kosher laws helps keep us in touch with our human sensitivity. Rabbi Aaron clarifies why many Jews today feel disconnected from their heritage. He invites readers who have lost touch with their Jewish roots to "unpack their spiritual baggage" and discover the true spirit of Judaism.Rabbi Aaron is one of the most dynamic and accessible teachers of Kabbalah and Jewish wisdom today, and this book is a warm invitation to anyone struggling to find fresh meaning in Jewish practice. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590303954/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 The newest volume in the series--a guide to great novels and short story collections This new volume in the JPS Guides series is a fiction reader's dream: a guide to 125 remarkable works of fiction. The selection includes a wide range of classic American Jewish novels and story collections, from 1867 to the present, selected by the author in consultation with a panel of literary scholars and book industry professionals. Roth, Mailer, Kellerman, Chabon, Ozick, Heller, and dozens of other celebrated writers are here, with their most notable works. Each entry includes a book summary, with historical context and background on the author. Suggestions for further reading point to other books that match readers' interests and favorite writers. And the introduction is a fascinating exploration of the history of and important themes in American Jewish Fiction, illustrating how Jewish writing in the U.S. has been in constant dialogue with popular entertainment and intellectual life. Included in this guide are lists of book award winners; recommended anthologies; title, author, and subject indexes; and more. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53873914 From the authors of the classic Modern Commentary series on central Jewish texts - including Ruth, The Song of Songs, Ecclessiastes, Proverbs, and Pirke Avot- comes this new volume on the Book of Jonah. The story of Jonah, the reluctant prophet, is familiar to us from its annual reading on Yom Kippur, as well as its place in folklore. By interpreting commentary from Rashi, Redak, Ibn Ezra, and the Targum, Rabbis Kravitz and Olitzky shed new light on this age-old work. The themes of the Book of Jonah - responsibility, repentance, divine forgivness, and spiritual renewal - are timeless; they are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53873906 One wintry morning, Mama tells Rosy a wondrous story about her own mama, Grandma Beatrice, who could bring spring to cold, cold Minsk by making magic in the kitchen. Together, mother and daughter mix batter and sing a song. Then the batter goes into the pan—pour, swirl, swizzle, FLIP! Soon Papa comes in from the cold and the family shares a special treat. (Hint: A recipe for blintzes is included!) In this delightfully cozy tale, Holly Berry’s stunning illustrations evoke charming folk traditions and the warm magic made in Mama’s kitchen. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53873899 In this retelling of a Jewish folktale, Rachel and Jacob must work together to solve the trickiest riddles of all. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1554690811/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 For everyone who wants to understand the varieties of Jewish identity, its boundaries and inclusions, this book shows the way into an essential aspect of Judaism and allows you to interact directly with the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition. Dr. Sylvia Barack Fishman explores the religious and historical understanding of what it has meant to be Jewish from ancient times to the present controversy over "Who is a Jew?" Beginning with the biblical period, this volume takes you era-by-era through Jewish history to reveal who the Jewish community included and excluded, and discusses the fascinating range of historical conflicts that Jews have dealt with internally. It will provide an understanding of how the Jewish people and faith developed, and of what the major religious differences are among Jewish movements today. Judaism throughout history. What did Judaism look like in the earliest periods of recorded Jewish history? How have early Jewish teachings influenced diverse forms of Jewishness historically and today? How did attitudes and behaviors diverge as Jews migrated and responded to their Christian or Muslim host cultures? How did various Jewish "enlightenments," social movements and political changes affect Jewish culture and religion? Modern Judaism. Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, Renewal--what are the many movements--and secular forms--of Judaism that exist today? How did each movement begin, and what role does each play in the landscape of modern American Judaism? What challenges does Judaism in general, and the movements in particular, face in the coming years and decades? Conversion to Judaism. What were historical attitudes toward "Jews by Choice," and what are the attitudes today? http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53784124 Fifty Key Jewish Thinkers is a panoramic survey of over 2,000 years of Jewish thought, religious and secular, ancient and modern. Now in its second edition, this essential reference guide contains new introductions to the lives and works of such thinkers as: Hannah Arendt, Immanuel Levinas, Judith Plaskow, Sigmund Freud, and Walter Benjamin. Also including fully updated guides to further reading on figures from the middle ages through to the twenty-first century, historical maps and a chronology placing the thinkers in context, this is an essential and affordable one-volume reference to a rich and complex tradition. http://www.librarything.com/work/135763/53784081 Breathe New Life into Your Prayer with the Wisdom of Kabbalah and the Hasidic Masters Jewish mystics teach that every word a person utters in prayer should radiate light. Even the letters of the words of prayer carry sparks of the Divine that yearn to join together in holiness. In this inspiring spiritual companion, Reform rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Orthodox rabbi Nehemia Polen join together to provide a window into the liturgy for people of all backgrounds by offering fresh insights and meditations that bring the traditional prayerbook to life. Drawing from the Torah, Zohar, and ancient and contemporary Hasidic masters, Kushner and Polen reflect on the joy, gratitude, compassion, mystery, and awe embedded in traditional prayers and blessings, and show how you can imbue these familiar sacred words with your own sense of holiness. Insightful, fresh, and wise, Filling Words with Light will enrich your understanding of the prayer book and guide you on how to put more of yourself into the holy words of the Jewish tradition. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53784072 In his landmark book How We Die, Sherwin B. Nuland profoundly altered our perception of the end of life. Now in The Art of Aging, Dr. Nuland steps back to explore the impact of aging on our minds and bodies, strivings and relationships. Melding a scientist’s passion for truth with a humanist’s understanding of the heart and soul, Nuland has created a wise, frank, and inspiring book about the ultimate stage of life’s journey. The onset of aging can be so gradual that we are often surprised to find that one day it is fully upon us. The changes to the senses, appearance, reflexes, physical endurance, and sexual appetites are undeniable–and rarely welcome–and yet, as Nuland shows, getting older has its surprising blessings. Age concentrates not only the mind, but the body’s energies, leading many to new sources of creativity, perception, and spiritual intensity. Growing old, Nuland teaches us, is not a disease but an art–and for those who practice it well, it can bring extraordinary rewards. “I’m taking the journey even while I describe it,” writes Nuland, now in his mid-seventies and a veteran of nearly four decades of medical practice. Drawing on his own life and work, as well as the lives of friends both famous and not, Nuland portrays the astonishing variability of the aging experience. Faith and inner strength, the deepening of personal relationships, the realization that career does not define identity, the acceptance that some goals will remain unaccomplished–these are among the secrets of those who age well. Will scientists one day fulfill the dream of eternal youth? Nuland examines the latest research into extending life and the scientists who are pursuing it. But ultimately, what compels him most is what happens to the mind and spirit as life reaches its culminating decades. Reflecting the wisdom of a long lifetime, The Art of Aging is a work of luminous insight, unflinching candor, and profound compassion. http://www.librarything.com/work/2394567/53784067 What if our beliefs were not what divided us, but what pulled us together? In Have a Little Faith, Mitch Albom offers a beautifully written story of a remarkable eight-year journey between two worlds--two men, two faiths, two communities--that will inspire readers everywhere. Albom's first nonfiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, Have a Little Faith begins with an unusual request: an eighty-two-year-old rabbi from Albom's old hometown asks him to deliver his eulogy. Feeling unworthy, Albom insists on understanding the man better, which throws him back into a world of faith he'd left years ago. Meanwhile, closer to his current home, Albom becomes involved with a Detroit pastor--a reformed drug dealer and convict--who preaches to the poor and homeless in a decaying church with a hole in its roof. Moving between their worlds, Christian and Jewish, African-American and white, impoverished and well-to-do, Albom observes how these very different men employ faith similarly in fighting for survival: the older, suburban rabbi embracing it as death approaches; the younger, inner-city pastor relying on it to keep himself and his church afloat. As America struggles with hard times and people turn more to their beliefs, Albom and the two men of God explore issues that perplex modern man: how to endure when difficult things happen; what heaven is; intermarriage; forgiveness; doubting God; and the importance of faith in trying times. Although the texts, prayers, and histories are different, Albom begins to recognize a striking unity between the two worlds--and indeed, between beliefs everywhere. In the end, as the rabbi nears death and a harsh winter threatens the pastor's wobbly church, Albom sadly fulfills the rabbi's last request and writes the eulogy. And he finally understands what both men had been teaching all along: the profound comfort of believing in something bigger than yourself. Have a Little Faith is a book about a life's purpose; about losing belief and finding it again; about the divine spark inside us all. It is one man's journey, but it is everyone's story. Ten percent of the profits from this book will go to charity, including The Hole In The Roof Foundation, which helps refurbish places of worship that aid the homeless. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/53688399 This 100-page beautifully designed and crafted large format hardcover book, based on our award-winning exhibition, features brief essays and a historic overview of the Jewish families, businesses, congregations, neighborhoods, and communal organizations in the city and its suburbs. In print for the very first time are more than 100 images of historic documents, artifacts, and photographs, many never seen before, from the Society's collections. This book, which began as a landmark exhibition, adds depth and dimension to the story of Washington s Jewish community. Drawing on the rich community archives, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington first created an exhibition and this new book to honor the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America. Inside, a wealth of images, many never before seen by the public, depict a Washington that is both the nation s capital and hometown to the sixth largest Jewish community in the United States. The format and title of the book take their cue from the many scrapbooks now housed in the Society s archives. These valuable objects record the unique history and its role in American Jewish life and the nation s history. These materials, and the rest of the Society s collections, form the nation s central archives for this special community. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0979236509/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Biography/Memoir. Living Jewish history in a gripping true story of an extraordinary woman told in her own words and those of her daughter. These are pioneers in the 20th century South. Text contains over 160 original photos and illustrations. http://www.amazon.com/CALL-HER-BLESSED-JULIENE-BERK/dp/B000TYP21O/ A collection of true short stories about real people and actual events involving pioneer Jews who arrived in the South in the early part of the 20th century. Also contains a separate group of vignettes told by Yankel in his own distinctive way mixing newly-minted English with his Yiddish to form a new idiom. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0979194903/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Jews have long been a presence in the American South, first arriving in the late seventeenth century as part of exploratory voyages from Europe to the New World. Two of the nation's earliest Jewish communities were founded in Savannah in 1733 and Charleston in 1749. By 1800, more Jews lived in Charleston than in New York City. Today, Jews comprise less than one half of one percent of the southern population but provide critical sustenance and support for their communities. Nonetheless, southern Jews have perplexed scholars. For more than a century, historians have wrestled with various questions. Why study southern Jewish history? What is the southern Jewish experience? Is southern Jewish culture distinctive from that of other regions of the country, and if so, why? Jewish Roots in Southern Soil: A New History addresses these questions through the voices of a new generation of scholars of the Jewish South. Each of this book's thirteen chapters reflects a response with particular attention paid to new studies on women and gender; black/Jewish relations and the role of race, politics, and economic life; popular and material culture; and the changes wrought by industrialization and urbanization in the twentieth century. Essays address historical issues from the colonial era to the present and in every region of the South. Topics include assimilation and American Jewish identity, southern Jewish women writers, the Jewish Confederacy, Jewish peddlers, southern Jewish racial identity, black/Jewish relations, demographic change, the rise of American Reform Judaism, and Jews in southern literature. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1584655895/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 A shy manifesto, an impractical handbook, the true story of a fabulist, an entire life in parts and pieces, Manhood for Amateurs is the first sustained work of personal writing from Michael Chabon. In these insightful, provocative, slyly interlinked essays, one of our most brilliant and humane writers presents his autobiography and his vision of life in the way so many of us experience our own lives: as a series of reflections, regrets, and reexaminations, each sparked by an encounter, in the present, that holds some legacy of the past. What does it mean to be a man today? Chabon invokes and interprets and struggles to reinvent for us, with characteristic warmth and lyric wit, the personal and family history that haunts him even as—simply because—it goes on being written every day. As a devoted son, as a passionate husband, and above all as the father of four young Americans, Chabon presents his memories of childhood, of his parents' marriage and divorce, of moments of painful adolescent comedy and giddy encounters with the popular art and literature of his own youth, as a theme played—on different instruments, with a fresh tempo and in a new key—by the mad quartet of which he now finds himself co-conductor. At once dazzling, hilarious, and moving, Manhood for Amateurs is destined to become a classic. http://www.librarything.com/work/8393668/book/53650782 While studying the Ten Commandments Michael says he would rather there were no rules, but when his teacher gives him a day without rules, Michael learns an important lesson. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580130445/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Known most widely for his role in the civil rights and peace movements of the 1960s, Abraham Joshua Heschel made major scholarly contributions to the fields of biblical studies, rabbinics, medieval Jewish philosophy, Hasidism, and mysticism. Yet, his most ambitious scholarly achievement, his three-volume study of Rabbinic Judaism, is only now appearing in English. Heschel's great insight is that the world of rabbinic thought can be divided into two types or schools, those of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael, and that the historic disputes between the two are based on fundamental differences over the nature of revelation and religion. Furthermore, this disagreement constitutes a basic and necessary ongoing polarity within Judaism between immanence and transcendence, mysticism and rationalism, neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism. Heschel then goes on to show how these two fundamental theologies of revelation may be used to interpret a great number of topics central to Judaism. http://www.librarything.com/work/665715/book/53462033 "The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah" is the definitive and authoritative scholarly text on this subject. It is both a history of the development of the Passover Haggadah and a critical commentary, in the tradition of the JPS Torah and Bible Commentary books. This volume provides both the Hebrew text and English translation of the classic haggadah, along with an extended introduction and Tabory's in-depth, insightful commentary on classical, rabbinic, and modern versions of the Passover text. http://www.librarything.com/work/5122493/book/53461427 Though certainly not untouched by tragedy, the historical period of the middle ages was a dynamic and prosperous time for Jewish civilization; for despite the mass expulsions and periodic attacks that the Jews of the time suffered, they also managed prolonged periods of at least civil relations with the Christian and Muslim cultures that surrounded them, periods in which the Jewish culture at large produced great poetry and important philosophical and theological works, and made inspired contributions to mathematics and the sciences. Accessible to the general reader but enlightening also to the scholar, Norman Roth's account of the diverse and diffuse culture of Jewish daily life in the medieval world offers a direct look on this profoundly historical people, who through their unique relationship with the cultures that surrounded them touched obliquely on so much else in the world of the middle ages-as well as on that of the present day. For ease of use by students, the work is organized into chapters covering all aspects of daily life: education, marriage and family life, the Jewish community at large, religious customs and observances, work, medicine, literature and the arts, the dangers of being Jewish, and the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. It includes a historical timeline of the critical events in the Jewish experience of the middle ages, a glossary of terms, and a bibliography for further reading. Throughout the work Roth shows the circumstances surrounding and at times invading Jewish life at the time, and paints a picture that is at once intimate and also comprehensive. This work will provide school and public librarians with a resource on Jewish culture that is unique, highly informative, historically accurate, and compelling to a high degree. http://www.librarything.com/work/2005773/book/53460744 Albert Einstein thought and wrote extensively not just on the most difficult problems in physics, but also in politics. For the first time, this book collects his essays, interviews, and letters on the Middle East, Zionism, and Arab-Jewish relations. Many of these have never been published in English, and all of them contradict the popular image of Einstein as pro-Zionist. He was offered and refused the Presidency of Israel, but had he taken it, he may have said things the Zionists didn’t want to hear; he favored a non-religious state that would welcome Jew and Palestinian alike. One person’s letters, even Einstein’s, cannot resolve the crisis in the Middle East, but decades later, when horrors of the conflict in the Middle East are familiar to everyone, the reflections of one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers are a signpost, showing his commitment to social justice, understanding, and friendship between Jew and Arab. http://www.librarything.com/work/8159264/book/53460517 Could our sense of who we are really turn on a sliver of DNA? In our multiethnic world, questions of individual identity are becoming increasingly unclear. Now in ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN bestselling author Jon Entine vividly brings to life the profound human implications of the Age of Genetics while illuminating one of today's most controversial topics: the connection between genetics and who we are, and specifically the question "Who is a Jew?" Entine weaves a fascinating narrative, using breakthroughs in genetic genealogy to reconstruct the Jewish biblical tradition of the chosen people and the hereditary Israelite priestly caste of Cohanim. Synagogues in the mountains of India and China and Catholic churches with a Jewish identity in New Mexico and Colorado provide different patterns of connection within the tangled history of the Jewish diaspora. Legendary accounts of the Hebrew lineage of Ethiopian tribesmen, the building of Africa's Great Zimbabwe fortress, and even the so-called Lost Tribes are reexamined in light of advanced DNA technology. Entine also reveals the shared ancestry of Israelites and Christians. As people from across the world discover their Israelite roots, their riveting stories unveil exciting new approaches to defining one's identity. Not least, Entine addresses possible connections between DNA and Jewish intelligence and the controversial notion that Jews are a "race apart." ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN is a compelling reinterpretation of biblical history and a challenging and exciting illustration of the promise and power of genetic research. http://www.librarything.com/work/4134743/book/53455204 On May 14, 1948, under the stewardship of President Harry S. Truman, the United States became the first nation to recognize the State of Israel—just moments after sovereignty had been declared in Jerusalem. But it was hardly a foregone conclusion that America would welcome the creation of this new country. While acknowledging this as one of his proudest moments, Truman also admitted that no issue was "more controversial or more complex than the problem of Israel." As the president told his closest advisers, these attempts to resolve the issue of a Jewish homeland had left him in a condition of "political battle fatigue." Based on never-before-used archival material, A Safe Haven is the most complete account to date of the events that led to this historic occasion. Allis and Ronald Radosh explore the national and global pressures bearing on Truman and the people—including the worldwide Jewish community, key White House advisers, the State Department, the British, the Arabs, and the representatives of the new United Nations—whose influence, on both sides, led to his decision. Impeccably researched, brilliantly told, A Safe Haven is a suspenseful, moment-by-moment re-creation of this crossroads in U.S.-Israeli relations and Middle Eastern politics. http://www.librarything.com/work/8346378/book/53423938 Does America's "pro-Israel lobby," including the legendary American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), have as much power as is commonly believed? Does it have an unbreakable stranglehold on America's Middle East policies? The answer is no, according to Dan Fleshler, an American Jewish activist who has worked within his community to try to counteract AIPAC and its allies. Written from the singular perch of a liberal American Jew who wants to create an alternative lobby in order to encourage more evenhanded U.S. policies in the Middle East, Fleshler's new book, Transforming America's Israel Lobby, sheds new light on how Israel's American supporters exert their influence in Washington. With original research, it skewers myths propounded by the defenders of America's mainstream, pro-Israel community as well as its detractors, notably John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. It demonstrates that much of AIPAC's power is based on smoke and mirrors, on its ability to manage the perceptions of the political elite and promote exaggerated notions of its resources and clout. Having put AIPAC and its allies in proper perspective, the book provides the first detailed examination of the opportunities for--and obstacles to--creating a domestic political bloc that is pro-American, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. It offers concrete, provocative suggestions to Americans--Jews and non-Jews alike--who want to embolden the U.S. government to disagree with Israel when necessary, and to press both Israelis and Palestinians to make the compromises required for peace. Why have American Jews, one of the most liberal communities in the United States, allowed hawks and neoconservatives to speak for them in Washington on matters related to Israel? Where have all the Jewish doves been hiding all of these years? Why didn't more of them speak out against America's invasion of Iraq? What can be done to mobilize Americans who believe that stopping both Israeli settlement expansion and Palestinian terrorism are vital American interests, and who want to give U.S. officials more political leeway to lean on both sides of the conflict, rather than just one side? Dan Fleshler, who has spent a quarter century as a consultant, board member and volunteer for a wide range of Jewish organizations, is in a unique position to answer these questions. He does so based on his own extensive experience in the American Jewish community, as well as interviews with Washington insiders, American Jewish leaders, Arab American and Christian church activists who focus on the Middle East, Israeli diplomats and politicians, and other experts. This book is a clarion call to "passionate moderates" who want to see an end to the Israeli occupation and who envision a viable Palestinian state; both goals can be achieved, according to Fleshler, via a robust American diplomacy that does not sell out the interests of either Israelis or Palestinians. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1597972223/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 When westward expansion began in the early nineteenth century, the Jewish population of the United States was only 2,500. As Jewish immigration surged over the century between 1820 and 1920, Jews began to find homes in the Ohio River Valley. In Jewish Communities on the Ohio River, Amy Hill Shevitz chronicles the settlement and evolution of Jewish communities in small towns on both banks of the river -- towns such as East Liverpool and Portsmouth, Ohio, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Madison, Indiana. Though not large, these communities influenced American culture and history by helping to develop the Ohio River Valley while transforming Judaism into an American way of life. The Jewish experience and the regional experience reflected and reinforced each other. Jews shared regional consciousness and pride with their Gentile neighbors. The antebellum Ohio River Valley's identity as a cradle of bourgeois America fit very well with the middle-class aspirations and achievements of German Jewish immigrants in particular. In these small towns, Jewish citizens created networks of businesses and families that were part of a distinctive middle-class culture. As a minority group with a vital role in each community, Ohio Valley Jews fostered religious pluralism as their contributions to local culture, economy, and civic life countered the antisemitic sentiments of the period. Jewish Communities on the Ohio River offers enlightening case studies of the associations between Jewish communities in the big cities of the region, especially Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and the smaller river towns that shared an optimism about the Jewish future in America. Jews in these communities participated enthusiastically in ongoing dialogues concerning religious reform and unity, playing a crucial role in the development of American Judaism. The history of the Ohio River Valley includes the stories of German and East European Jewish immigrants in America, of the emergence of American Reform Judaism and the adaptation of tradition, and of small-town American Jewish culture. While relating specifically to the diversity of the Ohio River Valley, the stories of these towns illustrate themes that are central to the larger experience of Jews in America. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813124301/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 How have Jews reshaped their identities as Jews in the face of the radical newness called America? Julian Levinson explores the ways in which exposure to American literary culture--in particular the visionary tradition identified with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman--led American Jewish writers to a new understanding of themselves as Jews. Discussing the lives and work of writers such as Emma Lazarus, Mary Antin, Ludwig Lewisohn, Waldo Frank, Anzia Yezierska, I. J. Schwartz, Alfred Kazin, and Irving Howe, Levinson concludes that their interaction with American culture led them to improvise new and meaningful ways of being Jewish. In contrast to the often expressed view that the diaspora experience leads to assimilation, Exiles on Main Street traces an arc of return to Jewish identification and describes a vital and creative Jewish American literary culture. http://www.librarything.com/work/6029209/book/53421804 Forced to flee the brutal pogroms of Europe, Jewish immigrants sought refuge in the beauty of Boston's North Shore. Drawing on their artisan skills, many found work in the tanneries of Peabody and the shoe factories of Lynn, while other enterprising Jews established their own businesses in Salem and Beverly- from butcher shops and groceries to newspapers. Alongside fellow members of the Jewish Historical Society of the North Shore, Alan Pierce has carefully assembled a collection of personal histories from generations of Jewish families. Celebrating the rich flavors of Jewish culture, these accounts capture familiar faces, such as renowned athlete Herb Brenner, and recognizable landmarks like the Kernwood Country Club and the Dolphin Yacht Club, innovative establishments open to all regardless of race or religion. With entrepreneurial spirit, a little determination and plenty of faith, the North Shore's storied Jewish communities have etched enduring marks on its streets and in its synagogues. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1596296585/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Saving the Jews is a rigorously researched narrative and interpretive history of how FDR and his administration dealt with the Nazi persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust, 1933-1945. It disputes the generally accepted view that Roosevelt abandoned the Jews of Europe and that America was a passive, callous bystander to the Holocaust, and reveals the true story. The author has conducted new research that explains how the Roosevelt administration and American Jewry saved the passengers on the S.S. St. Louis; how American Jews (and the Jews of Palestine) opposed the bombing of Auschwitz and never asked Roosevelt to bomb the camps; how America and other western democracies saved over seventy percent of German Jewry from Hitler; how Rauol Wallenberg was sent to save Jews by the American government. The research done on this book has found no credible evidence that FDR was an anti-Semite but found that Roosevelt was personally close to many Jews. FDR secretly developed the strategy for the Wagners-Rogers Bill (allowing 20,000 German Jewish children to enter the U.S. in 1938, 1939). Yet most historians continue to accuse him of failing to support the bill. http://www.librarything.com/work/2018171/53420588 What was it like for the first Jews to arrive in the New World? How did a Bavarian immigrant’s crockery business expand into one of the nation’s top department stores? How did Yiddish theater and humor influence Hollywood and mainstream entertainment? How has Israel affected American Jewish identity? This magnificently illustrated book, companion to the major PBS television documentary produced by David Grubin, tells the history of Jews in America in a captivating and accessible collection of first-person accounts, interviews, distinguished scholarly writings, and profiles of prominent Jews as well as ordinary Jewish immigrants. The text and images trace more than three hundred years of American Jewish history— from the first arrival of Jews in colonial America in 1654 to the social movements of today—and everything in between. The book chronicles the mass immigration of Jews in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the innovations of American Jewish culture, responses to anti-Semitism, and transition from immigrant to middle-class neighborhoods. It tells the story of the Jewish presence in sports and entertainment, the transformative watershed events of World War II and the Holocaust, the impact of the establishment of Israel, the emergence of new forms of American Jewish identity, and the responsibilities of the Jewish community today. This comprehensive and often surprising look at the growth, difficulties, and accomplishments of the Jewish American community is further enhanced by the intimate first-person accounts of several generations of American Jews. Activists, musicians, spiritual leaders, politicians, and so many others come to life through their photos, correspondence, and interviews. They lend faces and personal experiences to the movements and events they lived through, and they remind us that the story of Jews is the story of America. Carving out a life for themselves in the free and open society of the United States, Jews maintained their identity while becoming an integral part of American culture. http://www.librarything.com/work/3991597/53420465 This heart-stopping story of a young girl hiding from the Nazis is based on Clara Kramer's diary of her years surviving in an underground bunker with seventeen other people. Clara Kramer was a typical Polish-Jewish teenager from a small town at the outbreak of the Second World War. When the Germans invaded, Clara's family was taken in by the Becks, a Volksdeutsche (ethnically German) family from their town. Mrs. Beck worked as Clara's family's housekeeper. Mr. Beck was known to be an alcoholic, a womanizer, and a vocal anti-Semite. But on hearing that Jewish families were being led into the woods and shot, Beck sheltered the Kramers and two other Jewish families. Eighteen people in all lived in a bunker dug out of the Becks' basement. Fifteen-year-old Clara kept a diary during the twenty terrifying months she spent in hiding, writing down details of their unpredictable life—from the house's catching fire to Mr. Beck's affair with Clara's neighbor; from the nightly SS drinking sessions in the room above to the small pleasure of a shared Christmas carp. Against all odds, Clara lived to tell her story, and her diary is now part of the permanent collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. http://www.librarything.com/work/5382277/book/53318359 This extraordinary guidebook invites readers to walk through thousands of years - in just a matter of hours. Packed with illuminating text, evocative, full-color photos, easy-to-follow maps and directions, this comprehensive and convenient travel guide takes readers on ten carefully charted walks through Jerusalem s Old City: the most fascinating and history-filled corner of the world! Readers can follow in the footsteps of Abraham, march alongside King David, join in the building of Solomon s Temple, explore the wonders of the Western Wall, discover underground Jerusalem, and then marvel at the splendor of a vibrant, modern Jewish Quarter. From Creation to the Crusades, from the Six Day War to the present day, it s all here! Whether readers take one walk, two, or all ten, it s bound to add up to the experience of a lifetime: eye-opening, memorable, and inspiring. Jerusalem: Footsteps Through Time provides everything one needs in the way of a guidebook, and its handy, pocket-size format makes it the perfect on-the-spot companion. Filled with invaluable information, color photographs, and vivid diagrams, it is a useful educational tool as well as the perfect souvenir of a visit to the Holy Land. http://www.librarything.com/work/5516125/book/53317776 Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his teenage and college years oscillating between carnivore and vegetarian. As he became a husband and a father, he kept returning to two questions: Why do we eat animals? And would we eat them if we knew how they got on our dinner plates? Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, and his own undercover detective work, Eating Animals explores the many fictions we use to justify our eating habits-from folklore to pop culture to family traditions and national myth-and how such tales justify a brutal ignorance. Marked by Foer's profound moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the vibrant style and creativity that made his previous books, Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, huge bestsellers, Eating Animals is a celebration and a reckoning, a story about the stories we've told--and the stories we now need to tell. http://www.librarything.com/work/8645055/book/53317027 What can the most successful doll on the planet show us about being Jewish today? Narrated by Peter Coyote, the film mixes old school narration with a new school visual style. The Tribe weaves together archival footage, graphics, animation, Barbie dioramas, and slam poetry to take audiences on an electric ride through the complex history of both the Barbie doll and the Jewish people- from Biblical times to present day. By tracing Barbie's history, the film sheds light on the questions: What does it mean to be an American Jew today? What does it mean to be a member of any tribe in the 21st Century? http://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Peter-Coyote/dp/B001UE7CBA/ Everything is over for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth’s startling new book. One of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great roles, "are melted into air, into thin air." When he goes onstage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to be someone else. "Something fundamental has vanished." His wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can’t persuade him to make a comeback. Into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day’s journey into night, told with Roth’s inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity, all the ways that we convince ourselves of our solidity, all our life’s performances—talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation—are stripped off. http://www.librarything.com/work/8387740/book/53315834 Charlotte's thrilled -- Sophie's on her way from Paris to meet the BSG, and Charlotte's writing a special story as a welcome gift. But is the fashionable teen who shows up at the airport the BFF Charlotte once knew? Everyone at Abigail Adams Junior High goes wild for Sophie's style, Dillon falls head over heels, and Charlotte worries that her sophisticated friend is too cool for her! Meanwhile, Maeve is dreaming of a blowout Bat Mitzvah her parents simply can't afford. Can the BSG come to her rescue? http://www.librarything.com/work/9053279/book/53314439 Everyone knows cookies taste good, but these cookies also have something good to say. Open this delectable book to any page and you will find out something about life. Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons is a new kind of dictionary, one that defines mysteries such as "fair" and "unfair" and what it really means to "cooperate." The book is by turns clever, honest, inspirational, and whimsical. Go ahead, take a bite! http://www.librarything.com/work/1073202/book/53314113 The Organ and Its Music in German-Jewish Culture examines the powerful but often overlooked presence of the organ in synagogue music and the musical life of German-speaking Jewish communities. Tina Fruhauf expertly chronicles the history of the organ in Jewish culture from the earliest references in the Talmud through the 19th century, when it had established a firm and lasting presence in Jewish sacred and secular spaces in central Europe. Fruhauf demonstrates how the introduction of the organ into German synagogues was part of the significant changes which took place in Judaism after the Enlightenment, and posits the organ as a symbol of the division of the Jewish community into Orthodox and Reform congregations. Newly composed organ music for Jewish liturgy after this division became part of a cross-cultural music tradition in 19th and 20th century Germany, when a specific style of organ music developed which combined elements of Western and Jewish cultures. Concluding with a discussion of the organ in Jewish communities in Israel and the USA, the book presents in-depth case studies which illustrate how the organ has been utilized in the musical life of specific Jewish communities in the 20th century. Based on extensive research in the archives of organ builders and Jewish musicians, The Organ and Its Music in German-Jewish Culture offers comprehensive and detailed descriptions of specific organs as well as fascinating portraits of Jewish organists and composers. With an extensive companion website featuring full color illustrations and over 200 organ dispositions, this book will be eagerly read by performers, students, and scholars of the organ, as well as students and scholars in historical musicology and Jewish music. http://www.librarything.com/work/9140100/book/53312656 This children's book is positive proof that the ability to integrate two religions in one family can be easy and fun. One family's positive experience of incorporating both the Christian and Jewish faiths lights the way for interfaith families and teaches a lesson of celebrating diversity. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1419649094/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 The Reader, set in post-WWII Germany, follows teenager Michael Berg as he engages in a passionate but secretive affair with an older woman named Hanna. Eight years after Hanna's disappearance, Michael is stunned to discover her again as she stands on trial for Nazi war crimes. The Reader is a haunting story about truth and reconciliation and how one generation comes to terms with the crimes of another. Kate Winslet won and Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance. http://www.amazon.com/Reader-Kate-Winslet/dp/B001PPLJIQ/ Why has the United States consistently failed to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East? According to Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, two of America’s leading experts on the region, it is because we have been laboring under false assumptions, or mythologies, about the nature and motivation of Middle East countries and their leaders. In Myths, Illusions, and Peace, the authors debunk these damaging fallacies, held by both the right and the left, and present a concise and far-reaching set of principles that will help America set an effective course of action in the region. Among the myths that the authors show to be false and even dangerous is the idea that Israeli-Palestinian peace is the key to solving all the Middle East’s problems; that regime change is a prerequisite for peace and democracy; and that Iran’s leadership is immune from diplomatic and economic pressure. These and other historic misunderstandings have generated years’ worth of failed policies and crippled America’s ability to make productive decisions in this volatile part of the world, a region that will hold the key to our security in the twenty-first century. Ross and Makovsky offer a critical rethinking of American perceptions at a time of great import and change. http://www.librarything.com/work/8213276/book/52967026 The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else. A country which once restored hope to Jews world-over now feels itself slipping. Increasingly, Israelis wonder how much has really been accomplished and whether they ought to persevere. Can Israel win the next military war for survival, whomever the foe? Can Israel defuse the demographic time bomb of a growing Arab population? Can Israel, a country that’s come so far and sacrificed so much, keep up the will to fight? Daniel Gordis is confident his fellow Jews can renew their faith in the cause, and in Saving Israel, he outlines how. Gordis has written many popular personal essays and memoirs in the past, but Saving Israel is a full-throated call to arms. Never has the case for defending -- no, celebrating -- the existence of Israel been so clear, so passionate, or so worthy of wholehearted support. http://www.librarything.com/work/8052282/book/52966240 “ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb…. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all. Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever. Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways. http://www.librarything.com/work/5072307/52965294 Just before her death in 2007 at the age of eighty-four, Grace Paley completed this wise and poignant book of poems. Full of memories of friends and family and incisive observations of life in both her beloved hometown, New York City, and rural Vermont, the poems are sober and playful, experimenting with form while remaining eminently readable. They explore the beginnings and ends of relationships, the ties that bind siblings, the workings of dreams, the surreal strangeness of the aging body—all imbued with her unique perspective and voice. Mournful and nostalgic, but also ruefully funny and full of love, Fidelity is Grace Paley’s passionate and haunting elegy for the life she was leaving behind. http://www.librarything.com/work/4855945/book/52964150 There is no woman with a worse reputation than Jezebel, the ancient queen who corrupted a nation and met one of the most gruesome fates in the Bible. Her name alone speaks of sexual decadence and promiscuity. But what if this version of her story, handed down to us through the ages, is merely the one her enemies wanted us to believe? What if Jezebel, far from being a conniving harlot, was, in fact, framed? In this remarkable new biography, Lesley Hazleton shows exactly how the proud and courageous queen of Israel was vilified and made into the very embodiment of wanton wickedness by her political and religious enemies. Jezebel brings readers back to the source of the biblical story, a rich and dramatic saga featuring evil schemes and underhanded plots, war and treason, false gods and falser humans, and all with the fate of entire nations at stake. At its center are just one woman and one man—the sophisticated Queen Jezebel and the stark prophet Elijah. Their epic and ultimately tragic confrontation pits tolerance against righteousness, pragmatism against divine dictates, and liberalism against conservatism. It is, in other words, the original story of the unholy marriage of sex, politics, and religion, and it ends in one of the most chillingly brutal scenes in the entire Bible. Here at last is the real story of the rise and fall of this legendary woman—a radically different portrait with startling contemporary resonance in a world mired once again in religious wars. http://www.librarything.com/work/3753141/book/52936494# Between the early years of the 20th century and the 1960s, Hartford's North End underwent many changes. Yet the fundamentals remained untouched. Growing up in the neighborhood was a uniquely memorable experience as the many contributors to this book attest. Although most residents were poor, their lives were rich with friends, family, and community. Memories of synagogues and churches, kosher butchers and corner drugstores, Albany and Blue Hills Avenues, Keney Park, Weaver High School, and the Lenox Theater have been resurrected in this collection of tender stories and wonderful images of Hartford's North End. http://www.librarything.com/work/9180929/details/52935774 “We live in a world,” says Brad Hirschfield, “where religion is killing more people than at any time since the Crusades.” And when it comes to fanaticism, Hirschfield is not speaking abstractly; he once embraced it. As a young man in the early 1980s, he left his family’s upscale North Shore Chicago neighborhood for the West Bank city of Hebron, where he joined a group of settlers who were committed to reconstituting the Jewish state within its biblical borders. He carried a gun and, on one occasion, used it. He still doesn’t know if his bullets found their mark. Now, Hirschfield has renounced all such rigid delineations of people into categories of totally right and totally wrong, entirely good and entirely evil. He seeks to build bridges among people of different faiths—and those with no faith at all. He is devoted to teaching inclusiveness, celebrating diversity, and delivering a message of acceptance—not as feel-good pabulum but as forceful and indispensable antidotes to the blind passions and willful ignorance that threaten us all. Grounded in biblical scholarship and interwoven with personal stories, You Don’t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right provides a pragmatic path to peace, understanding, and hope that appeals to the common wisdom of all religions. Pointing the way through the continuum of conflict, Hirschfield addresses: • the ways faith has many faces • how justice can coexist with forgiveness and mercy • how unity does not necessitate uniformity • the ways we can learn to disagree without disconnecting Though conflict is an inevitable part of life—a function of being connected to one another—Hirschfield is a voice of peace and reconciliation, showing us that conflict is also an opportunity to learn and grow and often to grow closer. http://www.librarything.com/work/4572385/book/52933735 Muslim-Jewish relations in the United States, Israel, and Europe are tenuous. Jews and Muslims struggle to understand one another and know little about each other's traditions and beliefs. Firestone explains the remarkable similarities and profound differences between Judaism and Islam, the complex history of Jihad, the legal and religious positions of Jews in the world of Islam, how various expressions of Islam (Sunni, Shi`a, Sufi, Salafi, etc.) regard Jews, the range of Muslim views about Israel, and much more. He addresses these issues and others with candor and integrity, and he writes with language, symbols, and ideas that make sense to Jews. Exploring these subjects in today's vexed political climate is a delicate undertaking. Firestone draws on the research and writings of generations of Muslim, Jewish, and other scholars, as well as his own considerable expertise in this field. The book's tone is neither disparaging, apologetic, nor triumphal. Firestone provides many original sources in translation, as well as an appendix of additional key sources in context. Most importantly, this book is readable and reasoned, presenting to readers for the first time the complexity of Islam and its relationship toward Jews and Judaism. http://www.librarything.com/work/7916575/book/52932325 In How to Read the Bible, Harvard professor James Kugel leads the reader chapter by chapter through the "quiet revolution" of recent biblical scholarship, showing time and again how radically the interpretations of today's researchers differ from what people have always thought. The story of Adam and Eve, it turns out, was not originally about the "Fall of Man," but about the move from a primitive, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agricultural one. As for the stories of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Esau, these narratives were not, at their origin, about individual people at all but, rather, explanations of some feature of Israelite society as it existed centuries after these figures were said to have lived. Dinah was never raped -- her story was created by an editor to solve a certain problem in Genesis. In the earliest version of the Exodus story, Moses probably did not divide the Red Sea in half; instead, the Egyptians perished in a storm at sea. Whatever the original Ten Commandments might have been, scholars are quite sure they were different from the ones we have today. What's more, the people long supposed to have written various books of the Bible were not, in the current consensus, their real authors: David did not write the Psalms, Solomon did not write Proverbs or Ecclesiastes; indeed, there is scarcely a book in the Bible that is not the product of different, anonymous authors and editors working in different periods. Such findings pose a serious problem for adherents of traditional, Bible-based faiths. Hiding from the discoveries of modern scholars seems dishonest, but accepting them means undermining much of the Bible's reliability and authority as the word of God. What to do? In his search for a solution, Kugel leads the reader back to a group of ancient biblical interpreters who flourished at the end of the biblical period. Far from naïve, these interpreters consciously set out to depart from the original meaning of the Bible's various stories, laws, and prophecies -- and they, Kugel argues, hold the key to solving the dilemma of reading the Bible today. How to Read the Bible is, quite simply, the best, most original book about the Bible in decades. It offers an unflinching, insider's look at the work of today's scholars, together with a sustained consideration of what the Bible was for most of its history -- before the rise of modern scholarship. Readable, clear, often funny but deeply serious in its purpose, this is a book for Christians and Jews, believers and secularists alike. It offers nothing less than a whole new way of thinking about sacred Scripture. http://www.librarything.com/work/3442768/book/52929150 On May 14, 1948 the State of Israel was declared, announced by David Ben-Gurion at a small gathering that assembled in the main hall of the Tel Aviv Art Museum. Within a time frame of only nineteen years, culminating in the Six-Day War, Israel fought three separate wars. But within its first four years, thanks to mass immigration, its population doubled. Furthermore, Israel had been confronted with acute economic difficulties, intra Jewish ethnic tensions, a problematic Arab minority and a secular-religious divide. Apart from defence issues, Israel faced a generally hostile or, at best, indifferent international community rendering it hard pressed in securing great power patronage or even official sympathy and understanding. Based on a wide range of sources, both in Hebrew and English, this book contains a judicious synthesis of the received literature to yield the general reader and student alike a reliable, balanced, and novel account of Israels fateful and turbulent infancy. http://www.librarything.com/work/8159837/book/52928647 START-UP NATION addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel-- a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources-- produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the UK? With the savvy of foreign policy insiders, Senor and Singer examine the lessons of the country's adversity-driven culture, which flattens hierarchy and elevates informality-- all backed up by government policies focused on innovation. In a world where economies as diverse as Ireland, Singapore and Dubai have tried to re-create the "Israel effect", there are entrepreneurial lessons well worth noting. As America reboots its own economy and can-do spirit, there's never been a better time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some impressive, surprising clues. http://www.librarything.com/work/9127256/book/52928337 Although American Jews had already embraced the principle of fighting prejudice in all forms, western Jews often did not apply it to specific local issues involving Japanese Americans during World War II. In The First to Cry Down Injustice, Eisenberg analyzes the range of Jewish responses including silence, opposition to, and support for the policy to the mass removal of Japanese Americans as the product of a distinctive western ethnic landscape. http://www.librarything.com/work/7568726/book/52820404 Sam Glodsky lives among the rough-and-tumble gangs on the streets of New York's Lower East Side. When 13-year-old Sam falls in with fearsome gangster Monk Eastman, he joins an outrageous scheme to rescue Eastman's prize racing-pigeon from a cholera-ridden steamship quarantined in the harbor. The caper Monk hatches to snatch the bird pairs Sam with his archenemy, the notorious Izzy Fink. Widely acclaimed for his picture book histories, Don Brown's first historical novel is a fast-paced tale of immigrant life at the turn of the twentieth century. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1596431393/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 For more than half a century, the red leather diary languished inside a steamer trunk. Rescued from a Dumpster on Manhattan's Upper West Side, it found its way to Lily Koppel, a young writer, who opened its tarnished brass lock and journeyed into an enthralling past. The diary painted a breathtaking portrait of a bygone New York—of glamorous nights at El Morocco and elegant teas at Schrafft's during the 1920s and '30s—and of the headstrong, endearing teenager who filled its pages with her hopes, heartaches, and vivid recollections. Intrigued, Koppel followed her only clue, a frontispiece inscription, to its now ninety-year-old owner, Florence Wolfson, and was enchanted as Florence, reunited with her diary, rediscovered a lost younger self burning with artistic fervor. Joining intimate interviews with original diary entries, The Red Leather Diary re-creates the romance and promise of a remarkable era and brings to life the true story of a daring, precocious young dreamer. http://www.librarything.com/work/4760367/book/52819201 The origin of the universe and all that is in it has always been cause for wonder. For thousands of years, people have made up stories to explain the beginning of humankind, the earth, and the cosmos. Beautifully told by Virginia Hamilton and splendidly illustrated by Barry Moser, In the Beginning is a collection of twenty-five creation myth stories that will engage and fascinate readers while introducing them to cultures around the world. http://www.librarything.com/work/43298/52676351 Stanley M. Hordes explores the remarkable story of crypto-Jews and the tenuous preservation of Jewish rituals and traditions in Mexico and New Mexico over the past five hundred years. He follows the crypto-Jews from their origins in medieval Spain and Portugal to their efforts to escape persecution by migrating to the New World and settling in the far reaches of the northern Mexican frontier. Drawing on individual biographies, family histories, Inquisition records, letters, and other primary sources, Hordes provides a richly detailed account of the economic, social, and religious lives of crypto-Jews during the colonial period and after the annexation of New Mexico by the United States in 1846. He concludes with a discussion of the reemergence of crypto-Jewish culture and the reclamation of Jewish ancestry within the Hispano community. http://www.librarything.com/work/1257316/book/52673844 Yehuda Amichai is one of the twentieth century's (and Israel's) leading poets. In this remarkable book, Gold offers a profound reinterpretation of Amichai's early works, using two sets of untapped materials: notes and notebooks written by Amichai in Hebrew and German that are now preserved in the Beinecke archive at Yale, and a cache of ninety-eight as-yet unpublished letters written by Amichai in 1947 and 1948 to a woman identified in the book as Ruth Z., which were recently discovered by Gold. Gold found irrefutable evidence in the Yale archive and the letters to Ruth Z. that allows her to make two startling claims. First, she shows that in order to remake himself as an Israeli soldier-citizen and poet, Amichai suppressed ("camouflaged") his German past and German mother tongue both in reference to his biography and in his poetry. Yet, as her close readings of his published oeuvre as well as his unpublished German and Hebrew notes at the Beinecke show, these texts harbor the linguistic residue of his European origins. Gold, who knows both Hebrew and German, establishes that the poet's German past infused every area of his work, despite his attempts to conceal it in the process of adopting a completely Israeli identity. Gold's second claim is that Amichai somewhat disguised the story of his own development as a poet. According to Amichai's own accounts, Israel's war of independence was the impetus for his creative writing. Long accepted as fact, Gold proves that this poetic biography is far from complete. By analyzing Amichai's letters and reconstructing his relationship with Ruth Z., Gold reveals what was really happening in the poet's life and verse at the end of the 1940s. These letters demonstrate that the chronological order in which Amichai's works were published does not reflect the order in which they were written; rather, it was a product of the poet's literary and national motivations. http://www.librarything.com/work/7561466/book/52673627 From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. In this fresh and revealing biography of Bernstein's political life, Barry Seldes examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America--blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his passport--and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic. Seldes for the first time links Bernstein's great concert-hall and musical-theatrical achievements and his real and perceived artistic setbacks to his involvement with progressive political causes. Making extensive use of previously untapped FBI files as well as overlooked materials in the Library of Congress's Bernstein archive, Seldes illuminates the ways in which Bernstein's career intersected with the twentieth century's most momentous events. This broadly accessible and impressively documented account of the celebrity-maestro's life deepens our understanding of an entire era as it reveals important and often ignored intersections of American culture and political power http://www.librarything.com/work/8384573/book/52673441 Born in 1915 to barely literate Jewish immigrants in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, Alfred Kazin rose from near poverty to become a dominant figure in twentieth-century literary criticism and one of America’s last great men of letters. Biographer Richard M. Cook provides a portrait of Kazin in his public roles and in his frequently unhappy private life. Drawing on the personal journals Kazin kept for over 60 years, private correspondence, and numerous conversations with Kazin, he uncovers the full story of the lonely, stuttering boy from Jewish Brownsville who became a pioneering critic and influential cultural commentator. Upon the appearance of On Native Grounds in 1942, Kazin was dubbed “the boy wonder of American criticism.” Numerous publications followed, including A Walker in the City and two other memoirs, books of criticism, as well as a stream of essays and reviews that ceased only with his death in 1998. Cook tells of Kazin’s childhood, his troubled marriages, and his relations with such figures as Lionel Trilling, Saul Bellow, Malcolm Cowley, Arthur Schlesinger, Hannah Arendt, and Daniel Bell. He illuminates Kazin’s thinking on political-cultural issues and the recurring way in which his subject’s personal life shaped his career as a public intellectual. Particular attention is paid to Kazin’s sense of himself as a Jewish-American “loner” whose inner estrangements gave him insight into the divisions at the heart of modern culture. http://www.librarything.com/work/4765211/book/52673327 Questions to Ask a Breeder: 1. What kind of job is this, growing dogs? 2. Are these dogs nice? I mean of course they are. But if not, is this refundable? 3. Is this a stable business? Do you make a decent living? 4. Does the insurance kill you or is it okay? 5. Dogs are animals ? does this mean you qualify for some kind of Federal ranch subsidies? 6. What do I say to people who want to know how I can spend $1500 and up on a dog when there are so many dogs to be rescued from the pound? The (make-believe) Rabbis of the (fictional) Boca Raton Theological Seminary have developed the essential dog training program for raising a Jewish dog. For the first time, the same dynamic blend of passive-aggressiveness and smothering indulgence, that unique alloy of infantilization and disingenuous manipulation that created generations of high-achieving Jewish boys and girls, can be applied to create a generation of high-achieving Jewish doggies. Written (for real) by Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman, co-authors of the bestselling Yiddish with Dick and Jane and Yiddish with George and Laura, this essential "guide" is sure to be a complete howl. http://www.librarything.com/work/4187135/book/52577479 A woman's hilarious, bittersweet account of growing up in a family of career-shunning, dependence-seeking women and her journey to a state of twenty-first-century self-reliance. Julie Klam was raised as the only daughter of a Jewish family in the exclusive WASP stronghold of Bedford, New York. Her mother was sharp, glamorous, and funny, but did not think that work was a woman's responsibility. Her father was fully supportive, not just of his wife's staying at home, but also of her extravagant lifestyle. Her mother's offbeat parenting style-taking Julie out of school to go to lunch at Bloomingdale's, for example-made her feel well-cared-for (and well-dressed) but left her unprepared for graduating and entering the real world. She had been brought up to look pretty and wait for a rich man to sweep her off her feet. But what happened if he never showed up? When Julie gets married to a hardworking but not wealthy man-one who expects her to be part of a modern couple and contribute financially to the marriage-she realizes how ambivalent and ill-equipped she is for life. Once she gives birth to a daughter, she knows she must grow up, get to work, and teach her child the self-reliance that she never learned. Delivered in an uproariously funny, sweet, self-effacing, and utterly memorable voice, Please Excuse My Daughter is a bighearted memoir from an irresistible new writer. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594489807/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Long before Hank Greenberg earned recognition as baseball's greatest Jewish player, Jews had developed a unique, and very close, relationship with the American pastime. In the late nineteenth century, as both the American Jewish population and baseball's popularity grew rapidly, baseball became an avenue by which Jewish immigrants could assimilate into American culture. Beyond the men (and, later, women) on the field, in the dugout, and at the front office, the Jewish community produced a huge base of fans and students of the game. This important book examines the interrelated histories of baseball and American Jews to 1948-the year Israel was established, the first full season that both major leagues were integrated, and the summer that Hank Greenberg retired. Covered are the many players, from Pike to Greenberg, as well as the managers, owners, executives, writers, statisticians, manufacturers and others who helped forge a bond between baseball and an emerging Jewish culture in America. Key reasons for baseball's early appeal to Jews are examined, including cultural assimilation, rebellion against perceived Old World sensibilities, and intellectual and philosophical ties to existing Jewish traditions. The authors also clearly demonstrate how both Jews and baseball have benefited from their relationship. http://www.librarything.com/work/2717261/book/52576229 The Bible is spare in its use of dialogue when it comes to the biblical matriarchs – Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. The written biblical text records at length, and in minute detail, the religious and national history of the Jewish people. Yet it only affords us a mere glimpse of the private and intimate lives of these strong and prophetic women. On the surface, these women--the biblical matriarchs--lived difficult and flawed lives. They endured childlessness, abduction, wearisome marriages, envy of the "other woman," and difficult children. We are left wondering what they thought and how they felt, as they lived their personal lives and built a nation. This book, for the first time ever, answers these questions by drawing extensively upon classical biblical commentaries and Talmudic and Rabbinic writings which reveal the underlying emotions of the matriarchs. The reader enters the world of the matriarchs, experiencing the agony of infertility, the ecstasy of passionate love, and the pain of being unloved. Their thoughts, feelings, words and actions are fleshed out, and the women emerge not as one-dimensional figures, but as complex women possessing an array of universal passions. At the same time, these women remain grounded in Godliness, building the "House of Israel" as partners with the patriarchs. The Passions of the Matriarchs is a riveting and readable book that tells the story behind the passions that ruled the lives of these laudable women. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0881258474/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Now a classic! The hilarious novel of the healing arts that reveals everything your doctor never wanted you to know. Six eager interns -- they saw themselves as modern saviors-to-be. They came from the top of their medical school class to the bottom of the hospital staff to serve a year in the time-honored tradition, racing to answer the flash of on-duty call lights and nubile nurses. But only the Fat Man --the Clam, all-knowing resident -- could sustain them in their struggle to survive, to stay sane, to love-and even to be doctors when their harrowing year was done. http://www.librarything.com/work/68128/book/52573862 Naomi, the brilliant and pious daughter of an ultra orthodox rabbi finds herself at a crossroads of life choices when her mother dies and she is expected to immediately marry her father's prodigy. Distressed yet determined, she begs that her father allow her one year to study at a women's religious seminary in Safed, the birthplace of the Kabala in order to prepare herself for the sacrifices she will make as a wife. Her father relents and Naomi's life begins to take an unexpected turn. Devote but lively, Naomi and her new friend Michelle befriend a beautiful, mysterious older woman, Anouk, (Fanny Ardant) who is ill and living nearby who may or may not be Jewish, and may have committed a crime of passion. Naomi devises a series of rituals which will somehow purify Anouk and purge her of her sins, but as these stretch the borders of Jewish law they must be kept secret. Eventually this journeys into the forbidden and leads to a growing attraction between the two girls and more crossroads are faced. The Secrets presents the complexities of a religious lifestyle in a vibrant environment of youth, rebellion and desire. http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Fanny-Ardant/dp/B001E2PQGG/ Wedding planning can be a stressful experience. Keeping track of all the details--deciding who to invite, choosing a caterer, arranging the reception--can sometimes lead to a couple forgetting about the bigger picture and the significance of this day in their lives: A joyous occasion that should reflect not only your personality, but your values, as well. Updated and expanded, The Creative Jewish Wedding Book, 2nd Edition, brings your complete wedding planning into focus. Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer helps you express your individuality and spirituality on your wedding day. Whether your plans are traditional or alternative, whether you are planning your first or second marriage, she provides the tools you need to look at and think about ritual and tradition in new and innovative ways. http://www.librarything.com/work/1084916/book/52466043 The Special Times of the Jewish Year Can Be a Framework for Your Life as a Couple Through the holiday cycle we have seen that life is a complex weave of light and darkness, bitter and sweet, striving and surrendering. The twisted candle reminds us that as a couple our two lives have become intertwined as one. Two souls enter a partnership, interwoven yet always distinct, joined by a third strand, the Divine Presence. As we perform the ritual of Havdalah, we hold our hands up to the flame and catch the reflection of the last light on our fingertips. We pray that the light will continue to shine through our words and deeds, in our homes and in the world. —from Chapter 9 More than just calendar commitments, the Jewish holidays carry with them a view of what is important in life, a set of assumptions that can challenge and deepen the way we think about relationships. This inspiring and practical guidebook helps you to understand your life as a couple in the context of the themes of Jewish holidays: Forgiving and Growing—Yom Kippur Playing, Laughing and Taking Risks—Purim Coming Home, Finding Freedom—Pesah Blessing Bounty, Facing Impermanence—Sukkot Pausing to Bless What Is—Shabbat …and more Drawing from ancient and contemporary texts, Jewish tradition and personal stories, Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer and Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener provide creative exercises, rituals and guided discussions that help you make connections to tradition, community and each other. By experiencing the Jewish holidays as times to focus on your relationship, you’ll find renewed meaning in these holy celebrations and new opportunities for spiritual growth all year long. http://www.librarything.com/work/4686453/52465680 The late Abraham Pais wrote the definitive biography of Albert Einstein, "Subtle is the Lord," which won an American Book Award. As a distinguished physicist and Einstein's colleague, Pais combined a sophisticated understanding of physics with first-hand knowledge of this notoriously private individual, offering rare insights into both. It is his unique double perspective that makes his work so valuable. Now Abraham Pais offers an illuminating portrait of another eminent colleague, J. Robert Oppenheimer, one of the most charismatic and enigmatic figures of modern physics. Pais introduces us to a precocious youth who sped through Harvard in three years, made signal contributions to quantum mechanics while in his twenties, and was instrumental in the growth of American physics in the decade before the Second World War, almost single-handedly putting American physics on the map. Pais paints a revealing portrait of Oppenheimer's life in Los Alamos, where in twenty remarkable, feverish months, under his inspired leadership, the first atomic bomb was designed and built, a success that made Oppenheimer America's most famous scientist. Pais, who was his next-door neighbor for many years, describes Oppenheimer's long tenure as Director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, but also shows how Oppenheimer's intensity and arrogance won him powerful enemies, who would ultimately make him one of the principal victims of the Red Scare of the 1950s. Told with compassion and deep insight, J. Robert Oppenheimer is the most comprehensive biography of the great physicist available. It is Abraham Pais's final work, completed after his death by Robert P. Crease, an acclaimed historian of science in his own right. http://www.librarything.com/work/1123432/book/52465285 The oldest of the world's major faiths, Judaism as practiced today represents a tradition that goes back nearly 6,000 years. Accessible and wide-ranging, Judaism: The Basics is a must-have resource covering the stories, beliefs and expressions of that tradition. Key topics covered include: · the Torah · Israel - the state and its people · Passover · Reform Judaism, Orthodox Judaism and Zionism · the impact of the Holocaust. With a glossary of terms and extensive suggestions for further reading, Judaism: The Basics is an essential guide through the rich intricacies of the Jewish faith and people. http://www.librarything.com/work/3503604/book/51953013 The Marranos were former Jews forced to convert to Christianity in Spain and Portugal, and their later descendents. Despite economic and some political advancement, these "Conversos" suffered social stigma and were persecuted by the Inquisition. In this unconventional history, Yirmiyahu Yovel tells their fascinating story and reflects on what it means for modern forms of identity. He describes the Marranos as "the Other within"--people who both did and did not belong. Rejected by most Jews as renegades and by most veteran Christians as Jews with impure blood, Marranos had no definite, integral identity, Yovel argues. The "Judaizers"--Marranos who wished to remain secretly Jewish--were not actually Jews, and those Marranos who wished to assimilate were not truly integrated as Hispano-Catholics. Rather, mixing Jewish and Christian symbols and life patterns, Marranos were typically distinguished by a split identity. They also discovered the subjective mind, engaged in social and religious dissent, and demonstrated early signs of secularity and this-worldliness. In these ways, Yovel says, the Marranos anticipated and possibly helped create many central features of modern Western and Jewish experience. One of Yovel's philosophical conclusions is that split identity--which the Inquisition persecuted and modern nationalism considers illicit--is a genuine and inevitable shape of human existence, one that deserves recognition as a basic human freedom. Drawing on historical studies, Inquisition records, and contemporary poems, novels, treatises, and other writings, this engaging critical history of the Marrano experience is also a profound meditation on dual identities and the birth of modernity. http://www.librarything.com/work/8346567/book/51952195 A bold, groundbreaking work that provides the definitive answer to the persistent question: Why didn’t more Jews flee Nazi Europe? Flight from the Reich is a story about people at a time of crisis. As persecution, war, and deportation savaged their communities, Jews tried to flee Nazi Europe through legal and clandestine routes. In their multifaceted tale of Jewish refugees during and after the Nazi era, Debórah Dwork and Robert Jan van Pelt braid the private and public realms, personal memory and official history. They probe the challenges faced by German Jewish refugees; the dispute among the Swiss on allowing Jews to cross their border; the dangers braved by covert guides who helped the hunted out of occupied France; and the creation of postwar displaced person camps, which have much to tell us about refugee camps today. Grounded in archival research throughout Europe and America, hundreds of oral histories, and thousands of newly discovered letters, Flight from the Reich shows how the lives of people thread together to form history. http://www.librarything.com/work/7971164/book/51951569 The first full-scale biography in twenty-five years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court—a book that reveals not only Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, but also Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. During Louis Brandeis’s twenty-three years as a Supreme Court justice (from 1916 to 1939), he devel­oped the modern jurisprudence of free speech; laid the basis for a constitutionally protected right to privacy; and developed the doctrine of incorporation, by which the Bill of Rights came to apply to the states. As a lawyer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Brandeis pioneered modern law practice and almost single-handedly developed the idea of pro bono legal work. He helped draft the Federal Reserve Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the law establishing the Federal Trade Commission. As an economist and moralist, Brandeis argued not only that banking and stock broking had to be separate but also that both needed stringent federal regulation. As a Zionist he helped transform the movement into a powerful force in American Jewish affairs. Drawing on family papers and materials never before available, Melvin Urofsky gives us the remarkable story of Brandeis’s effect on American society and jurisprudence, and the electrifying story of his time. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372579/book/51951450 This luminous tale filled with honesty and love charts the lives of sisters who find their curse and their salvation on the street where they live. One fateful summer they create their own magical world to escape a tragic encounter that has forever changed their lives. The healing power of imagination and love, the interwoven worlds of fiction and fact, the difference between liars and truth tellers, are at the core of this dangerous fairy-tale world where one mistake can follow you forever. A charismatic man who cannot tell the truth, a neighbor who is not who he appears to be, a clumsy boy in Paris who falls in love and stays there, a detective who finds his heart's desire, a demon who will not let go, all live within the confines of the sisters' world. Elv, Claire, and Meg are the Story Sisters, and each has a fate she must meet alone. One on a country road, one in the streets of Paris, and one in the corridors of her own imagination. At once a coming-of-age tale, a family saga, and a love story of erotic longing, The Story Sisters sifts through the miraculous and the mundane as the girls become women and their choices haunt them, change them, and finally redeem them. What does a mother do when one of her children goes astray? How does she save one daughter without sacrificing the others? How deep can love go, and how far can it take you? These are the questions this complex novel asks. This is the spellbinding story Alice Hoffman has to tell. http://www.librarything.com/work/7157734/book/51948481 Good Morning! Boker Tov! Join eager toddlers as they welcome the new day with smiles and energy. A colorful book with accompanying CD that will have the whole family singing. http://www.librarything.com/work/8372190/book/51943494# "Once there was a town called Chelm where there was no luck. If something could go wrong, it did. The roofs of the houses always leaked. The sidewalks were cracked. The gardens grew only weeds. Nothing was ever right." So begins best-selling children's author, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, in this charming, original story inspired by a Jewish folktale. Through her remarkable storytelling, Sandy Sasso has brought to life the mythical town of Chelm, and created another classic for reading aloud and discussing with children. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/51796411 Kids can now learn the Hebrew alphabet through yoga! Using traditional and modified yoga poses, they can learn to create the Hebrew letters while also benefitting from the stretching and strengthening of each pose. “Children are natural yogis!” say the authors. “They love to pretend to be an animal or an object or a letter. And once they have learned the poses, they can combine them to spell their names, act out stories and sing alphabet songs.” http://www.amazon.com/Alef-Bet-Yoga-Kids-Israel-Goldeen/dp/0822587564/ “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the best-known commandment in the Bible. Yet we rarely hear anyone talk about how to apply these words in daily life. In this landmark work, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, one of the premier scholars and thinkers of our time, gives both Jews and non-Jews an extraordinary summation of what Jewish tradition teaches about putting these words into practice. Writing with great clarity and simplicity as well as with deep wisdom, Telushkin covers topics such as love and kindness, hospitality, visiting the sick, comforting mourners, charity, relations between Jews and non-Jews, compassion for animals, tolerance, self-defense, and end-of-life issues. This second volume of the first major code of Jewish ethics written in the English language is breathtaking in its scope and will undoubtedly influence readers for generations to come. It offers hundreds of practical examples from the Torah, the Talmud, the Midrash, and both ancient and modern rabbinic commentaries–as well as contemporary anecdotes–all teaching us how to care for one another each and every day. A Code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 2: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself is a consummate work of scholarship. Like its acclaimed predecessor, which received the National Jewish Book Award, it is rich with ideas to contemplate and discuss, while being primarily a book to live by. Nothing could be more important in these strife-torn times than learning how to love our neighbors as ourselves. The message of this book is as vital and timely now as it has been since time immemorial. http://www.librarything.com/work/7764241/book/51795038 A highly respected soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Menachem is also a devout student of controversial West Bank settlement leader Rabbi Metzer. As the rabbis agenda, the armys control, and desperation all build to a boil, secret passions threaten to destroy more than just reputations. Studio: Kino International Release Date: 09/10/2002 Starring: Aki Avni Edan Alterman Run time: 101 minutes Director: Joseph Cedar http://www.amazon.com/Time-Favor-Aki-Avni/dp/B0000694XO/ Raizy is so excited to be heading home for Shavuos after buying a dozen daisies in honor of yom tov. Then she meets a sad little girl, a lonely old woman, and a busy young mother who need help. On her own, Raizy understands that Ahavas Yisroel is the best way to get ready for Shavuos, since all Jews stood as one to receive the Torah. Children and parents will enjoy counting daisies -- and mitzvos -- as Raizy uses her precious flowers to cheer up friends and neighbors. Many of the customs and observances of Shavuos are part of the story, and others are included in the back of the book in a special note to readers. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929628412/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Musician Don Fernando longs to hear the sounds of the shofar on the High Holidays, but, like the other secret Jews in Inquisition-era Spain, he must hide his religion. When he is asked to perform a symphony celebrating the new world, he and his son Rafael devise a daring plan to usher in the Jewish New Year in plain sight of the Spanish nobility! http://www.librarything.com/work/8372392/book/51425138 LAPD homicide detective Peter Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus, will be blindsided by a brutal multiple murder in this twisting tale of suspense from New York Times bestselling author Faye Kellerman. "They say dead men don't talk, but if you listen, they do." As a lieutenant in the LAPD, homicide detective Peter Decker doesn't get many calls at 3 a.m. unless a case is nasty, sensational—or both. Someone has broken into the exclusive Coyote Ranch compound of billionaire developer Guy Kaffey and viciously gunned him down, along with his wife and four employees. A well-known figure on both the business and society pages, Kaffey, with his sons and his younger brother, Mace, built most of the shopping malls in Southern California and earned a reputation for philanthropy, donating millions to worthy causes. It doesn't take long for Peter, his trusted detectives Scott Oliver and Marge Dunn, and the rest of his homicide team to figure out that the gruesome killings must be an inside job. Things become even more entangled when they discover that Kaffey's largesse had included organizations that extended second chances to delinquents, many of whom Kaffey had hired for his personal security. But was the job pure murder/robbery or something even more twisted? A developer of Kaffey's magnitude doesn't make billions without making more enemies with blood grudges. With leads taking the team across L.A., up and down the Golden State, and into Mexico, Decker is plenty busy—and plenty thankful not to have to worry about his wife, Rina Lazarus, getting caught up in this deadly case. Rina is out of harm's way, serving on a jury at the courthouse. But then a chance encounter with a court translator who needs her help leads Rina into the terrifying heart of her husband's murder investigations—and straight into the path of a gang of ruthless killers. To protect Rina, Decker must find his prey before death unites his two worlds. A fast-paced tour through the urban landscape of L.A., Blindman's Bluff is a riveting mile-a-minute thrill ride from a formidable master of her craft. http://www.librarything.com/work/6573423/book/51251318 A gripping literary thriller about the highstakes search for the legendary Tabernacle Menorah, a priceless historical artifact stolen from the Second Temple in Jerusalem two thousand years ago and never recovered. Jonathan Marcus was a promising young archeologist studying at the American Academy in Rome when a terrible accident during an illegal excavation resulted in a friend’s death and Jonathan’s expulsion from the academy. Jonathan abandoned archaeology for the law, developing a reputation as a skillful advocate for some of the art world’s less scrupulous antiquities dealers. When his firm sends Jonathan to Rome to discredit the testimony of a prominent U.N. antiquities official, he’s stunned to discover that the expert is Dr. Emili Travia, a friend and fellow student at the academy who was also at the excavation. This chance reunion prompts Jonathan, against his better judgment, to help Emili as she searches for the fabled Tabernacle Menorah, a priceless historical artifact seized by Roman invaders in the first century A.D. and brought to Rome where it disappeared. As they scour the ancient sites of Rome for hints to the menorah’s whereabouts—deciphering clues to its location left by ancient spies and eighteenth century art restorers—it quickly becomes clear that they are not alone in their quest. What follows is a treasure hunt like no other, a race to find the menorah in order to control a historical perspective of who can define—and redefine—the past. By turns a riveting page-turner and a compelling character study, set in the high-stakes arenas of art, politics, and terrorism, The Last Ember is a provocative and fast-paced glimpse into history, religion, and international law. http://www.librarything.com/work/8185062/book/51178164 The dramatic final book in the epic historical trilogy about the lives and loves of the three daughters of the great Talmud scholar Rashi Rachel is the youngest and most beautiful daughter of medieval Jewish scholar Salomon ben Isaac, or "Rashi." Her father's favorite and adored by her new husband, Eliezer, Rachel's life looks to be one of peaceful scholarship, laughter, and love. But events beyond her control will soon threaten everything she holds dear. Marauders of the First Crusade massacre nearly the entire Jewish population of Germany, and her beloved father suffers a stroke. Eliezer wants their family to move to the safety of Spain, but Rachel is determined to stay in France and help her family save the Troyes yeshiva, the only remnant of the great centers of Jewish learning in Europe. As she did so effectively in Joheved and Miriam, Maggie Anton vividly brings to life the world of eleventh-century France and a remarkable Jewish woman of dignity, passion, and strength. http://www.librarything.com/work/8342570/book/51177819 "Checkpoints" introduces two very different teenage girls who, in the long run, may not be so different after all. Noa, a 17 year-old Israeli from a liberal Jewish family forms a tentative friendship with Maha, a Palestinian Muslim from East Jerusalem. But, after a tragic incident changes Noa's family forever, Noa's beliefs about Palestinian and Israeli relations are challenged, and secrets are revealed that affect both of their lives, and test their blossoming relationship. http://www.librarything.com/work/5902516/book/51015688 In search of the key to unlock a great family mystery, Lemon Leopold, a Hollywood starlet, and her cousin Eliza, a romance writer, go to Berlin. Soon they are on a trail that leads back to their great-grandfather, Jozef Apfel, a Jewish pioneer of psychoanalysis in early twentieth-century Germany. Alternating between the great doctor’s household, the mysterious case of his patient Elsa Z., the rise of Nazi Germany, 1960s and 1970s Detroit, and modern-day Berlin, this is a story about a girl whose dreams reveal the future, a family beset by ghosts, and the place that haunts them all. A bittersweet confection, this novel combines all the ingredients of great storytelling into a family saga redolent of the Old World, layered with consequence and frosted with Technicolor. So come along as we delve into the doings of Elsa Z. and discover what befell the Apfels in Berlin. Along the way, we’ll visit lemurs and explore our longings, indulge in Black Forest cake and blue stationery. We’ll go to the movies, sip our drinks by the pool, take a train ride, interpret our dreams, tell jokes, and forget about the time. And when we return, nothing will be the same. Norah Labiner is the author of two highly acclaimed novels: Miniatures, an American Library Association Notable Book, and Our Sometime Sister, a finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. She lives in Minneapolis. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566892236/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 When Mazal and Ezra ben-Yichya embarked in 1882 on their long journey from Sana'a to the Holy Land, their young hearts were filled with dreams of the glory they were sure awaited them in Jerusalem. But those dreams were quickly dispelled by the reality they encountered: dark, towering walls of stone and a community of pious but impoverished Jews with customs foreign to them. How would the ben-Yichyas find their place in this new world peopled by European Torah scholars, and who would buy the exquisite jewelry they fashioned? This stirring saga spans four generations of a family of Yemenite goldsmiths at the vortex of history in the Land of Israel. Their tragedies and triumphs, their sorrows and joys, and most of all, the heroine's profound love for the Holy City, create a vivid and lasting image of an ancient land rising from two millennia of slumber to an era of splendor. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9657344220/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Enables those frustrated and pained in their attempts at parenthood to mourn the loss of a pregnancy or infertility through the prayers, rituals, and meditations of the Jewish tradition. This new edition--updated and expanded--includes guided questions and pages on which to add personal reflections of your own emotions and experiences along the path toward parenting. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580232337/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Awaken your heart and mind to see your own capacity for wisdom, compassion, and kindness. "When we awaken to our own light, it becomes possible to develop real wisdom about our life. As wisdom allows us to see clearly, our hearts break open with compassion for the struggles of our own lives and the lives of all beings. Awakened with wisdom and compassion, we are impelled to live our lives with kindness, and we are led to do whatever we can to repair the brokenness of our world." --from the Introduction At last, a fresh take on meditation that draws on life experience and living life with greater clarity rather than the traditional method of rigorous study. Based on twenty-five years of bringing meaningful spiritual practice to the Jewish community, well-known meditation teacher and practitioner Rabbi Jeff Roth presents Jewish contemplative techniques that foster the development of a heart of wisdom and compassion. This contemporary approach to meditation--accessible to both beginners and experts alike--focuses on using the distilled wisdom of Buddhism and Judaism as a way to learn from life experience. By combining these two traditions, he presents a model that allows westerners--both Jews and non-Jews--to embrace timeless Eastern teachings without sacrificing their birth traditions. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158023397X/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 The clear and compelling wisdom of the rabbinic sages can become a companion for your own spiritual journey. At the heart of Judaism is an ethical imperative to live life from your true self, as the image and likeness of God. To do this, you must see the greatness of God manifest in all things, and therefore engage each moment with grace, humility, and justice. This imperative flowers in the words of the early Rabbis (250 BCE-250 CE), who captured God's call to be holy in Pirke Avot, a collection of pithy sayings on how best to live an ethical life. This engaging introduction to the wisdom sayings of the rabbinic sages puts you in direct conversation with them, allowing the sages to speak directly to you about what matters in life and how to live it with dignity. With fresh, contemporary translation and provocative commentary, Rabbi Rami Shapiro focuses on the central themes in this Jewish wisdom compendium--study, kindness, compassion. He clarifies the rabbinic proverbs and parables in order to expose the ethical principles at their root. By recalling the ancient voices of the rabbinic sages, he shows us the contemporary significance of their timeless wisdom and distills Pirke Avot not as a book about ethics but as a practical guide to living ethically today. Now you can experience the wisdom of the early Rabbis even if you have no previous knowledge of Judaism or rabbinic literature. This SkyLight Illuminations edition presents the ethical teachings of the rabbinic sages, with insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that conveys Pirke Avot's core challenge of God to the Jewish people, and through them all humanity: We are to be holy as God is holy. We are to be, in a human way, what God is in a divine way. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594732078/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Two young time-travelers are caught up in the adventure and heroism of the Hanukkah story. They quickly discover that the Maccabees have to fight not only Antiochus and the Greek empire, but the many Jews who have accepted the ways of the Greeks and their gods. 1) Ideal for ages 9-12 because it views the historical action through the eyes of this age group. 2) Well researched so that the child learns of places and people recorded in history. 3) Reveals some of the conflict that occurred within the Jewish camp between those who wanted independence and those who were completely assimilated. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930143443/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 During the political strife and famine of the 1980's, two Ethiopian girls, one Christian and the other Jewish and blind, struggle to overcome many difficulties, including their prejudices about each other, as they make the dangerous journey out of Ethiopia. http://www.librarything.com/work/8316416/book/50889780 This beautiful book tells the nostalgic tale of how millions of Jewish immigrants entered America through the portal of the Lower East Side. There in New York City they struggled and ultimately flourished in a neighborhood that was the center of Jewish work, family, and culture. For more than fifty years, the Lower East Side spawned newly-mined Americans, including entertainment icons like George Burns and Ira Gershwin, gangsters like Meyer Lansky, and an extraordinary array of people who would go on to transform American society. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0787986224/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 The Jewish Communities of Greater Stamford presents a broad historical view of the Jewish people of Stamford, Darien, Greenwich, and New Canaan, Connecticut, and Pound Ridge, New York. The book goes back to the era just prior to the American Revolution, when lone Jewish families settled among the Connecticut Yankees to engage in trade, manufacturing, and commerce. The earliest settlers such as Nehemiah Marks, who was living and doing business in Stamford as early as 1720 opened stores and other commercial enterprises. By the mid-1800s, city dwellers began coming to the region for summer vacations. After 1880, settlers arrived via the peddlers routes and, after accumulating a little capital, stayed to open shops and establish themselves socially and politically. The greatest influx came in the 1890s and early 1900s, when many Jews arrived from the Pale of Settlements, eastern and central Europe, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Romania, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738511447/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 This novel is the saga in five parts of Isaac Jacob Blumenfeld, who grows up in Kolodetz, a small town near Lvov, which, when he’s a boy, belongs to the Hapsburg Empire, but which subsequently belongs to Poland, Soviet Russia, Germany, and then Russia again. Isaac survives the absurdity and horror of Eastern Europe during the 20th century by pretending to be a fool. If this is an old Jewish art, then Isaac is a consummate artist. He plays the fool all his life, from his boyhood in Kolodetz shetl to the time when he is an accused war criminal in a Gulag in Siberia. Inseparable from Isaac’s life and story are the Yiddish jokes and fables of Kolodetz. These and the counsel of his dear friend, the rabbi and chair of the atheist club in Kolodetz, Shmuel Ben David, sustain Isaac through two world wars, three concentration camps, and five motherlands. The book puts on record, with full art, what is perhaps the central story of the last one hundred years. It is a wise book. http://www.librarything.com/work/5569407/book/50852493 Here is an accessible introduction to the life and wisdom of the famous twelfth-century philosopher-physician Moses Maimonides, whose prolific writings on medical and religious issues, commentaries on Jewish texts, and writings on Jewish ethics and law profoundly influenced Judaism. The Wisdom of Maimonides includes a biography; a section of selected teachings drawn from Maimonides' major works The Guide for the Perplexed and the Mishneh Torah, as well as his other writings; and tales about Maimonides' colorful life as a court physician and rabbinic leader. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590305175/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Going to Israel with her estranged father is the last thing Amy wants to do this summer. A spoiled American teenager with an attitude that matches her killer Jimmy Choo slides, she's got a serious grudge against her dad, a.k.a Sperm Donor, for showing up so rarely in her life. Now he's dragging her to a war zone to meet a family she's never known, including her ill grandmother who's the only source of comfort in this strange land. Sharing a room with her unfriendly cousin, igniting a brawl at the local disco, and having her Ferragamo sandal stolen by a mutt . . . one hilarious humiliation after another tests Amy's spirit. Finding her place in a foreign culture isn't easy, but as Amy learns to shed her tough-girl persona, she discovers that making friends, falling in love, and connecting with her family and heritage isn't impossible after all. http://www.librarything.com/work/986328/book/50850379 Izzy’s favorite part of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich, a joyous ceremony in which people apologize for the mistakes they made in the previous year and thus clean the slate as the new year begins. But there is one mistake on Izzy’s “I’m sorry” list that he’s finding especially hard to say out loud. Humor, touching moments between family and friends, and lots of information about the Jewish New Year are all combined in this lovely picture book for holiday sharing. http://www.librarything.com/work/8250776/book/50848710 From the icons of the game to the players who got their big break but never quite broke through, The Baseball Talmud provides a wonderful historical narration of Major League Jewish Baseball in America. All the stats, the facts, the stories, and the (often unheralded) glory. The Baseball Talmud reveals that there is far more to Jewish baseball than Hank Greenberg's powerful slugging and Sandy Koufax's masterful control. From Ausmus to Zinn, Berg to Kinsler, Holtzman to Yeager, and many others, Megdal draws upon the lore and the little-known details that increase our enjoyment of the game, including: Which Jewish player spent a portion of his retirement as a spy Who received $50,000 and a car to quit school and join the Major Leagues How many players sat out of games scheduled on Yom Kippur Which famous player chose baseball over becoming a rabbi But this is more than just stories. Megdal, a stat geek himself, uses the wealth of modern sabermetrics to determine the greatest Jewish players at each position, the all-time Jewish All-Star Team, and how they would rate against the greatest teams in baseball history, from the 1906 Chicago Cubs to the 1998 New York Yankees. The Baseball Talmud rewrites the history of Jewish baseball and is a book that every baseball fan should own. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061558435/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 For many Jews, discerning the differences among various Christian groups is perplexing. As a result, they are stuck with an outdated understanding of Christian beliefs, practices, and attitudes, especially with regard to their relationship with Judaism, Jews, and Israel. But Christian views are evolving, particularly since the landmark 1965 Catholic statement known as Nostra Aetate that forever changed the landscape of Jewish-Christian relations. This intriguing, brief introduction focuses on the changing Christian currents within the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant denominations, nondenominational megachurches and the emergent church. It also explores the essential doctrines that undergird most Christian belief, including sin, salvation, Jesus as the Messiah, the Second Coming and Christian Zionism--and compares them to the Jewish understanding of these issues. Designed to answer Jews' common questions about Christianity, this enlightening overview is also an excellent interfaith resource that will help all readers understand the changing Christian climate and what its implications are for the future of Judaism and interfaith relations. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580233449/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Divorced, alone, and unexpectedly unemployed, Sylvia Landsman flees to Italy, where she meets Henry, a wistful, married, middle-aged expatriate. Taking off on a grand tour of Europe bankrolled with his wife's money, Henry and Sylvia follow a circuitous route around the continent—as Sylvia entertains Henry with stories of her peculiar family and her damaged friends, of dead ducks and Alma Mahler. Her narrative is a tapestry of remembrances and regrets...and her secret shame: a small, cowardly sin of omission. Yet when the opportunity arises for Sylvia and Henry to do something small but brave, the refrain "if only" returns to haunt her, leaving Sylvia with one more story of love lived and lost. http://www.librarything.com/work/8146258/book/50846025 A merciless literary critic may seem like a demonic figure to a writer anxiously awaiting the ultimate critical review of his work. Such is the plight of Kalman Keren, a writer who lives in an apartment building in Tel Aviv. When Keren notices Professor Shatz coming up the stairs of his building he almost goes into shock. Shatz is the hated literary critic who is every writer's nightmare, and now he and his wife have moved into the apartment above Keren's! Keren's last novel was highly acclaimed by other critics, yet Shatz wrote not a single word about it. This disregard was far worse for Keren than any possible criticism. Keren, familiar with French culture and busy translating François Rabelais' classics, Gargantua and Pantagruel, has a megalomaniac dream of writing the ultimate book, the masterpiece of all time. Only 22 pages have been written of the anticipated thousand page volume, but now that Shatz is disturbing Keren's nights with incessant banging on his typewriter, the author knows that he will no longer be able to write, and that he is doomed to suffer eternal writer's block. At least his love life takes an exciting turn. Keren, divorced, falls in love with Naomi, Professor Shatz's lovely wife, who it turns out, does love Keren's work: Sweet revenge! Naomi leaves her abusive husband to join Keren, and the two set off to celebrate their love in the countryside. Originally published as Ha-Gamal Ha-Meofef Ve- Dabeshet Ha-Zahav, this witty and intelligent satire of the writer-critic relationship is translated by Vivian Eden. http://www.librarything.com/work/3991452/book/50845401 An insightful history of Churchill’s lifelong commitment—both public and private—to the Jews and Zionism, and of his outspoken opposition to anti-Semitism Winston Churchill was a young man in 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was convicted of treason and sent to Devil’s Island. Despite the prevailing anti-Semitism in England as well as on the Continent, Churchill’s position was clear: he supported Dreyfus, and condemned the prejudices that had led to his conviction. Churchill’s commitment to Jewish rights, to Zionism—and ultimately to the State of Israel—never wavered. In 1922, he established on the bedrock of international law the right of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. During his meeting with David Ben-Gurion in 1960, Churchill presented the Israeli prime minister with an article he had written about Moses, praising the father of the Jewish people. Drawing on a wide range of archives and private papers, speeches, newspaper coverage, and wartime correspondence, Churchill’s official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, explores the origins, implications, and results of Churchill’s determined commitment to Jewish rights, opening a window on an underappreciated and heroic aspect of the brilliant politician’s life and career. http://www.librarything.com/work/2652784/book/50845173 Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That's what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they're both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school's scapegoat. Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents' house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She's just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened," Val tells Addie, "and you're the only one who can help." Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It's about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together. http://www.librarything.com/work/7244721/book/50745788 While the Hebrew Bible is the cornerstone of Judaism, it is the Talmud that provides many central values for living. The Talmud sets out specific guidelines and lyrical admonitions regarding many of life's ordinary events, and offers profound words of advice for life's most intractable dilemmas. This accessible introduction to the Talmud explores the essence of Judaism through reflections on the words of the rabbinic sages, from one of American Judaism's foremost teachers and writers, Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins. Dr. Elkins provides fresh insight into ancient aphorisms and shows you how they can be applied to your life today. Topics include: Kindness through Giving, Welcoming and Sharing Human Relationships Personal Values Family Values Teaching and Learning Life's Puzzles Enlightening and inspiring, the values of the Talmud can be appreciated not just by Jews, but by anyone seeking a greater understanding of life and its mysteries. http://www.librarything.com/work/2749452/book/50745153 The year 2001 began as the United Nations Year of Dialogue between Civilizations. By its end, the phrase that came most readily to mind was 'the clash of civilizations.' The tragedy of September 11 intensified the danger caused by religious differences around the world. As the politics of identity begin to replace the politics of ideology, can religion become a force for peace? The Dignity of Difference is Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's radical proposal for reconciling hatreds. The first major statement by a Jewish leader on the ethics of globalization, it also marks a paradigm shift in the approach to religious coexistence. Sacks argues that we must do more than search for values common to all faiths; we must also reframe the way we see our differences. http://www.librarything.com/work/28477/book/50744346 This is the story of Jewish survival. From slavery to the loss of their homeland; from exile to anti-Semitism; from pogroms to near annihilation in the Holocaust, how did they endure when so many other communities have vanished? Hosted by Martha Teichner, senior correspondent for "CBS News Sunday Morning," THE JEWISH PEOPLE: A STORY OF SURVIVAL explores some of the answers. While other films have explored Jewish religion or Jewish culture, this original production is the first Jewish film organized around the central themes of survival and the achievement of a people. Moving chronologically, this film offers a sweeping overview of four millennia and the numerous civilizations -- Babylonian, Roman, Muslim, Spanish, Soviet and other -- that have ruled over the Jewish people. http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-People-Survival-Martha-Teichner/dp/B001Q7JM3C/ This warm, inspiring look at the Jewish holidays—by one of the most dynamic and accessible teachers of Jewish thought today—shows us how each holy day empowers us to recognize God's loving presence in our life everyday. There are many books that discuss how to celebrate the holidays; Inviting God In explains why we should celebrate. Using biblical references, anecdotes, and teaching tales, Rabbi David Aaron takes us through the Jewish calendar year and explains how each holiday—from the most joyous to the most somber—reveals God's ever-present love for us. Passover, for example, celebrates unconditional love; Shavuot reminds us of freedom and our power to take responsiblity; Rosh Hashanah is about the joy of accountability and Yom Kippur sanctifies compassion and forgiveness. Rabbi Aaron helps us to awaken our soulful connection to the dramatic events that occured on those days, and to experience the holidays as opportunities to revitalize our personal relationship with God. Rabbi Aaron is an enthusiastic guide, and his fresh view of the holidays will enliven and enrich traditional celebration. Inviting God In will inspire both practicing Jews who want to reinvigorate their observance of the holidays and secular Jews searching for a meaningful way to reconnect with their Jewish roots. http://www.librarything.com/work/2706801/book/50741266 Help sustain the Jewish tradition's legacy of community leadership by building strong leaders today. Drawing on the past and looking to the future, this practical guide provides the tools you need to work through important contemporary leadership issues. It takes a broad look at positions of leadership in the modern Jewish community and the qualities and skills you need in order to succeed in these positions. Real-life anecdotes, interviews, and dialogue stimulate thinking about board development, ethical leadership, conflict resolution, change management, and effective succession planning. Whether you are a professional or a volunteer, are looking to develop your own personal leadership skills or are part of a group, this inspiring book provides information, interactive exercises, and questions for reflection to help you define leadership styles and theories, expose common myths, and coach others on the importance of leading with meaning. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580233619/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 In this unique collection of essays, some of todayÂ’s smartest Jewish thinkers explore a broad range of fundamental questions in an effort to balance ancient tradition and modern sexuality. In the last few decades a number of factors—post-modernism, feminism, queer liberation, and more—have brought discussion of sexuality to the fore, and with it a whole new set of questions that challenge time-honored traditions and ways of thinking. For Jews of all backgrounds, this has often led to an unhappy standoff between tradition and sexual empowerment. Yet as The Passionate Torah illustrates, it is of critical importance to see beyond this apparent conflict if Jews are to embrace both their religious beliefs and their sexuality. With incisive essays from contemporary rabbis, scholars, thinkers, and writers, this collection not only surveys the challenges that sexuality poses to Jewish belief, but also offers fresh new perspectives and insights on the changing place of sexuality within Jewish theology—and Jewish lives. Covering topics such as monogamy, inter-faith relationships, reproductive technology, homosexuality, and a host of other hot-button issues, these writings consider how contemporary Jews can engage themselves, their loved ones, and their tradition in a way thatÂ’s both sexy and sanctified. Seeking to deepen the Jewish conversation about sexuality, The Passionate Torah brings together brilliant thinkers in an attempt to bridge the gap between the sacred and the sexual. Contributors: Rebecca Alpert, Wendy Love Anderson, Judith R. Baskin, Aryeh Cohen, Elliot Dorff, Esther Fuchs, Bonna Haberman, Elliot Kukla, Gail Labovitz, Malka Landau, Sarra Lev, Laura Levitt, Sara Meirowitz, Jay Michaelson, Haviva Ner-David, Danya Ruttenberg, Naomi Seidman, and Arthur Waskow. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0814776051/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Award-winning author-illustrator Chaya M. Burstein combines her talents as storyteller and artist to bring alive the Bible to young readers. Children and adults will appreciate her Bible people-finder, an index locating dozens of personalities within the text. Unmatched for its engaging art and easily understood rendering of the biblical narrative, The Kids' Cartoon Bible can be read aloud to pre-schoolers and enjoyed by young readers as well. A lovely gift book, it is also an attractive addition to home and school libraries. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50636852 Rutka Laskier, a 14-year-old Jewish girl in the town of Bedzin in Poland, died in Auschwitz in 1943. But she left behind a notebook in which she recorded her thoughts, fears and dreams. Some are the musings of any adolescent girl; others are the despairing cries of an individual caught in history's vortex. Now, after 60 years in the keeping of a friend, that notebook has been recovered - and it opens a unique, moving window into the everyday life of Polish Jews caught in the throes of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution. Hailed as the "Polish Anne Frank," Rutka Laskier now speaks to us across the decades: a witness to evil, a voice for the silent, and a timeless symbol of resolve. The editors of TIME add annotations, photos, maps, and quotations that help bring this tragic era into compelling focus for today's readers. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50636843 Although Hannah Arendt is not primarily known as a Jewish thinker, she probably wrote more about Jewish issues than any other topic. As a young adult in Germany, she wrote about German Jewish history. After moving to France in 1933, she helped Jewish youth immigrate to Palestine. During her years in Paris, her principle concern was the transformation of antinomianism from prejudice to policy, which would culminate in the Nazi "final solution." After France fell, Arendt escaped from an internment camp and made her way to America. There she wrote articles calling for a Jewish army to fight the Nazis. After the war, she supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in a binational (Arab-Jewish) state of Israel. Arendt's original conception of political freedom cannot be fully grasped apart from her experience as a Jew. In 1961 she attended Adolf Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem. Her report, Eichmann in Jerusalem, provoked an immense controversy, which culminated in her virtual excommunication from the worldwide Jewish community. Today that controversy is the subject of serious re-evaluation, especially among younger people in the United States, Europe, and Israel. The publication of The Jewish Writings–much of which has never appeared before–traces Arendt’s life and thought as a Jew. It will put an end to any doubts about the centrality, from beginning to end, of Arendt’s Jewish experience. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50636832 A beautiful and moving one-of-a-kind collection that draws from a variety of Jewish traditions, through the ages, to commemorate every occasion and every passage in the cycle of life, including: Special prayers for the Sabbath, holidays, and important dates of the Jewish year Prayers to mark celebratory milestones, such as bat mitzva, marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth Prayers for companionship, love, and fertility Prayers for healing, strength, and personal growth Prayers for daily reflection and thanksgiving Prayers for comfort and understanding in times of tragedy and loss On the eve of Yom Kippur in 2002, Aliza Lavie, a university professor, read an interview with an Israeli woman who had lost both her mother and her baby daughter in a terrorist attack. As Lavie stood in the synagogue later that evening, she searched for comfort for the bereaved woman, for a reminder that she was not alone but part of a great tradition of Jewish women who have responded to unbearable loss with strength and fortitude. Unable to find sufficient solace within the traditional prayer book and inspired by the memory of her own grandmother’s steadfast knowledge and faith, Lavie began researching and compiling prayers written for and by Jewish women. A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book is the result—a beautiful and moving one-of-a-kind collection that draws from a variety of Jewish traditions, through the ages, to commemorate every occasion and every passage in the cycle of life, from the mundane to the extraordinary. This elegant, inspiring volume includes special prayers for the Sabbath and holidays and important dates of the Jewish year; prayers to mark celebratory milestones, such as bat mitzva, marriage, pregnancy, and childbirth; and prayers for comfort and understanding in times of tragedy and loss. Each prayer is presented in Hebrew and in an English translation, along with fascinating commentary on its origins and allusions. Culled from a wide range of sources, both geographically and historically, this collection testifies that women's prayers were—and continue to be—an inspired expression of personal supplication and desire. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50636826 The tale of a Rashi's granddaughter, a young girl who defies her community to help a friend in need In this sequel to My Guardian Angel, Sylvie Weil continues the story of Elvina, the 14-year-old granddaughter of Rashi, the famous 11th-century French Bible and Talmud commentator. It is the spring of 1097 in the town of Troyes, in France. The Crusaders have been marauding their way through Europe, attacking Jewish communities. One evening, a mysterious family arrives in Troyes--German Jews forced by the Crusaders to submit to baptism. The townspeople shun the family, but Elvina befriends 11-year-old Columba. Columba's mad cousin, Ephraim, steals a mirror from a member of the Jewish community, believing it will let him see his family killed in the recent attacks. Elvina tries to help Ephraim rid his mind of the terrible images by bringing him her own mirror, in which she claims to see a positive future. Elvina's story brings the often-ignored world of Medieval European Jewry to life for young readers http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50636671 This empowering anthology looks at the growth and accomplishments of Jewish feminism and what that means for Jewish women today and tomorrow. It features the voices of women from every area of Jewish life--the Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox and Jewish Renewal movements; rabbis, congregational leaders, artists, writers, community service professionals, academics, and chaplains, from the United States, Canada, and Israel--addressing the important issues that concern Jewish women: * Women and Theology * Women, Ritual and Torah * Women and the Synagogue * Women in Israel * Gender, Sexuality and Age * Women and the Denominations * Leadership and Social Justice http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580233597/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 In this remarkable collection of essays, stories, and poems, Jewish women writers from around the world offer diverse perspectives on the idea of home. The longing for home is as ancient as the exile from Eden, and for the forty writers showcased in this anthology, the struggle to find and redefine home has been intensified by history, the Holocaust, and the diverse cultural, political, and religious contexts in which they live and write. Together, they explore the many natures and meanings of home: home as a place one is born to and sometimes forced to leave; home as a place one can journey toward or create; home as an abstract composite of memories, emotions, and rituals. Some of these writers contend with exile and anti-Semitism, others examine the mixed blessings of sheltered childhoods, and all confront memories in which the historical and personal are intertwined. Their range of perspectives and their personal approaches to a universal concern make Where We Find Ourselves a compelling read for students, scholars, and all who seek to understand what it means to be home. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1438425228/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Devorah’s world is shattered by the tragedies of post–Great War Europe: gas poisoning, famine, typhoid, and influenza. Then comes the Night of the Burning, when Cossacks provoke Christian Poles to attack their Jewish neighbors. In 1920, eleven-year-old Devorah and her little sister, Nechama, are the sole survivors of their community. Salvation arrives in the form of a South African philanthropist named Isaac Ochberg, who invites Devorah and Nechama to join his group of two hundred orphans in their journey to safety in South Africa. Although reluctant to leave her homeland, and afraid to forget her family, Devorah follows her sister, who is determined to go to the new country. There Devorah is dealt the greatest blow – Nechama is adopted and taken away from her. In the end, though, Devorah realizes that she is not solely responsible for keeping the past alive, and that she will not betray her beloved parents when she is adopted herself – and finds happiness again. This gripping first novel, inspired by and based closely on the childhood of the author’s mother-in-law, was recipient of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50469593 In his application to become the spiritual leader of the King Solomon Motorcycle Club, Norman Plummer recalls the momentous events that shaped his life during one sultry Los Angeles summer. Set in 1963—after the Cuban Missile Crisis, but before JFK’s assassination—Norman begins to prepare Bel Air heiress Bayla Adler for a bat mitzvah she doesn’t want. The studious teenage son of a ne’er-do-well gambler, Norman finds himself in a strange new world of trophy wives, pool boys, and plastic surgeons—a world where anything might be bought, except the cooperation of the beautiful Bayla. Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies of the road, Bayla and Norman just might learn to shape their own destinies. And—for a few momentous hours—become a latter-day Bonnie and Clyde searching for a Reverse Jewish Nose Job in the City of Angels. In an unforgettable story of lost innocence and found passion—of love and motorcycles—readers will be rooting for this unlikely couple and their bid to change the world. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1566892244/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 After Yair Berman left her and shattered all her dreams, the devastated Shlomtzion Drore escaped as far as possible from him and her intensely religious life in Jerusalem, becoming an interior designer in secular Tel-Aviv. Twenty-one years later, her daughter has become engaged to his son, and Shlomtzion is forced to visit the controversial settlement in which Yair lives, not only to plan the wedding but to confront her former love and the mistakes of her life. Set in Israel between the Six Day War and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, If You Awaken Love is the intensely moving story of a stormy and spiritual young girl and her love-hate relationships with her childhood sweetheart, with her father, and with God. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50469301 When Evie's father returned home from World War II, the family fell back into its normal life pretty quickly. But Joe Spooner brought more back with him than just good war stories. When movie-star handsome Peter Coleridge, a young ex-GI who served in Joe's company in postwar Austria, shows up, Evie is suddenly caught in a complicated web of lies that she only slowly recognizes. She finds herself falling for Peter, ignoring the secrets that surround him . . . until a tragedy occurs that shatters her family and breaks her life in two. As she begins to realize that almost everything she believed to be a truth was really a lie, Evie must get to the heart of the deceptions and choose between her loyalty to her parents and her feelings for the man she loves. Someone will have to be betrayed. The question is . . . who? http://www.librarything.com/work/5615765/book/50342754 In Celebrate Hanukkah Deborah Heiligman welcomes readers to a holiday celebrated by Jewish communities around the world. The vivid photography of National Geographic illustrates the joyous celebrations of Jewish people around the world—including Ghana, Uganda, India, Israel, Peru, the United States and Poland, as they light menorahs, spin dreidels, and make latkes. The richly informative back matter details many facts, such as the story of U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who brought a menorah and a dreidel on his Space Shuttle mission in 1993. Hoffman observed the traditional spinning of the dreidel, but wisely left the menorah unlit in the proximity of several thousand liters of rocket fuel! Also included are the author's sure-to-please latke recipe, Hanukkah blessings, and a Hanukkah song. A note from Rabbi Shira Stern, the book's consultant, sets the holiday in its global religious and cultural context. http://www.librarything.com/work/3350575/book/50342744 The most celebrated holiday in the Jewish year, Passover commemorates the Exodus of Hebrew slaves from Egypt to freedom over 3,500 years ago. This colorful book explores the many forms that this weeklong celebration takes worldwide. Deborah Heiligman's rich text details the long lavish meals called seders, at which Exodus is recalled in ritual, prayer, song, and story. The historical significance of the food at these Passover feasts is also explained, and delicious recipes encourage readers to experience the full flavors of this internationally observed holiday. Rabbi Shira Stern's informative note provides parents and teachers with a historical and cultural background of the celebration of Passover. http://www.librarything.com/work/3301472/book/50342717 Celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur examines how these Jewish High Holy Days are celebrated worldwide. Rosh Hashanah, known as the Jewish New Year, is a time for reflection and resolution. On Yom Kippur, also called the Day of Atonement, Jews fast, pray, and ask God's forgiveness for their sins. Deborah Heiligman's lively first-person text introduces readers to the sounding of the shofar, the holidays' greeting cards, prayers, and special foods. Rabbi Shira Stern's informative note puts the High Holy Days into wider historical and cultural context for parents and teachers. http://www.librarything.com/work/3083880/book/50342701 Here's a cultural crossover that pays off: a traditionally Japanese poetic form used to celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah. There's one haiku for each night and stepped pages add one candle to the menorah every time the page is turned. The simple poetry is set off perfectly by Karla Gudeon's vibrant freewheeling artwork. A perfect gift or good to reread each year Hanukkah Haiku is a jubilant unforgettable journey through the eight nights of Hanukkah. http://www.librarything.com/work/5648836/book/50342677 A sweet and creative Rosh Hashanah story based on the first historic train ride from Jaffa to Jerusalem in 1892, shortening the journey between the two cities from 3 days to 3 hours. Engineer Ari's train is coming to Jerusalem collecting goodies along the way to celebrate the Jewish new year, and he learns an important lesson along the way. http://www.librarything.com/work/5587356/book/50342656 From Israel’s leading historian, a sweeping history of 1967—the war, what led up to it, what came after, and how it changed everything Tom Segev’s acclaimed works One Palestine, Complete and The Seventh Million overturned accepted views of the history of Israel. Now, in 1967—a number-one bestseller in Hebrew—he brings his masterful skills to the watershed year when six days of war reshaped the country and the entire region. Going far beyond a military account, Segev re-creates the crisis in Israel before 1967, showing how economic recession, a full grasp of the Holocaust’s horrors, and the dire threats made by neighbor states combined to produce a climate of apocalypse. He depicts the country’s bravado after its victory, the mood revealed in a popular joke in which one soldier says to his friend, “Let’s take over Cairo”; the friend replies, “Then what shall we do in the afternoon?” Drawing on unpublished letters and diaries, as well as government memos and military records, Segev reconstructs an era of new possibilities and tragic missteps. He introduces the legendary figures—Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Gamal Abdul Nasser, and Lyndon Johnson—and an epic cast of soldiers, lobbyists, refugees, and settlers. He reveals as never before Israel’s intimacy with the White House as well as the political rivalries that sabotaged any chance of peace. Above all, he challenges the view that the war was inevitable, showing that a series of disastrous miscalculations lie behind the bloodshed. A vibrant and original history, 1967 is sure to stand as the definitive account of that pivotal year. http://www.librarything.com/work/2882154/book/50342643 For the first time, Dr. Eugene Borowitz, the "dean" of liberal Jewish theologians, opens his heart as well as his mind as he talks about the mix of faith and doubt, of knowing and not-knowing--the elements of Jewish belief--in an easily accessible style. In these pages, Borowitz shares with you his rich inner life, which draws from both the rational and mystical Jewish thought that have inspired two generations of rabbis, cantors, and educators, and will now inspire you. With him, you will explore: Seeking the Sacred One Doing Holy Deeds Creating Sacred Community Reading Sacred Texts Thinking about Holiness Learning from Holy Thinkers and much, much more... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580233376/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 "Once in a far-off village, there nearly was a year without Chanukah." So begins LETTER ON THE WIND, a retelling of a Jewish folktale that reminds readers of the first Chanukah and of Mattathias's bravery in protecting his faith. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50341394 Mark Kurzem was happily ensconced in his academic life at Oxford when his father, Alex, showed up on his doorstep with a terrible secret to tell. When a Nazi death squad raided his village at the outset of World War II, Jewish five-year-old Alex Kurzem escaped. After surviving the Russian winter by foraging for food and stealing clothes off dead soldiers, he was discovered by a Nazi-led Latvian police brigade that later became an SS unit. Not knowing he was Jewish, they made him their mascot, dressing the little “corporal” in uniform and toting him from massacre to massacre. Terrified, the resourceful Alex charmed the highest echelons of the Latvian Third Reich, eventually starring in a Nazi propaganda film. When the war ended he was sent to Australia with a family of Latvian refugees. Fearful of being discovered—as either a Jew or a Nazi—Alex kept the secret of his childhood, even from his loving wife and children. But he grew increasingly tormented and became determined to uncover his Jewish roots and the story of his past. Shunned by a local Holocaust organization, he reached out to his son Mark for help in reclaiming his identity. A survival story, a grim fairy-tale, and a psychological drama, this remarkable memoir asks provocative questions about identity, complicity, and forgiveness. http://www.librarything.com/work/3743501/50342237 A cross between Henry Beard's LATIN FOR ALL OCCASIONS and Ben Schott's SCHOTT'S ORIGINAL MISCELLANY, JUST SAY NU is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable readers to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish words–shoyn, nu, epes, takeh,and nebakh–what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the reader doesn’t have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying. Readers will learn how to shmooze their way through such activities as meeting and greeting; eating and drinking; praising and finding fault; maintaining personal hygiene; going to the doctor; driving; parenting; getting horoscopes; committing crimes; going to singles bars; having sex; talking politics and talking trash.Now that Stephen Colbert, a Catholic from South Carolina and host of the "Colbert Report," is using Yiddish to wish viewers a bright and happy Chanukah, people have finally started to realize that there’s nothing in the world that can’t be improved by translating it into Yiddish. Wex’s JUST SAY NU is the book that’s going to show them how. http://www.librarything.com/work/3330303/50342156 Roberto is back in Italy at last. His journey has been long and painful since he escaped from the Nazi labor camp in Eastern Europe. Now the Allies are forcing the Nazis north, and life has never been more dangerous for the Italians. Only the partigiani, small bands of resistance fighters, bring them hope. Roberto joins them, carrying secret messages and smuggling guns. But he’ll be tortured and killed if he is caught. All he wants is to survive to see his family and Venice again. The incomparable Donna Jo Napoli has written a heart-wrenching, triumphant successor to Stones in Water, which garnered rave reviews and numerous awards. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50341449 "Once in a far-off village, there nearly was a year without Chanukah." So begins LETTER ON THE WIND, a retelling of a Jewish folktale that reminds readers of the first Chanukah and of Mattathias's bravery in protecting his faith. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50341394 Sammy has learned to live by his wits on the voyage from Poland to the Jewish immigrant community that is to be his new home in New York City. It is here he discovers that the vibrant, noisy streets of New York are alive with challenge - even more of a challenge than his new school. Will it be Sammy_s wits, or his beautiful singing voice that will keep him out of trouble in the games of stickball in the rough-and-tumble streets? Rona Arato has written a humorous, life-affirming story about a young boy standing up for himself in the midst of peer pressure from a local gang, prejudice against new immigrants, and his own desire to be accepted for who he is. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1550415913/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 Halina Rudowski is on the run. When the Polish ghetto where she lives is evacuated, she narrowly escapes, but her mother is not as lucky. Along with her friend Batya, Halina makes her way to a secret encampment in the woods where Jews survive by living underground. As the group struggles for food, handles infighting, and attempts to protect themselves from the advancing Germans, Halina must face the reality of life without her mother. Based on historical events, this gripping tale sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the underground forest encampments that saved several thousand Jews from the Nazis. In telling the story of one girl's survival, Escaping into the Night marks the arrival of a remarkable new voice in fiction. http://www.librarything.com/work/book/50341137 Vol. 10--Shabbat Morning: Shacharit and Musaf (Morning and Additional Services) features the authentic Hebrew text with a new translation designed to let people know exactly what the prayers say. Introductions tell the reader what to look for in the prayer service, as well as how to truly use the commentaries and to search for--and find--meaning in the prayer book. Framed with beautifully designed Talmud-style pages, commentaries from many of today's most respected Jewish scholars from all movements of Judaism examine shacharit and musaf from the perspectives of ancient Rabbis and modern theologians, as well as feminist, halakhic, Talmudic, linguistic, biblical, Chasidic, mystical, and historical perspectives. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158023240X/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20 A fresh take and indispensable kitchen companion on kosher cooking, for the legions of Jews and others who follow or aspire to adopt Jewish dietary laws. Kosher cuisine is a culinary niche that is rapidly becoming mainstream, as many home cooks outside the Jewish community, seeking more healthful and humane fare, are embracing kosher foods and Jewish dietary laws. Now, Hip Kosher provides detailed, practical resources for finding kosher items in your local stores and more than 175 recipes for every meal and occasion, showcasing contemporary American dishes rather than traditional Eastern European or Sephardic fare. Accessible, easy-to-prepare, and versatile, the recipes are perfect for busy people who don't have hours to spend in the kitchen. Many recipes include menu suggestions, while sidebars note recipe variations, updates on classics, and helpful prep hints about ingredients and tools. Fein also describes Jewish dietary laws (and halal, permitted Muslim foods) and provides comprehensive sources. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1600940536/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20