Emma Lazarus
Emma Lazarus' poem, "The New Colossus," affixed to the base of the Statue of Liberty in 1903 (twenty-five years after her death), identifies this icon as the "Mother of Exiles." It took time for Lady Liberty to grow into this role.
Kabbalah: A Love Story
When is a predictable love story more than a predictable love story? When a teacher of mysticism like Rabbi Lawrence Kushner uses it as a parable.
Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Movement to Boycott Israel
For all the talk about Israel being the “third rail” of Jewish life – and there is no denying that its politics can be divisive – in truth, communities can find a lot of common ground. Most American Jews occupy the spacious center located between the poles of the extreme right, with its ideology of “Greater Israel,” and the extreme left, which rejects the very foundations of Israel’s right to exist
Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films
Venerable film critic Molly Haskell unveils a warm respect for the blockbuster filmmaker, discussing his evolution from wunderkind to serious filmmaker through the lens of his very personal struggle with Judaism.
The Family Gene: A Mission to Turn My Deadly Inheritance into a Hopeful Future
As scientists learn more about disease-causing mutations in the Ashkenazi Jewish gene pool, it becomes increasingly urgent for couples in this demographic to undergo genetic testing before having children.
Raising Secular Jews
More than two million Jews from Eastern Europe arrived in the United States between 1880 and 1924, the majority of them secular.
The Mandela Plot
Adolescence, otherness, and Apartheid make a literally explosive cocktail in National Jewish Book Award winner Kenneth Bonert’s new novel, The Mandela Plot. Half hyperbolic adventure and half historical fiction, Bonert elevates his unlikely hero, Martin Helger, to almost mythic status, while reminding readers both of South Africa’s Jewish diaspora and the horrors of Apartheid.
The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy
Simon Levis Sullam, who teaches modern history at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, has written a well-researched book that shatters the widely-held belief that Italians were brava gente, “good people,” who protected their Jewish fellow citizens from the horrors of the Holocaust.
Promised Land: A Novel of Israel
Martin Fletcher, the former NBC bureau chief in Israel, describes his 409-page novel in three words: “Exodus meets ‘Dallas.’” And indeed it is.
The Family Tabor
What do we choose to show to others, and what do we keep hidden? How do we curate our public face?