Jewish Review of Books
Something Antigonus Said
27 Feb 2013
The text discusses a saying of Antigonus of Sokho, a figure in Jewish tradition, found in the Mishnah Pirkei Avot. Antigonus advises against serving God for ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Before the Big Bang
27 Feb 2013
Lawrence Krauss argues in his book "A Universe from Nothing" that the universe can be explained without invoking God. He explains that near the beginning of ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Rereading Herzl’s Old-New Land
27 Feb 2013
The article discusses Theodor Herzl's novel "Altneuland" and its relevance to contemporary Israeli politics and discourse. Published in 1902, the novel addre...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Berdyczewski, Blasphemy, and Belief
27 Feb 2013
Micha Josef Berdyczewski, a former Orthodox Jew turned Hebrew writer, advocated for a departure from traditional Judaism to a more vital Hebrew identity, cal...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Homage to Mahj
27 Feb 2013
Project Mah Jongg, curated by Melissa Martens, initially displayed at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York and has since traveled to various Jewish muse...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Reorientation
27 Feb 2013
In a recent discussion, Bernard Lewis criticized the dominance of Saidian views in American academia regarding Middle Eastern studies. Jacob Lassner's new bo...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Matisse and His Jewish Patrons
27 Feb 2013
The article discusses Matisse's relationships with his Jewish patrons, particularly the Stein family and the Cone sisters. They were his earliest and most lo...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
The Mighty Jacobson
27 Feb 2013
Howard Jacobson is a British Jewish novelist known for his humorous and serious exploration of Jewish identity. His works, such as "Kalooki Nights" and "The ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Borges, the Jew
27 Feb 2013
Jorge Luis Borges, a renowned Argentinian writer, was accused of being Jewish in a fascist magazine in 1934. He responded wittily, reflecting on the possibil...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
A Neoplatonic Affair
27 Feb 2013
"Melisande! What Are Dreams?" by Hillel Halkin tells the story of a love triangle involving the narrator, Hoo, his wife Mellie, and their friend Ricky. The n...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Lawfare
27 Feb 2013
In Peter Berkowitz's book "Lawfare: Israel and the Struggle over the International Laws of War," he defends Israel against accusations of violating internati...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Dust-to-Dust Song
27 Feb 2013
Nelly Sachs, a Jewish poet who escaped the Third Reich and won the Nobel Prize for Literature, underwent a remarkable transformation in her work post-Holocau...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Muddling Through
27 Feb 2013
"The World Without You" by Joshua Henkin follows a family, the Frankels, as they gather for the memorial of their beloved son and brother Leo, who was killed...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Who Is Man?
27 Feb 2013
This text discusses the concept of the human nature in Jewish thought. It compares the views of Saint Augustine and the rabbis on the nature of human beings....
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Where Wisdom Begins
27 Feb 2013
In "Where Wisdom Begins," the discussion centers on the role of religion in modern society by challenging the idea that secularism alone can solve societal c...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
President Grant and the Chabadnik
27 Feb 2013
In April 1869, Rabbi Haim Zvi Sneersohn, a descendant of the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, approached President Ulysses S. Grant to advoc...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
A Heretic in the Truth
27 Feb 2013
Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza's treatise, "Theological-Political Treatise," sparked controversy for its radical theological and political ideas. Spinoza challe...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
27 Feb 2013
"The Jewish Annotated New Testament" discusses the Jewish roots of the New Testament and the historical context of its texts, highlighting the commonalities ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Chasing Death
27 Feb 2013
The Patagonian Hare by Claude Lanzmann is a captivating memoir that delves into the extraordinary life of the renowned Holocaust documentarian. Lanzmann, kno...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
The Statesman
27 Feb 2013
In "Ben-Gurion: A Political Life" by Shimon Peres, the book explores the leadership and legacy of David Ben-Gurion, emphasizing his pivotal role in the found...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Comes the Comer
27 Feb 2013
The New American Haggadah, edited by Jonathan Safran Foer and translated by Nathan Englander, presents a discussion on the complexities of translating Jewish...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Letters, Spring 2012
27 Feb 2013
In the discourse from Letters, Spring 2012, the focus is on the placement of altars in Christian churches and bimahs in synagogues, particularly through the ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Diaspora Divided
27 Feb 2013
Peter Beinart's book "The Crisis of Zionism" addresses the disconnect between young, liberal American Jews and Israel, arguing that the American Jewish estab...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Frogs, Griffins, and Jews Without Hats: How My Children Illuminated the Haggadah
27 Feb 2013
The article discusses the illustrations in two medieval Jewish manuscripts, the Golden Haggadah and the Birds Head Haggadah, and explores the insights they p...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Karl Marx, the Jews of Jerusalem, and UNESCO
27 Feb 2013
Karl Marx's rare empathetic depiction of the Jews of Jerusalem during the Crimean War in 1854 depicts their misery amidst Muslim oppression and intolerance, ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
New Thinkers, Old Stereotypes
27 Feb 2013
In "Old Worlds, New Mirrors: On Jewish Mysticism and Twentieth-Century Thought," Moshe Idel critiques the new elite of 20th-century Central European Jewish i...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Leon’s Roar
27 Feb 2013
In "The Scandal of Kabbalah," Yaacob Dweck explores Leon Modena's work, Ari Nohem, written in 1639 but published only in 1840 due to its controversial conten...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Singing Gentile Songs: A Ladino Memoir by Sa’adi Besalel a-Levi
27 Feb 2013
Saadi Besalel a-Levi's memoir, "Singing Gentile Songs," offers a unique insight into 19th-century Salonica, shedding light on the lost Ottoman and Jewish wor...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
In Brief, Spring 2012
27 Feb 2013
Jerry Weintraub, in his autobiography, paints a picture of a Bronx kid with chutzpah who made deals with Hollywood icons like Elvis and Sinatra. Shmuel Rosne...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Questioning in the Darkness
27 Feb 2013
Shloyme-Zanvl Rappoport, also known as S. An-sky, a writer and ethnographer a century ago, embarked on an ambitious survey aimed at documenting vanishing Jew...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Sincere Irony
27 Feb 2013
Following the 9/11 attacks, Graydon Carter's statement about the "end of the age of irony" prompted reflection on the clash between fanaticism and intellectu...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
The Rock from Which They Were Cleft
27 Feb 2013
Rabbi Haim Amsalem's books, "Zera Yisrael" and "Mekor Yisrael," address the issue of conversion in Israel for immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
The Jewish Turn of Norman Podhoretz
27 Feb 2013
Norman Podhoretz, a Jewish intellectual and influential figure of neoconservatism, rose from a poor background in Brooklyn to become a leading literary criti...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
A Murder in Queens
27 Feb 2013
In a Jewish community in Uzbekistan, the dissolution of the Soviet Union prompts mass emigration, notably by the Bukharan Jewish Borukhov family, who relocat...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Untrue Blood
27 Feb 2013
The text discusses the historical accusations of host desecration against Jews, particularly in post-Reformation Poland. It examines how these accusations we...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
The Kibbutz, Post-Utopia
27 Feb 2013
"100 Years of Kibbutz: The Story of the Kibbutz Movement" edited by Eliezer Saks commemorates the centennial of the kibbutz movement, tracing its origins wit...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
How Goodly Are Your Tents, O Tel Aviv? A Symposium
27 Feb 2013
The Tent City Protests that began in Tel Aviv last summer, stirring up to 450,000 protesters throughout Israel in a show of both size and civility, have left...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Walkers in the City
27 Feb 2013
David Kroyanker's books, "The Jerusalem Triangle: An Urban Biography" and "Jerusalem-Mamilla: Prosperity, Decay, and Renewal," provide a detailed exploration...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Starving for Zion
27 Feb 2013
Chaim Gans, a political philosopher and law professor at Tel Aviv University, makes a notable contribution with his book "A Just Zionism: On the Morality of ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
No Tips
27 Feb 2013
Joshua Rubenstein's book, "Leon Trotsky: A Revolutionary's Life," explores the complex legacy of Trotsky, examining his contributions to the struggle against...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
A Tale of Two Synagogues
27 Feb 2013
Rabbi Mortimer Cohen of a Conservative synagogue in Philadelphia approached architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1953 to design a synagogue that resembled a mount...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Letters, Winter 2012
27 Feb 2013
The article "Curating Assimilation" criticizes the National Museum of American Jewish History for focusing too much on the theme of assimilation rather than ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Eco’s Elders of Zion
27 Feb 2013
In Umberto Eco's novel "The Prague Cemetery," the character Peter Rachkovsky explains the origins and implications of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a ...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Secularism and Sabbateans
27 Feb 2013
The discussion delves into the topic of Jewish secularization in the 18th century, touching on books like "Secularism and Sabbateans." It explores how tradit...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Anita and the Wolf
27 Feb 2013
The article discusses the film "Anita" directed by Marcos Carnevale, which follows the story of a young adult with Down Syndrome named Anita in Buenos Aires....
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Jewish Identity and Its Discontents
27 Feb 2013
The text discusses Jewish identity and the challenges surrounding it, focusing on how individuals grapple with their Jewishness in a modern context. It menti...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
The Wages of Criticism
27 Feb 2013
Rabbi Aryeh Leib Ginsburg, a prominent 18th-century scholar known as Shaagat Aryeh, gained a reputation for his fearless criticism of earlier rabbinic author...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Minhag America
27 Feb 2013
Marc Lee Raphael's "The Synagogue in America: A Short History" provides a concise and comprehensive look at the synagogue's evolution in the United States, d...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
King James: The Harold Bloom Version
27 Feb 2013
Harold Bloom, a renowned literary critic, delves into the complexities of writing and influence, particularly through the lens of strong misreading in his wo...
27 Feb 2013
Jewish Review of Books
Red Rosa
27 Feb 2013
Born in Zamosc, Poland in the 19th century, Rosa Luxemburg, a prominent figure in socialist parties in Poland and Germany, dedicated her life to fighting cap...
27 Feb 2013