The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South, by Eli Evans
In The Provincials: a Personal History of Jews in the South, Eli Evans proves that American Southern Jews are not exempt from the complicated racial, religious, and political history of the region. Not surprisingly, their Jewish heritage often put them in a unique and unenviable position—somewhere between white and black, conservative and liberal, segregationist and abolitionist. Indeed, as Mr. Evans’ excellent work attests, the Jews of the South have as much glory and shame in their history as any other Southerner
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, by Lucette Lagnado
Wall Street Journal investigative reporter Lucette Lagnado chronicles the story of her family from the early decades of the twentieth century in Cairo, Egypt, to their traumatic emigration to New York in the early 1960s. Along the way, the family must contend with the death of a child, womanizing habits of the patriarch, illness, and a revolution.
The Periodic Table, by Primo Levi
Primo Levi (1919-1987) was born into an assimilated middle-class family in Turin, Italy. His studies were interrupted by the realities of being Jewish in wartime Europe. He left the university where he was studying chemistry to join the Italian Resistance against the Mussolini's fascist government.
Jews: The Essence and Character of a People, by Arthur Hertzberg and Aron Hirt-Manheimer
Jews: The Essence and Character of A People , is the latest work by prolific scholar Arthur Hertzberg. Along with collaborator Aron Hirt Manheimer, Jews is an attempt to define and analyze what it means to be Jewish in the context of Jewish history from Abraham to the present day.
The Jewish Moral Virtues and The Book of Jewish Values, by Eugene B. Borowitz, Frances Weinman Schwartz, and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
I heard from a rabbi in our community that there was once a man who wrote down the Baal Shem Tov's torah - all that he had heard him teach. One day, the Baal Shem saw the man walking along, clutching a book in his hand. He said to him, "What is this book you are carrying?" The man answered, "This is the book that you wrote," and he disappeared. Later the Baal Shem gathered all of his disciples and asked them, "Which one of you is writing down my torah?" The same man stepped forward and handed over the book. The Baal Shem took a moment, glanced at the pages, and said, "There is not even one word here that is mine."