64.6 F
San Diego
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Redefining who can become a Jew

0
Author Robert Mnookin, a Harvard Law professor, argues that Jewish peoplehood should have permeable boundaries. One should be able to escape Jewish identity, if one so wishes, or conversely be admitted within the Jewish...

Book review: ‘The New American Judaism’

0
American Jewry is balkanized, divided into denominations ranging from the Haredi, who scrupulously and meticulously strive to obey both the Torah and oral laws, at one extreme, and Reform Judaism, whose roots lie in...

‘BeteBrune’ novel filled with hateful stereotypes

0
This was a truly difficult book to read.  Not stylistically; the author has a clear and concise style.  The book’s content was severely off-putting, so filled is this novel with hate, stereotyping, and prejudice...

Delight your child, and self, with this baby book

0
Is there a word in Yiddish for smorgasbord?  If there were, it might be perfect to describe the contents of this charming “first Jewish baby book” that will be so fun for parents and...

Friendship between Basques and Jews fuels novel

0
While the Basque people of Vitoria, Spain, were Christians, like the Jews, they were outsiders, not quite like the other Christians of Castile or other parts of newly united Spain.  So, when King Ferdinand...

Jewish book festival spans mystery to memoir

0
Have cooling temperatures left you longing to curl up with a good book? The Northwest Ohio Jewish Book Festival has a few recommendations. Like, say, Beverly Gray’s Seduced by Mrs. Robinson: How ‘The Graduate’ Became the Touchstone...

Irish and Jewish questions – the chosen people’s history in Ireland

0
The first mention of Jews in Ireland dates from the Annals of Innisfallen in 1079; according to an entry for that year . “Coicer Iudaide do thichtain dar muir agus aisceda leo do Thairdelbach, & a n-díchor...

Surviving the Shoah by hook or by crook

0
This book came to me “over the transom,” that is, without any previous warning.  Even though it is three years old, I’m glad that I had a chance to read and review it, as...

Novel relates a lesser known Holocaust experience

0
There are aspects of the story that are hauntingly familiar: A banging on the door and an arrest; people being crammed so tightly into boxcars that many have to sleep in cramped discomfort or...

Historian chronicles Hitler’s friends and fellow travelers

0
Former California Gov. Gray Davis, a liberal Democrat, and the Koch Brothers, billionaire businessmen and Libertarians often associated with conservative causes, would seem to have little in common.  However, that is why digging into...