The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China
In 2010, during Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan’s tense Senate confirmation hearing, Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who supported her nomination, jokingly asked President Barack Obama’s nominee what she did on Christmas Day. It was a strange, even bizarre question because it had nothing to do with her judicial qualifications. But Kagan’s humorous reply completely disarmed her Senatorial opponents: “Like all Jews, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.” But there is much more to the Jewish-Chinese
I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: a Post-Holocaust Memoir
If the author’s name sounds familiar, it should. Esther Safran Foer’s son, Jonathan, is the author of the best-selling novel, Everything is Illuminated, a fictionalized story of the pre-Holocaust shtetl called Trochenbrod and his travels to Ukraine to search for the woman who saved his grandfather’s life. I In I
The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos
The Light of Days, a soaring and harrowing account of the role dozens of Jewish women played in the resistance during the Holocaust, is the product of many years of research, and a dose of bashert as well.
Review of the New 5-Volume Steinsaltz Collection
A review of the New 5-Volume Steinsaltz Collection: A Concise Guide to the Torah, A Concise Guide to Halakhah, A Concise Guide to Mahshavah, A Concise Guide to the Sages THE SAGES, and A Reference Guide to the Talmud.
Layers: Personal Narratives of Struggle, Resilience, and Growth from Jewish Women
In 2015, Shira Lankin Sheps, a clinically trained therapist, blogged about her long struggle with chronic pain. The overwhelming number of positive responses from other women prompted her to create an online magazine called The Layers Project. The success of this attempt to allow women to talk frankly about their
Philip Roth: A Counterlife
Philip Roth (1933-2018), one of the most prolific and acclaimed authors in the history of American literature. He is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. In his complicated private life, Roth was often an unhappy man. Ira Nadel’s comprehensive biography
Contested Utopia: Jewish Dreams and Israeli Realities
Growing up in the years following the founding of the State of Israel, I, like so many of my generation, was taught that the new Jewish state was the fulfillment of a utopian dream: a Jewish homeland after almost 2000 years of exile. It would be a refuge for persecuted diaspora Jews and its governance guided by Jewish values.
Those Who Are Saved
Very few Jews managed to escape the Holocaust and find refuge in the United States. In her novel Those Who Are Saved, Alexis Landau tells the story of Vera and Max, whose artistic talents and connections afforded them a new life in America without sacrificing the privileged lifestyle they enjoyed before the war.
Jewish End-of-Life Care in a Virtual Age: Our Tradition Reimagined
The pandemic has changed every aspect of our lives, even the way we become ill and the way we die. We used to lie in the hospital surrounded by our family and friends. Now no one is allowed to be with us for fear of contagion. We used to be
The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir
The Empathy Diaries is Dr. Sherry Turkle’s fascinating attempt to explore, as she explains, “how this personal story meshed with my professional journey” – and what an illustrious professional journey this dual sociologist and clinical psychologist has had! Dr. Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies
The Lost Shtetl
The Lost Shtetl is a debut novel rich with whimsy and heart – but first, prepare to suspend your disbelief. When you do, you’ll settle in for an absorbing tale of a shtetl called Kreskol, located in a remote area of Poland so secluded that it avoided Nazi detection. Separated