A Jewish Academia Novel Set in 1960 Still Resonates
I started reading academia novels in the 1960s with Edward Albee’s tempestuous boozy Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf, then the jocular Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, a hoot, a romp, filled with junior faculty insecurities.
My radar sought...
Biography of David Sealtiel Tells Struggles of Pre-State Israel
This small book, subtitled (in German) “I want to be a compatriot of the Jewish people,” describes the life of the man who rebelled against the bourgeois and orthodox way of life of his...
The Joys of Jewish Preserving: Modern Recipes with Traditional Roots, for Jams, Pickles, Fruit...
Food preservation, a necessity before the advent of modern refrigeration, is popular again. The slow food movement, which stresses the use of locally grown food prepared with minimal processing, is a factor. The Jewish...
“The Mystery of the Missing Pitom”, by Beverly Mach Geller
After Yosef, his brothers and father built their sukah, they went to buy a lulav and etrog. Yosef is fascinated by its fragrance and can’t wait until the holiday arrives to smell it again....
The Holiness of Sex: Leonard Cohen’s Biblical Theology
On hearing that I had recently written a book about Leonard Cohen, someone asked me why I thought Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature rather than Cohen. Not being a Nobel prize adjudicator...
An Entire Book in 12 Words
Can you imagine an entire book in 12 words, not including the title?
That last sentence took one more word than that.
Yet a 12-word book was the successful collaboration of author Tammar Stein and artist...
Historical Novel Tells of 19th Century Yemenite Jews
The pomegranate pendant of the title was fashioned in gold as a wedding gift for Mazal, a fourteen-year-old Yemenite girl who is the narrator of the book. The events she recounts begin in the...
Sampling Israel’s Ethnic Groups and Restaurants
Author Ethan Michaeli is an American journalist with a knack for schmoozing with people wherever he goes. While he lives in Chicago, his older brother and parents live in Israel. He travels frequently to Israel to...
The Perfect Dose by Jack Rubinstein
Passionately written science meets the human condition in this occasionally raunchy, at turns hilarious and ultimately illuminating novel. The Perfect Dose follows a run-of-the-mill Midwest physician as he throws himself into a headlong fight...
Memoir Relates How 2 Young Sisters- One Deaf, One Hearing – Survived the Holocaust...
This joint memoir, intended for students in grades 3 through 7, tells the story of two young sisters — one hearing and one deaf — who survived World War II notwithstanding their transport as...