What's New
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Rereading – and Reimagining – Sacred Story
October 3, 2022
"Tell me a story" is a constant refrain for those of us with children in our lives. Almost as often, when the last page is turned, the child looks up and asks, "again?" Sometimes, this is a joy. Sometimes, re-reading, and re-reading some more, becomes a burden.
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Decreasing Isolation, Celebrating Individuality: An Interview with Nomi Ellenson
August 29, 2022
We sat down with author and photographer Nomi Ellenson to discuss her work, how her Jewish values have shaped what she does, and her mission to help people of all ages and genders, to see themselves as b'tzelem Elohim, created in the image of the Divine.
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When the Queen Says No
March 4, 2022
I had been wanting to write about Queen Vashti for a while. A big part of my rabbinate and my writing focuses on uplifting the stories of women in the biblical narrative, especially those who do not get enough attention.
Social Justice Literature
Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen
By the time she was 3 years old, Jazz Jennings (not her original first name or her real last name) knew she was meant to be a girl. In her new book Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teenager, Jazz tells her story, including how she and her family became reality TV stars and outspoken advocates for transgender rights.
Children's Book Reviews
Bone Button Borscht
A tired beggar reaches a small town on a cold, wintery night, seeking food and a warm bed. When the poor locals are reluctant to assist, he promises to make a delicious soup from six bone buttons.
Book Reviews
Could The Solution to Today’s Problems Be More Arguing, Not Less?
Stories for the Sake of Argument, by Abi Dauber Sterne and Robbie Gringras, is filled with short stories designed to spur family members or groups to engage in healthy disagreement on hot button issues.
The Last Letter: A Daughter Explores Her Inherited Trauma from the Holocaust
In The Last Letter: A Father’s Struggle, a Daughter’s Quest, and the Long Shadow of the Holocaust, Karen Baum Gordon explores not only her father’s life story, but also the stories and events that shaped the lives of her grandparents — two Holocaust victims.
Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History of the World’s Greatest Hero
"Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero" is the provocative title of Roy Schwartz' detailed analysis of the most famous comic book hero in history. The book is very big, as befitting Superman: it weighs a pound and a half, contains 364 pages and measures 7x12 inches.
From Where I Stand
Caroline Goldberg Igra's From Where I Stand explores the challenge of being a mother, the frustration of being a daughter, and the heart-wrenching complexity of being both.
Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero
Outraged by the social inequities in her neighborhood of Down River, 16-year-old Willow Zimmerman, a Jewish high school student, devotes her free time pursuing tikkun olam.
Discussion Guides
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Night, A Memoir, by Elie Wiesel
Eliezar Wiesel was born in 1928 in the small Hungarian village of Sighet, in what is today Romania.
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Everything Is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer
Prior to its publication in Spring 2002, an excerpt of Everything Is Illuminated appeared in the New Yorker'sdebut-fiction issue.
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The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
The cover of Anita Diamant's extraordinary book reads, The Red Tent: A Novel. A more accurate description of her rich elaboration on the biblical narrative of Dinah would be The Red Tent: A Midrash.
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Mr. Sammler’s Planet, by Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976, was born near Montreal in 1915 to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.
Learning
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Building a Serious Jewish Library
A young friend and former student of mine recently asked her Facebook network for suggestions as to what books she ought to buy as first steps in building a serious Jewish library. Although her request welcomed the nerdy, I have striven to recommend for a broad base of reader/collectors.
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7 Elie Wiesel Books that Show the Range of His Influence
Most people know Elie Wiesel as the author of Night, one of the first published autobiographical accounts of what life was like inside Nazi concentration camps.
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How to Start a Social Justice Book Club
Reform Jews across North America come together in their own communities to read, explore and discuss social justice-themed books. RAC Reads provides thought-provoking stories and tools to get your family, congregation, and community talking about racial justice.
History
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First They Came for the Books
In his fascinating and eminently readable new book, Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books, Rabbi Mark Glickman reminds us that Jews have always relied on books as essential sinews, binding Jews to God, to each other, and to the rest of humanity, regardless of time or space.
Making Meaning of Tisha B’Av Through the Lens of Literature
When you have come into the land that the Eternal your God is giving to you as a heritage, and you have possessed it and settled there, you shall take from among all the first fruits of the ground that you bring forth from your land- which the Eternal your God has given you- and you shall put them..
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A Dangerous Trend in World War II-Era Novels
I understand why Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction last month. It is a beautiful, captivating and moving story. Set in World War II, possibly the most written-about period in history, it manages to cover original ground.
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Were Shakespeare's Plays Actually Written By a Jewish Woman?
William Shakespeare's name appears on many of play, but no evidence demonstrates that he actually wrote them. Could they have actually been written by Aemelia Bassano?