Tag: Book Reviews
The Pogroms in Ukraine, 1918-19
Between 1918 and 1921 an estimated 100,000 Jewish people were killed, maimed or tortured in pogroms in Ukraine. Hundreds of Jewish communities were burned to the ground and hundreds of thousands of people were...
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...
The Polish Spy Who Reported on Auschwitz from the Inside
Witold Pilecki, a member of the Polish resistance, learned of a new camp established by the German Nazis in the Polish city of Oswiecim, toward what end no one knew yet. He volunteered to...
Humorous Stories for the December Holidays
This is a collection of 20 short stories about the upcoming December holidays. Three of the stories have distinctly Jewish angles, whereas others either are Christmas oriented or so general they might be told...
‘Nevergreen’: A Satiric Commentary on Contemporary College ‘Values’
Following a chance meeting aboard an airplane, a doctor simply identified as “J.” is invited to give a lecture at Nevergreen College, which was built on an island that formerly housed an insane asylum. ...
Following Grandma’s WWII Path Leads Author to Self-Discovery
When Sergiusz Scheller left his home in Poland to move to America to be with his bride, Rachael Cerrotti, his mother Danuta told him, “We share the same sky. We look at the same...
STEM, STEAM, and Now STREAM Children’s Books
Educators long have worked with STEM curricula — emphasizing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. When artists declared such curricula were too limiting, the notion of STEAM was introduced. Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math.
Now,...
Former Israel ‘Hawk’ Tells of His Transformation to a ‘Dove’
It’s a well-worn political observation that “it took a Nixon to go to China,” meaning because President Richard M. Nixon was identified as a staunch conservative, he was trusted to go to mainland China...
Book Review: ‘The Age of Exodus’
Although not a fan of swashbuckling, derring-do literature, I was tempted to buy this book because its subject-matter combined ancient archaeology and the struggle to establish the modern State of Israel. An irresistible combination...
Novel Imagines German-Jewish Relationships at Close of 19th Century
The book cover gives a false impression of the contents of All Things That Deserve to Perish. While there are sexual situations that contribute to the outcome of the story, the major theme of this book...