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Our JANUARY 2010 Update

Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com

Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com, where we list new and eclectic books of Jewish interest and sort them by publication date. All net proceeds go to tzedaka. Look at the hyperlinks to the left for books by season. Be sure to visit our Fall 09, and Winter 2010Books pages, and oFrah's Jewish Book Club web pages.

What is not to be happy about? Check the Fall and Winter pages. It is filled with new books by PHILIP ROTH, JAY MICHAELSON, MICHAEL CHABON, DAVID LEHMAN, ANNE RICE, AND MORE. Thank you for visiting.

BOB DYLAN
Prophet, Mystic, Poet
By Seth Rogovoy
December 2009, Scribners
"Even after almost fifty years, the language of Bob Dylan's songs remains full of uncharted territory. Seth Rogovoy is uniquely qualified to examine the connections between Dylan's songwriting and the Jewish liturgy, and Prophet, Mystic, Poet helps fill in one more piece of an endless and endlessly fascinating puzzle." -- Alan Light, former senior writer at Rolling Stone
Bob Dylan and his artistic accomplishments have been explored, examined, and dissected year in and year out for decades, and through almost every lens. Yet rarely has anyone delved extensively into Dylan's Jewish heritage and the influence of Judaism in his work. In Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet, Seth Rogovoy, an award-winning critic and expert on Jewish music, rectifies that oversight, presenting a fascinating new look at one of the most celebrated musicians of all time. Rogovoy unearths the various strands of Judaism that appear throughout Bob Dylan's songs, revealing the ways in which Dylan walks in the footsteps of the Jewish Prophets. Rogovoy explains the profound depth of Jewish content -- drawn from the Bible, the Talmud, and the Kabbalah -- at the heart of Dylan's music, anddemonstrates how his songs can only be fully appreciated in light of Dylan's relationship to Judaism and the Jewish themes that inform them.
From his childhood growing up the son of Abe and Beatty Zimmerman, who were at the center of the small Jewish community in his hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, to his frequent visits to Israel and involvement with the Orthodox Jewish outreach movement Chabad, Judaism has permeated Dylan's everyday life and work. Early songs like "Blowin' in the Wind" derive central imagery from passages in the books of Ezekiel and Isaiah; mid-career numbers like "Forever Young" are infused with themes from the Bible, Jewish liturgy, and Kabbalah; while late-period efforts have revealed a mind shaped by Jewish concepts of Creation and redemption. In this context, even Dylan's so-called born-again period is seen as a logical, almost inevitable development in his growth as a man and artist wrestling with the burden and inheritance of the Jewish prophetic tradition.
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MAIMONIDES, SPINOZA, AND US
TOWARD AN INTELLECTUALLY VIBRANT JUDAISM
By MARC D. ANGEL, RABBI
December 2009, Jewish Lights
A challenging look at two great Jewish philosophers, and what their thinking means to our understanding of God, truth, revelation and reason. Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) is Jewish history's greatest exponent of a rational, philosophically sound Judaism. He strove to reconcile the teachings of the Bible and rabbinic tradition with the principles of Aristotelian philosophy, arguing that religion and philosophy ultimately must arrive at the same truth. Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) is Jewish history's most illustrious "heretic." He believed that truth could be attained through reason alone, and that philosophy and religion were separate domains that could not be reconciled. His critique of the Bible and its teachings caused an intellectual and spiritual upheaval whose effects are still felt today. Rabbi Marc D. Angel discusses major themes in the writings of Maimonides and Spinoza to show us how modern people can deal with religion in an intellectually honest and meaningful way. From Maimonides, we gain insight on how to harmonize traditional religious belief with the dictates of reason. From Spinoza, we gain insight into the intellectual challenges which must be met by modern believers.
Discover how Jewish theology became what it is today--and how it can affect the Jewish future. The views of Moses Maimonides and Baruch Spinoza, both foundation stones of Jewish theology and philosophy, may differ more than they coincide. But by revisiting their philosophical arguments, in vigorous debate with each other, we can come to a deeper appreciation of the role of reason--and of revelation--in Judaism. Theologian Rabbi Marc D. Angel, PhD, explores how these two great thinkers came to formulate what we know as Jewish theology and philosophy today, incorporating the influences of Torah, rabbinic sages, Greek philosophy, and pre-modern and modern science. He breaks down their philosophical arguments with relevant historical detail, making them more accessible to a wide audience. His analysis touches on many provocative but vital questions of enduring importance, including: Can the revealed truth of religion and the empirical truth of science be reconciled? What is the nature of God? Can it be described? Is Torah really the perfect, errorless word of God? Does God play an active role in human affairs? What is the ultimate source of Truth? How important is it to observe ritual? Can Judaism be fully embraced by non-Jews?
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START-UP NATION
THE STORY OF ISRAEL'S ECONOMIC MIRACLE
BY DAN SENOR AND SAUL SINGER
A Council of Foreign Relations Book
November 2009, Twelve
START-UP NATION addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel-- a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources-- produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada and the UK? With the savvy of foreign policy insiders, Senor and Singer examine the lessons of the country's adversity-driven culture, which flattens hierarchy and elevates informality-- all backed up by government policies focused on innovation. In a world where economies as diverse as Ireland, Singapore and Dubai have tried to re-create the "Israel effect", there are entrepreneurial lessons well worth noting. As America reboots its own economy and can-do spirit, there's never been a better time to look at this remarkable and resilient nation for some impressive, surprising clues.
Dan Senor, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, has been on the front lines of policy, politics, and business in the Middle East. As a senior foreign policy advisor to the U.S. Government , he was one of the longest-serving civilian officials in Iraq. He has also served in Qatar and studied in Israel. A foreign affairs analyst for Fox News, Senor's pieces are frequently published by The Wall Street Journal. Saul Singer is the editorial editor of The Jerusalem Post, for which he writes a weekly column, and the author of Confronting Jihad: Israel's Struggle and the World after 9/11. For ten years, he served as a foreign policy advisor on Capitol Hill
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STOP!
You see the name Anne Rice below, and you think vampires and you skip over it
That is what I would do
But wait. Her newest novel is about Jews in England, in the 13th century, before 1290.
Like vampires, they are outcasts in the world of their times, and they tell their tale to Toby (sort of like "Interview with the Jew?")
Read more below...

ANGEK TIME
The Songs of the Seraphim
by ANNE RICE
October 2009, Knopf
Anne Rice returns to the mesmerizing storytelling that has captivated readers for more than three decades in a tale of unceasing suspense set in time past-a metaphysical thriller about angels and assassins. The novel opens in the present. At its center: Toby O'Dare-a contract killer of underground fame on assignment to kill once again. A soulless soul, a dead man walking, he lives under a series of aliases-just now: Lucky the Fox-and takes his orders from "The Right Man."
Into O'Dare's nightmarish world of lone and lethal missions comes a mysterious stranger, a seraph, an angel, Malchiah, who offers him a chance to save rather than destroy lives.
O'Dare, who as a youth was a talented player of the lute and who long ago dreamt of being a priest (but had to give it all up when his drunken mother killed his two siblings) but instead is a violent murderer seizes his chance.
Can this be his redemption? Can he aid the Jews at a time "when the Christmas pageants have ended and a time of troubles for the Jewry has begun."
He is carried back through the ages of time to thirteenth-century England, to Norwich, to dark realms where accusations of ritual murder have been made against Jews, where children suddenly die or disappear . . . In this primitive setting, O'Dare begins his perilous quest for salvation, a journey of danger and flight, loyalty and betrayal, selflessness and love.
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RECENT DVD'S

The Humbling
A novel
BY Philip Roth
November 2009, Houghton Mifflin
Everything is over for Simon Axler, the protagonist of Philip Roth's startling new book, his 30th. One of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, he has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance. His Falstaff and Peer Gynt and Vanya, all his great roles, "are melted into air, into thin air." When he goes onstage he feels like a lunatic and looks like an idiot. His confidence in his powers has drained away; he imagines people laughing at him; he can no longer pretend to be someone else. "Something fundamental has vanished." His wife has gone, his audience has left him, his agent can't persuade him to make a comeback.
Into this shattering account of inexplicable and terrifying self-evacuation bursts a counterplot of unusual erotic desire, a consolation for a bereft life so risky and aberrant that it points not toward comfort and gratification but to a yet darker and more shocking end. In this long day's journey into night, told with Roth's inimitable urgency, bravura, and gravity, all the ways that we convince ourselves of our solidity, all our life's performances-talent, love, sex, hope, energy, reputation-are stripped off.
NOTE: If reading about a green dildo sex toy will gross you out, then please avoid this novel.
NOTE 2: This book is devoid of a Jewish character and plot, overtly Jewish at least. Is Axler Jewish? Who knows? Of course, his agent probably is. Aren't all agents? But whether Axler is Jewish or not, and whether his farmhouse shotgun is circumcised or not, makes no diff. It is still a Roth novel
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NOW ON DVD
SEINFELD - THE COMPLETE SERIES:
AND
CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, SEASONS 1 - 6

NOW IN PAPERBACK
NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD WINNER
HADASSAH BOOK AWARD WINNER
The paperback comes with a reading group guide and Author Q&A

SONGS FOR THE BUTCHER'S DAUGHTER
A NOVEL
BY PETER MANSEAU
June 2009, Free Press
Peter Manseau worked for several years at the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst Mass., where he was surrounded by books and was able to gain inspiration for this novel. He is a Catholic who has written a mutli award winning Jewish book. He has written a story on the power of the translation, the translator, faith, and self-transformation.. It is the story of Itsik Malpesh, a Russian immigrant from the Moldovan city of Kishinev, who is 90 years of age, and the last living Yiddish poet in the US. He has a translator who is only 21. This is a rich mediation on the power of language and the inertia of true love, For his heart yearns for the butcher's daughter, Sasha Blinko.
. From Publishers Weekly: Known for Vows, his memoir of growing up the son of a former priest and nun, Manseau uses an alter ego to tell the story of fictional Yiddish poet Itsik Malpesh, born in the Moldovan city of Kishinev in 1903. Itsik's story is told through his Yiddish memoirs, which he helps a young American Catholic (working, like Manseau once did, as a Yiddish archivist) translate. Inspired by the image of Sasha, the brave butcher's daughter who was present at his birth, Itsik reaches America in young adulthood through haphazard luck, a taste for troublemaking and the inventiveness of a printer. Sasha continually inspires and confounds Itsik throughout his life, becoming an apt symbol for Yiddish humor, sorrow and idealism. As Itsik's darkly picaresque immigrant narrative unfolds, it competes with the translator's modern romance and with insights into the art of translation and the history of Yiddish. Occasional narrative missteps are not enough to undercut this rich, often ironic homage to Yiddish culture and language. Click the book cover to read more.

SEX, DRUGS, & GEFILTE FISH
The HEEB Storytelling Collection
Edited by Shana Liebman
Foreword by A. J. Jacobs
October 2009, Grand Central Publishing
Some fine Heeb refreshing. Other think it is merely a parody looking to shock readers, and without the shock value, it is worthless.
In this book, the best of Heeb is collected and edited
Scoring weed for your uncle...Hanging out with porn stars on Christmas Eve...Eating nachos with the Mossad...Observing the Dyke Days of Awe...Getting held up at a Weight Watcher's meeting...Spying on your naked Hebrew School teacher.
From Heeb magazine--the definitive voice of a proud, searching, and irreverent new generation of American Jews--this first-of-a-kind fast and fun showcase spotlights the hilarious and heartful raconteurial gifts of many of today's leading writers, comedians, actors, artists, and musicians. Laura Silverman, Michael Showalter, Andy Borowitz, Joel Stein, Ben Greenman, Darrin Strauss, and others navigate sex, drugs, work, youth, family, and, on the lighter side, body and soul. You'll never bleach your arm hair again.
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HOW TO BE A MENTSH
AND NOT A SHMUCK
BY MICHAEL WEX
September 2009, Harper
In a world where people want people to act with "common decency," comes a book that explores how to achieve this
This is a guide on how people should cooperate. Wise and hilarious, this is a book about happiness, your own and that of others. The principles outlined here will work for anyone, Jewish or not, who makes the effort to put them into practice. Drawing on the "wisdom of the ages," bestselling author Michael Wex shows readers how to figure out the right thing to do in any situation. First he describes the two words "mentsh" and "shmuck." The former refers most often to an adult who has learned to think of others first; the latter refers to someone who thinks he or she is someone special.
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NOW ON DVD
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT - WHOLE SERIES
AND
THE FIRST PART OF GLEE - THE TV SERIES ON FOX
Where else can you find a TV singing dramedy that has so many Jewish characters?

DAY AFTER NIGHT
A NOVEL
BY ANITA DIAMANT
September 2009, Scribner
From the author of THE RED TENT, a new novel. PW: "Diamant's bestseller, The Red Tent, explored the lives of biblical women ignored by the male-centric narrative. In her compulsively readable latest, she sketches the intertwined fates of several young women refugees at Atlit, a British-run internment camp set up in Palestine after WWII. There's Tedi, a Dutch girl who hid in a barn for years before being turned in and narrowly escaping Bergen-Belsen; Leonie, a beautiful French girl whose wartime years in Paris are cloaked with shame; Shayndel, a heroine of the Polish partisan movement whose cheerful facade hides a tortured soul; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor who is filled with an understandable nihilism. The dynamic of suffering and renewed hope through friendship is the book's primary draw, but an eventual escape attempt adds a dash of suspense to the astutely imagined story of life at the camp: the wary relationship between the Palestinian Jews and the survivors, the intense flirtation between the young people that marks a return to life. Diamant opens a window into a time of sadness, confusion and optimism that has resonance for so much that's both triumphant and troubling in modern Jewish history." Click the book cover to read more.

NOW ON DVD
ANVIL - THE DOCUMENTARY ON THE CANADIAN JEWISH HARD ROCK DUO

A Book That Has Been In The News In the Past Few Weeks and had withstood the test of half a century:

Reveille for Radicals
by Saul Alinsky
Vintage
The Best scene from this book is when a group dressed as Nazis and Klan members and held up signs in support of the speaker QUIETLY.
First published in 1946 and updated in 1969 with a new Introduction and Afterword, this volume represents the fullest statement of the political philosophy and practical methodology of one of the most important figures in the history of American radicalism. Like Thomas Paine before him, Saul Alinsky, through the concept and practice of community organizing, was able to embody for his era both the urgency of radical political action and the imperative of rational political discourse. His work and writing bequeathed a new method and style of social change to American communities that will remain a permanent part of the American political landscape.. Saul Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909 and educated first in the streets of that city and then in its university. Graduate work at the University of Chicago in criminology introduced him to the Al Capone gang, and later to Joliet State Prison, where he studied prison life. He founded what is known today as the Alinsky ideology and Alinsky concepts of mass organization for power. His work in organizing the poor to fight for their rights as citizens has been internationally recognized. In the late 1930s he organized the Back of the Yards area in Chicago (the neighborhood made famous in Upton Sinclair's The Jungle). Subsequently, through the Industrial Areas Foundation which he began in 1940, Mr. Alinsky and his staff helped to organize communities not only in Chicago but throughout the country. He later turned his attentions to the middle class, creating a training institute for organizers. He died in 1972, but his works I used by Democrats and Republicans nationwide to organize and get their messages out (and to disrupt).

And a book that will be famous for 15 minutes and then fade away:

Madoff's Other Secret
Love, Money, Bernie, and Me
by Sheryl Weinstein
August 2009, St Martin's Press
Sheryl Weinstein, former CFO of Hadassah, a member of their investment committee, a controller at Lincoln Center, and a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania has seen Bernie Madoff up close and personal for more than two decades. Not only did she invest her family's assets with Madoff, but she carried on a sexual affair with him for 20 years. Did she send Hadassah's endowment to his fund? Well, they did not allocate new funds to Madoff til after she left, according to the book. Madoff was groomed well, a big Jewish macher, a biggie on Wall Street, yet a sinister criminal who wiped out the life savings of so many people and institutions in a ponzi scheme. The book is quite grotesque, since it also discusses Madoff's penis which Weinstein, who was more accustomed to her husband and men with much larger penises (I mean, she did go to Penn, so what do you expect), was shocked when she saw that Madoff's erect penis was so small. Well, she writes, at least oral sex was easier. Should you buy this book and rewards her? I mean, she also did get screwed by Madoff and lose her family's assets, but it isn't worth reading and I just told you all you need to know about this book.

THREE OTHER ITEMS THAT HAVE BEEN IN THE NEWS:
Books by Robert Novak and Don Hewitt who were each raised in Jewish households as children; and William Safire; and a newly released CD, reissued after 50 years of Mambo style Jewish music, titled "Mazel Tov, Mis Amigos."
The CD includes "Beltz, Mein Shtetele Beltz" in Pachanga style, "Havah Nagllah" as a Cha-Cha, "O, Momme! Bin Ich Farliebt" as a Samba, "Die Greene Koseene" as a Merengue, "Papirossen" as a Mambo, and so much more

THE DEFECTOR
A MYSTERY NOVEL
BY DANIEL SILVA
July 2009, Putnam
In the #1 New York Times bestseller Moscow Rules, Gabriel Allon brought down the most dangerous man in the world. But he made one mistake. Leaving him alive... Over the course of a brilliant career, Daniel Silva has established himself as the "gold standard" of thriller writers (Dallas Morning News), a "master writer of espionage and intrigue" (The Cincinnati Enquirer), and the creator of "some of the most exciting spy fiction since Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond" (Rocky Mountain News). Now Silva takes that fiction-and his hero, the enigmatic art restorer and assassin Gabriel Allon-to a whole new level, delivering a riveting tale of vengeance that entertains as well as enlightens. Six months after the dramatic conclusion of Moscow Rules, Gabriel has returned to the tan hills of Umbria to resume his honeymoon with his new wife, Chiara, and restore a seventeenth-century altarpiece for the Vatican. But his idyllic world is once again thrown into turmoil with shocking news from London. The defector and former Russian intelligence officer Grigori Bulganov, who saved Gabriel's life in Moscow, has vanished without a trace. British intelligence is sure he was a double agent all along, but Gabriel knows better. He also knows he made a promise. Do you know what we do with traitors, Gabriel? Many things have changed in Russia since the fall of Communism. But the punishment for betrayal remains the same. Promise me one thing, Gabriel. Promise me I won't end up in an unmarked grave. In the days to come, Gabriel and his team of operatives will find themselves in a deadly duel of nerve and wits with one of the world's most ruthless men: the murderous Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov. It will take him from a quiet mews in London, to the shores of Lake Como, to the glittering streets of Geneva and Zurich, and, finally, to a heart-stopping climax in the snowbound birch forests of Russia. Faced with the prospect of losing the one thing he holds most dear, Gabriel will be tested in ways he never imagined possible. And his life will never be the same.
Click the book cover to read more.
See also:

LAISH
A NOVEL
BY AHARON APPELFELD
Spring 2009, Schocken
PW: Concentration camp survivor Appelfeld delivers a beautifully written, deeply disturbing tale of pilgrims en route to Jerusalem in pre-WWII Eastern Europe. Narrator Laish is a 15-year-old orphan employed by Fingerhut, a sickly and unpleasant "man of means." But when Fingerhut dies, Laish is forced to fend for himself among the pilgrims, finding work with the pious "old men" who teach him the Torah; Ploosh, a driver who kills one of the other members of the convoy; and Sruel, a former inmate who has a special connection with animals. As the journey wears on and the elements and sickness take their toll, the pilgrims reveal themselves to be a gallery of grotesques: they steal from each other, keep a mentally ill woman in a cage (and drive her out when she becomes too much trouble), sell one another out and are brutes in general. Appelfeld's gorgeous writing creates a stirring atmosphere, while Laish's observations and experiences illustrate some harsh truths about survival.
THE New York Times Book Review: "Aharon Appelfeld's latest novel, "Laish," is a story of pilgrimage, then, and, as in all pilgrimages, what matters most is reaching the goal, sustaining faith through the travails of the journey. The stopping �places, the pauses, the tests of faith, the perils to be overcome, count for very little, so long as they are survived; they are merely stages on the road to salvation. " Click the book cover to read more.

If you are visiting New York City this Summer, please visit the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side for the exhibit corresponding to the book below:

THEY CALLED ME MAYER
Painted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland before the Holocaust
By Mayer Kirshenblatt with his daughter, BKG (Barbara Kishenblatt-Gimblett)

MAZEL TOV TO THESE TWO
RECIPIENTS OF THE 2009 SAMI ROHR PRIZE
FOR JEWISH LITERATURE: SANA KRASIKOV and DALIA SOFER

ONE MORE YEAR
STORIES
BY SANA KRASIKOV
From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. In her stunning short story debut, Krasikov hones in on the subtleties of hope and despair that writhe in the hearts of her protagonists, largely Russian and Georgian immigrants who have settled on the East Coast. In Better Half, 22-year-old Anya gets a protection order against her husband, Ryan, after he attacks her; he pleads for forgiveness, but, Anya realizes, a future with Ryan would be like staying in Russia. In The Repatriates a man returns to Moscow-to his wife's disappointment-intent on applying to the Russian stock market some tricks he picked up on Wall Street. In Maia in Yonkers, a Georgian immigrant is visited by her son, and the tensions are fierce and palpable. In The Alternate, Victor meets the Americanized daughter of an old love from Russia.

Though many of Krasikov's stories are bleak, there are swells of promise; even Lera, whose husband leaves her for another woman, suddenly felt nothing but the most pure-hearted compassion for him, a kindness and forgiveness that almost broke her heart. Krasikov's prose is precise, and her stories are intelligent, complex and passionate.

THE SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZ
A NOVEL
BY SALIA SOFER
From Publishers Weekly: Sofer's family escaped from Iran in 1982 when she was 10, an experience that may explain the intense detail of this unnerving debut. On a September day in 1981, gem trader Isaac Amin is accosted by Revolutionary Guards at his Tehran office and imprisoned for no other crime than being Jewish in a country where Muslim fanaticism is growing daily. Being rich and having had slender ties to the Shah's regime magnify his peril. In anguish over what might be happening to his family, Isaac watches the brutal mutilation and executions of prisoners around him. His wife, Farnaz, struggles to keep from slipping into despair, while his young daughter, Shirin, steals files from the home of a playmate whose father is in charge of the prison that holds her father. Far away in Brooklyn, Isaac's nonreligious son, Parviz, struggles without his family's money and falls for the pious daughter of his Hasidic landlord. Nicely layered, the story shimmers with past secrets and hidden motivations. The dialogue, while stiff, allows the various characters to come through. Sofer's dramatization of just-post-revolutionary Iran captures its small tensions and larger brutalities, which play vividly upon a family that cannot, even if it wishes to, conform.

MAZEL TOV TO THESE THREE OTHER
FINALISTS OF THE 2009 SAMI ROHR PRIZE
FOR JEWISH LITERATURE: ELISA ALBERT, ANNE LANDMAN, AND ANYA ELINICH

Defiance
The Bielski Partisans
The Story of the Largest Armed Rescue of Jews by Jews During World War II
by Nechama Tec
November 2008, Oxford
From Kirkus Reviews - Powerful account by Holocaust survivor Tec (Sociology/Univ. of Connecticut; In the Lion's Den, 1989, etc.) of the operations of a Jewish partisan group in WW II Belorussia. Seeking to counteract the widespread conception of European Jews as victims who went meekly to their deaths, Tec researched the extraordinary story of the three Bielski brothers and their partisan group, using interviews with group survivors in Israel, the US, and elsewhere. Led by the oldest brother, Tuvia, the partisan group had grown to more than 1,200 Jews by the time Russian forces liberated them in 1944. The Bielski brothers, Tec explains, determined early on to save not only themselves and their families but every Jew who would join them. Resisting efforts to limit their group only to fighters, Tuvia accepted any Jew until more than 70% of the group was comprised of women, children, and middle-aged and elderly men. A charismatic leader of limited education but great intelligence and diplomatic ability, Tuvia maintained good relations with a variety of other partisan groups, some initially hostile. Putting his emphasis on saving lives rather than on killing Germans, he nonetheless acted ruthlessly against those collaborating with the Nazis, and in so doing saved many Jewish lives. At the end of the war, with Stalin's control of Belorussia becoming more oppressive, Tuvia and his brothers escaped to Romania, traveling on to Palestine and then the US--although Tuvia never again gained the recognition or prominence that his leadership qualities might have justified. A remarkable story of a great leader, as well as of a neglected aspect of WW II. Click the book cover to read more.

DO YOU REMEMBER "RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MEIN KOPF" IN YIDDISH... ?
HOW ABOUT THE LATIN MAMBO STYLE HAVA NAGILA?
OR THE BARRY SISTERS

AND YOU SHALL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF VINYL
THE JEWISH PAST AS TOLD BY THE RECORDS WE HAVE LOVED AND LOST
BY ROGER BENNETT AND JOSH KUN
November 2008, Crown
This is the tale of two men in search of their past and how they found an unexpected narrative through the faded liner notes and technologically passe medium of vinyl records. It took them eight years of eBay, garage sales, generous seniors and friends, to compile all the treasures of Jewish vinyl. Here is Johnny Mathis singing Kol Nidre, Charlton Heston reads the Old Testament, Fiddler on the Roof goes Latin, Theodore Bikel is Silent No More. Here is Neil Sedaka, the Barry Sisters, Barry Manilow, and Barbra. Nat King Cole and Cantors galore. Eydie Gorme (nee Sephardic born Gormezano). The Brothers Zim and Topol, Jewish mambo, Jewish Catskills, Belle Barth, Totie Fields, and Pearl Williams.
YOU WILL DIE when you see the record album covers. I owned so many! Such as Silent No More, David Ben Gurion, Never Again. I had them all. Sammy Davis Junior sings Jewish; Folksy Nina and yiddish favorites, NOWstalgia, Fred Katz and his Jammers, Si Zentner, Larry Best, Batman and Rubin, Max Asnas recorded live at the Stage Deli, Dave Tarras, Haifa Hi Fi, El Al promotional albums, the Malavsky Family Passover, Orchestra Harlow. And all along the way, we glean what it meant to be Jewish in the age of vinyl in America, with guest commentaries from Anna Powers, Oliver Wang, Norman Lear, Aimee Bender, Michael Wex, Lamont Dozier and even Sandra Bernhard. Click the book cover to read more.

JUST SAY NU
YIDDISH FOR EVERY OCCASION
WHEN ENGLISH JUST WON'T DO
BY MICHAEL WEX
September 2008, Harper Perennial
PW: This is not your bubbe's-or Leo Rosten's-Yiddish. Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic, use of Yiddish in such areas as madness, fury, and driving, mob Yiddish, insults and thirteen designations for the human rear (in declining order of politeness). Wex is knowledgeable about the biblical and Talmudic roots of some colloquial phrases; for example, he points out that tukhes (ass as he translates it) may be derived from Tuhkhes, one of the places where the Israelites sojourned on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. While most of Wex's discussions of words and phrases are brief, he provides lengthier sections on five key, highly nuanced Yiddish words: nu (Well?), shoyn (already, right away), epes (something, somewhat), takeh (precisely) and nebakh (alas). Wex's advice on the complex usage of these words can help even the greenest Yiddish speaker. The book could have given more attention to regional dialects and there are a few organizational quirks. Still, Wex offers both fun and instruction for the non-maven.
Click the book cover to read more.

KOSHER BY DESIGN LIGHTENS UP
Fabulous food for a healthier lifestyle
by Susie Fishbein (Author)
November 17, 2008, Mesorah
This sixth volume in Susie Fishbein's celebrated Kosher by Design cookbook series was crafted with your good health in mind! Kosher by Design Lightens Up is a gorgeous culinary guide, bursting with easy-to-do ideas for eating and feeling better. This cookbook teaches healthy cooking and food combining techniques, with special commentary by certified nutritional expert Bonnie Taub-Dix, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Assn. Susie says, These nutritious recipes are easy to integrate into your everyday menus. Anyone looking to migrate into a better way of eating and living will find delicious options here. Over 145 brand new recipes, Over 160 full color photos, Creative entertaining ideas, including oil olive tasting, a party spritzer station and more! Simple, healthy approaches to: cooking oils, sweeteners, whole grains, superfoods, smarter shopping, and more efficient kitchen gadgets. And Comprehensive cross-reference index .
While traditional kosher cooking invokes images of heavy, fatty Eastern European fare, Fishbein's cookbooks are a cosmopolitan tour-de-force. Lightens Up showcases international influences that are varied and inspired, including: Argentinean Bison Steak, Korean Beef Kim Chee Skewers, Merquez Sausage on Whole Wheat Couscous, Chicken Tikka Masala, Lebanese Salad, Mexican Citrus Salad, Thai Chicken Soup, Moroccan Spiced Vegetables, a Greek Frittata Ring, and Tangy Mediterranean Vegetables. With 21 different desserts, such as Baklava Bites and a Frozen Pumpkin Pie, Lightens Up proves that sweet and healthy can be complementary adjectives. Fishbein advises, "Most people find that if eating healthier involves a drastic change - the dreaded diet syndrome - they will not stick with it long-term. My concept is simple. Take small steps." Her own positive experience comes through in Lightens Up as she admits, "I have noticed that as I eat more whole grains and cut back on fats, sugars, and oils, I've developed new taste buds! The new flavors are refreshingly pure and satisfying." Click the book cover to read more.

NOT CRAFTY JEWS... BUT CRAFTING JEWISH

Crafting Jewish
Fun holiday crafts and party ideas for the whole family
by Rivky Koenig
November 2008, Mesorah
Crafting Jewish is a unique and beautiful book. It has been designed both for experienced crafters looking for creative and unusual ideas and For beginners just starting to discover the joys of crafts. This book has it all! Over 120 holiday and everyday projects, each with step-by-step instructions Stunning full-color photos of every craft Distinctive ideas for holiday get-togethers - many with delicious recipes Pictorial reference guide of crafting tools and product buying guide Full-size templates and comprehensive index
The entire family will love creating these marvelous, homemade crafts - and the warm and loving family traditions that you create at the same time, as you enjoy Crafting Jewish. Rivky Koenig is passionate about three things: family life, crafting, and preserving Jewish traditions. Not surprisingly, the upstate New York teacher, wife, and mother of five found a creative way to weave her enthusiasm into a single focus - Crafting Jewish: Fun holiday crafts and party ideas for the whole family. A delightful and visually appealing volume, Koenig's book appeals to novice and experienced crafters alike, offering more than 130 projects themed around Jewish holidays. A teacher of Literature, Language-Arts, and Social Studies, Koenig gained recognition for her tactile, hands-on approach to pedagogy, reinforcing subject matter through artistic and creative tasks. "It's well known that people learn more by doing than by hearing," she reflects.
Her foray into Jewish crafting began with a stint as director of a series of crafting workshops for a popular teens' summer camp in the Catskill Mountains. "I saw kids get turned on by the idea of handmade traditional crafts they could make at home with family and friends. As we created, we'd discuss the significance of the project to Jewish values and practices. These lessons stay with them for life." Click the book cover to read more.

A HEART AFIRE
STORIES AND TEACHINGS OF THE EARLY HASIDIC MASTERS
BY RABBI ZALMAN SCHACHTER_SHALOMI and NETANEL MILES-YEPEZ
May 2009, JPS
The latest book from the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. The interpretations in A Heart Afire are as rich and meaningful as the teachings and tales themselves in this intimate guided tour of Hasidism and Hasidic storytelling led by Reb Zalman, an old-world Hasidic elder who is also profoundly connected to modern culture. As a bridge between both worlds, Reb Zalman, and his student Netanel Miles-Yepez, introduce the reader to rare and unique translations of Hasidism with their own personal reflections on their meaning. This book gives the readers the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Hasidic wisdom and narrative and in the teachings of a modern Hasidic master. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, known as Reb Zalman, is the father of the neo-Hasidic Jewish Renewal movement. He was ordained by HaBaD-Lubavitch in1947, and later received his MA from Boston University and DHL from Hebrew Union College. He is professor emeritus of Psychology of Religion and Jewish Mysticism at Temple University and is World Wisdom Chair holder emeritus at Naropa University. He is the author of Spiritual Intimacy and collaborated with Miles-Yepez on Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Tales and Teachings of the Hasidic Masters. Netanel Miles-Yepez is a teacher of Sufism and Hasidism and, with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, is the co-founder of the Sufi-Hasidic, Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat, the only Jewish order of Sufis in the world. He collaborated with Reb Zalman on Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters and is the editor of The Common Heart: An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue. He is also the executive director of the Reb Zalman Legacy Project. Click the book cover to read more.

A good primer for our readers who want to join the Obama Administration:

TEN STEPS TO A FEDERAL JOB
HOW TO LAND A JOB IN THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION
BY KATHRYN TROUTMAN
Summer 2008,
This guide shows you what you must know and do to get a good federal job-with health insurance, retirement benefits, and a stable future. Inside this book, find how to translate your work experience and education into federal employment. Discover where to aim with the 10 hottest federal fields. Effectively present specialized experience, as needed. Expand your short private industry resume into a typical 4-page USAJOBS federal resume. Determine and use the right words that federal hiring authorities look for. Break the code on difficult KSAs and challenging self-assessment questionnaires

The Book of New Israeli Food
A Culinary Journey
by Janna Gur
Summer 2008,
From Publishers Weekly: Gur, founder and chief editor of Israel's leading food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, offers an enticing look at the evolution of Israeli cuisine. Part cookbook, part history, this collection with full-color photographs throughout paints a tantalizing and vivid portrait of the nation's culinary heritage and present-day gastronomy. Recipes include classics such as Falafel, Challah, Classic Jewish Chicken Soup, and Traditional Chopped Liver, as well as the less-familiar Figs Stuffed with Bulgur and Cranberry Salad, Citrus Semolina Cake, and Mina del Pesach (Passover Matzo Pie). Recipes are easy-to-follow and are grouped under salads, the street and the market, simple pleasures, grill, Shabbat and holidays. Detailed sections on the Israeli breakfast, olive oil, coffee, cheese and wine complement the recipes and give context to the important role these play in the Israeli diet. Additional information on open air markets, fishing in Israel and Israeli Shabbat add to the book's appeal. A section on special ingredients identifies the unusual, although most are easily obtained and will be at least somewhat familiar to most cooks. Beautiful and comprehensive, this book will become an immediate favorite with anyone with even a passing interest in Israeli cuisine. Click the book cover to read more.
Move over Eastern European Jewish cooking. Riga born, former El Al flight attendant and star of Israeli food has allowed one of her books to be translated into English, and it is filled with spices and vegetables, including shakshuka, falafel, FISH FALAFEL, bourekas, salads, more salads, mejadra, kubbe hamousta (Kurdish lemony soup), chreime (hot fish stew), pumpkin jam with spices, and more. She also includes holiday menus and recipes for Israeli holidays, including Rosh Hashana and Ramadan. Ramadan? YES RAMADAN! Why? Cuz not all israelis are Eastern European Jews.

N O W I N P A P E R B A C K

The Yiddish Policemen's Union
A Novel
by Michael Chabon
Spring 2008, Harper
From Publishers Weekly. Starred Review. Chabon's storytelling, in this alternate history of a world where Jews were settled in Alaska after World War II, is vivid enough, with inventive metaphors packed in like tapestry threads, but Peter Riegert's versatile voice makes the invented society even more tangible. Told through the eyes of Meyer Landsman, a police detective investigating a murder, the novel occurs in a strange time to be a Jew, as several characters ruefully put it: the special Jewish district will soon be controlled by Alaska again. In a bonus interview on the last disc, Chabon relates his desire to write about a place where Yiddish was an official language. The book is shot through with Yiddish phrases and names, which melodically roll off Riegert's tongue. He gives Landsman and his tough but warmhearted partner Berko similar yet distinct gruff voices that contrast well with the effeminate-sounding sect leader and the Southern-accented Americans who come to start the land reversion process. Riegert's pacing increases the enjoyment of this expertly spun mystery. Click the book cover to read more.

NOW IN PAPERBACK

CITY OF THIEVES
A Novel
by David Benioff
May 2008, Viking
David Beniott (Friedman), novelist and screenwriter, Dartmouth grad and husband to Amanda Peet, has written the Russia based novel based on the stories of his grandfather. Lev Beniov, 17, is arrested during WW2 in Leningrad for looting a dead German soldier. Rather than execute Lev, Colonel Grechko sends him on a quest to find a dozen eggs which will be used to make a wedding cake for the colonel's daughter. And so the adventure begins.
Lev Beniov considers himself "built for deprivation." He's small, smart, and insecure, a Jewish virgin too young for the army, who spends his nights working as a volunteer firefighter with friends from his building. When a dead German paratrooper lands in his street, Lev is caught looting the body and dragged to jail, fearing for his life. He shares his cell with the charismatic and grandiose Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested on desertion charges. Instead of the standard bullet in the back of the head, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt to find the impossible. A search that takes them through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and the devastated surrounding countryside creates an unlikely bond between this earnest, lust-filled teenager and an endearing lothario with the gifts of a conman. Set within the monumental events of history, City of Thieves is an intimate coming-of-age tale with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men. Click the book cover to read more.

A Pigeon and a Boy
A Novel
by Meir Shalev, Evan Fallenberg (Translator)
October 2007. Schocken
From the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev comes a mesmerizing novel of two love stories, separated by half a century but connected by one enchanting act of devotion. During the 1948 War of Independence--a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages--a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon. The bird is carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence. Intertwined with this story is the contemporary tale of Yair Mendelsohn, who has his own legacy from the 1948 war. Yair is a tour guide specializing in bird-watching trips who, in middle age, falls in love again with a childhood girlfriend. His growing passion for her, along with a gift from his mother on her deathbed, becomes the key to a life he thought no longer possible. Unforgettable in both its particulars and its sweep, A Pigeon and A Boy is a tale of lovers then and now--of how deeply we love, of what home is, and why we, like pigeons trained to fly in one direction only, must eventually return to it. In a voice that is at once playful, wise, and altogether beguiling, Meir Shalev tells a story as universal as war and as intimate as a winged declaration of love. Click the book cover to read more.

Leveling the Playing Field
Advancing Women in Jewish Organizational Life
by Shifra Bronznick, Didi Goldenhar, and Marty Linsky, with Beverly Joel (Illustrator)
March 2008.
This guidebook is about how to create a particular kind of organizational change in a particular kind of organization -- advancing women and creating gender equity in Jewish organizations. If you believe that gender equity is vital to the health of Jewish communities and want to turn your beliefs into productive action, then this guidebook is for you. The strategies and tools in this guidebook will be relevant wherever you are positioned in your organization. The goals and tactics may vary depending on your formal and informal roles, but the opportunity for exercising leadership on gender equity is available to you whether you are sitting in the corner office or just getting started in your career. Published by a group that has long sought to advance the cause of gender equity in Jewish life, "Leveling the Playing Field" provides a how-to guide to gender equity for Jewish professionals and the organizations where they work.
As the JTA.org commented, "...It's not that women are absent from Jewish life. They fill the pews of liberal synagogues and make up most of the staff at Jewish organizations. More than half the new non-Orthodox rabbis and most of the cantors are women. Jewish summer camps and youth groups are overwhelmingly female. In fact the liberal movements, particularly the Reform, are struggling to bring their boys and men back into religious life. But the top echelons of Jewish communal life -- the executives of major Jewish organizations and the leaders of the large federations -- are still male...... The book... provides concrete steps that women -- and men -- can take to move their own Jewish organizations onto a more gender-equal footing, from building alliances to setting up inhouse mentoring programs for promising young employees. In addition, Advancing Women Professionals will provide mentoring support and a conversation kit to help people trying to effect such organizational changes.... Shifra Bronznick, one of three authors of "Leveling the Playing Field," says the will to change is more prevalent now, but the change has to come from below -- the men and women coming up within these organizations. "People are ready to be part of a change initiative," she says. "This book is aimed at giving them the tools." Bronznick, who wrote the book with Didi Goldenhar and Marty Linsky, is the founding president of the 8-year-old advocacy group Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community. She has spent years working on gender inequity issues, devoting much of the early 2000s trying to convince Jewish CEOs and communal leaders to take the problem seriously. ..."
Many of the steps outlined in the new book have been piloted by key Jewish organizations, working together with Advancing Women Professionals. The group collaborated on a United Jewish Communities gender equity project involving 14 federations and worked with regional directors of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism to create rabbinic search criteria aimed at hiring more women rabbis.
Click the book cover to read more.

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MYJEWISHBOOKS.COM CURRENT MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Myths, Illusions, and Peace
Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East
by Dennis Ross and David Makovsky
June 2009, Viking
Two experts debunk misconceptions about the Middle East and set clear-eyed policies for the future. Why has the United States consistently failed to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East? According to Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, two of America's leading experts on the region, it is because we have been laboring under false assumptions, or mythologies, about the nature and motivation of Middle East countries and their leaders. In Myths, Illusions, and Peace, the authors debunk these damaging fallacies, held by both the right and the left, and present a concise and far-reaching set of principles that will help America set an effective course of action in the region. Among the myths that the authors show to be false and even dangerous is the idea that Israeli-Palestinian peace is the key to solving all the Middle East's problems; that regime change is a prerequisite for peace and democracy; and that Iran's leadership is immune from diplomatic and economic pressure. These and other historic misunderstandings have generated years' worth of failed policies and crippled America's ability to make productive decisions in this volatile part of the world, a region that will hold the key to our security in the twenty-first century. Ross and Makovsky offer a critical rethinking of American perceptions at a time of great import and change. Dennis Ross is special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Gulf and Southwest Asia. He is the author of the bestselling The Missing Peace. Analyst and former journalist David Makovsky is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the author of Making Peace with the PLO.
Click the book cover to read more.

Have you seen us driving around in our new delivery car? Like it? Wave when we drive by you. We'll give you a ride.

The NY Post beat us to it. While every one was talking about a Yiddische Kopf, the Nypd Auxiliary was busy recruiting a Yiddische KOP. It is true that we at MyJewishBooks.com were already at work on scripts for
CSI: CROWN HEIGHTS, for
ADAM-18, and for
LAW AND ORDER: SHATNEZ SQUAD,
but now we will have to scrap those ideas. Sigh... Well, at least we are gladdened that this new cadet was influenced to 'protect and serve' by his Talmud studies and perhaps by copies of of

Criminal Kabbalah and
Mystery Midrash.

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The Segway Human Transporter. Available on MyJewishBooks.com for less than $5000, not including about $99 for shipping. Only two allowed per person. Not for use on the Sabbath. Emissions free, powered by rechargeable NiMH battery packs. Fun to ride--a unique experience

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