MyJewishBooks Online

Our shelves		The Jewish Book of The Week
By Season Fall 2006 Summer 2006 Spring 2006 Winter 2006 Fall 2005 Summer 2005 Spring 2005 Winter 2005 Late Fall 2004 Fall 04 Summer 04 Spring 04 Winter 04 LATE Fall '03 Fall '03 Summer '03 Spring '03 Winter '03 Autumn 2002 Summer 2002 Spring 2002 April 2002 March 2002 Winter 2002 Dec 2001 Books Nov 2001 Books Oct 2001 Books Sept 2001 Books Summer 2001 Books May 2001 Books April 2001 Books March 2001 Books February 2001 Books Jan 2001 Books Dec 2001 Books November 2000 Books October 2000 Books September 2000 Books August 2000 Books July 2000 Books June 2000 Books Spring 2000 Books April 2000 Books March 2000 Books More March 2000 Winter2000 Books Special Topics OFRAH's BookClub Jewish Book of the Week SEARCH Novels Cookbooks Jewish Mysteries and Science Fiction Holocaust Studies Yiddish Culture Jewish Bio's Jewish Biz Jewish Travel Must Reads Israel Israel Travel Jewish Renewal Theology Bibles Torah Kabbalah Jewish SEX Jewish Weddings Parenting Children's Books Bar Bat Mitzvah BarBat Mitzvah Gifts Mourning Art Books More Business Sociology Miscellaneous Cholent Jewish Textbooks Sephardic Jewry Southern Jewry South American Jewry French Jewry Black-Jewish Relations More Seasons Fall99 Books More Fall99 Books Summer 99 Spring 99 Jan/Feb 99 Fall98 Books Holidays Shavuot Books Passover Books More Holidays Purim Books Tu B'Shvat Books Jewish MLKing,Jr Day Books Sukkah 2000 Project Haggadahs HighHolyDay Books Hanukkah Books Passover Special 50% OFF NYT Best Sellers CHAI-BO (TM) jewish bedtime stories Music/CD's Piano Music Hollywood and Films The Jewish Best Sellers Our partner Amazon.com's Top 100 Books Amazon.com's Top 100 Music Top Klezmer CD's Top Israel Best Selling CD's Search Email us at: Admin@myjewishbooks.com jewish bedtime stories link: usajewish.com link: jewishfilm.com Our NEWS Links Page Sefer Safari and Myjewishbooks.com are online Jewish bookstores. Orders are fulfilled by Amazon.com Net proceeds are donated to tzedakah		Thanks for visiting our Jewish Book of the Week selection. (click on a listing to learn more, or purchase it for up to 50% off, tax free) WEEK OF March 11, 2007 The Modern Jewish Mom's Guide to Shabbat Connect and Celebrate Bring Your Family Together with the Friday Night Meal by Meredith L. Jacobs, Founder, ModernJewishMom.com February 2007, Harper. WEEK OF March 4, 2007 Call Me by Your Name A Novel by Andre Aciman February 2007, FS&G WEEK OF February 18, 2007 PAST PERFECT A NOVEL BY SUSAN ISAACS February 2007, Scribner. WEEK OF February 4, 2007 The Fight for Jerusalem Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City by Dore Gold January 2007. Regnery WEEK OF January 28, 2007 POWER, FAITH, AND FANTASY: AMERICA IN THE MIDDLE EAST 1776 TO THE PRESENT by MICHAEL B. OREN January 2007, Norton. WEEK OF January 21, 2007 Charity Girl A novel by Michael Lowenthal January 2007, Houghton Mifflin. WEEK OF January 14, 2007 A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN AMERICAN JEWS, CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS, AND ONE MAN'S EXPLORATION OF THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL JUDEO-EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE BT ZEV CHAFETS January 2007, HarperCollins. Please donate to Israel charities. You can make a donation to your charity of choice, or to the UJA. Why don't you contact the charity of your choice and check for any Solidarity Missions? Click to the right for more information. We started wondering... if ANA can have a Pokemon Plane, and EVA can have a Hello Kitty jet, why can't ElAl have a fun jet? What should they paint on it? MyJewishBooks.com? The RaMBaM? Elijah's chariot? SCHULDIG? SRULIK? A falafel? Let us know if you have any ideas. We will tell ElAl WEEK OF December 31, 2006 Just in time for the holiday season? Christ Killers The Jews and the Passion from the Bible to the Big Screen by Jeremy Cohen, Tel Aviv University December 2006, Oxford. Moose O'Tzur, y'shuati... Click the Moose Menorah to see our page of Hanukkah, Hanukah, Hanuka, Chanukkah, Chanukah, or Chanuka book suggestions WEEK OF December 24, 2006 The Great Escape Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton November 2006. Simon and Schuster WEEK OF December 17, 2006 KOSHER BY DESIGN SHORT ON TIME: FABULOUS FOOD FOREVER By SUSIE FISHBEIN, KosherbyDesign.com) November 2006, Mesorah Mazel Tov to the newly elected "minyan-plus" in the halls of the U.S. Congress, as well as to Nancy Pelosi (and her Jewish, Hebrew speaking grandchildren). The incoming Senate will include 13 Senators and 30 Jewish members of the House of Representative who identify as Jewish. Newbies include Senators Cardin and Sanders, and Reps Gifford, Hodes, Klein and Yarmuth. Perhaps we will send them each a gift of (send us your recommendations): WEEK OF December 10, 2006 KOSHER BY DESIGN SHORT ON TIME: FABULOUS FOOD FOREVER By SUSIE FISHBEIN, KosherbyDesign.com) November 2006, Mesorah BR> BR> WEEK OF December 3, 2006 Sala's Gift My Mother's Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner, PhD (Dean, CUNY) November 2006, Free Press See also: http://letterstosala.org/ WEEK OF October 29, 2006 Stardust Lost The Triumph, Tragedy, and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theater in America by Stefan Kanfer October 2006. Knopf WEEK OF October 22, 2006 Awake in the Dark Stories by Shira Nayman October 2006. Scribner WEEK OF October 15, 2006 The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany by Marthe Cohn with Wendy Holden WEEK OF October 8, 2006 The Wicked Son Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews by David Mamet October 2006. Schocken WEEK OF April 30, 2006 HOW TO CURE A FANATIC By AMOS OZ Princeton University Press. March 2006. The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate Edited by Ruth Fredman Cernea DECEMBER 2005, University of Chicago Press In 1946, a debate was started each November at the University of Chicago as a way to foster a sense of community among Jewish students and faculty members. The debates were farces; they attracted the top Jewish professors and students, Nobel laureates, university presidents, and notable scholars together to debate whether the potato pancake or the triangular Purim pastry is in fact the worthier food. They applied their fields of study to these symbolic Jewish foods. Professor Marvin Mirsky observed the roundness of the latke which clearly suggested Plato's circle of perfection and its flatness emphasized Plato's ultimate truth. Professor Lawrence Sherman reminded his audience that in Romeo and Juliet, "Juliet was a Capulatke, Romeo a Hamantashague." In poetry, essays, jokes, and revisionist histories, members of elite American academies attack the latke-versus-hamantash question with intellectual panache and an unerring sense of humor, if not chutzpah. The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate is the first collection of the best of these performances, from Martha Nussbaum's paean to both foods-in the style of Hecuba's Lament-to Nobel laureate Leon Lederman's proclamation on the union of the celebrated dyad. Click the book cover above to read more. NEVER MIND THE GOLDBERGS A Young Adult Novel by Matthue Roth Push, February 2005 Don't think for a second that you know Hava or her place in the world. Yes, she's an Orthodox Jew. But that doesn't mean she can't rock out. And yes, she has opinions about everything around her. But her opinions about herself can be twice as harsh. Now Hava's just been asked to be the token Jew on a TV show about a Jewish family, trading one insular community for another. As in Tanuja Desai Hidier's BORN CONFUSED, there is soon a collision of both cultures and desires -- with one headstrong heroine caught in the middle JEWISH FATHERS A LEGACY OF LOVE by David Von Drehle 2004. Jewish Lights Press 44 fathers were interviewed and photographed, and each one speaks for himself about his life and his experiences as a parent. These presentations tend to be autobiographical, often emphasizing activities and achievements that have nothing to do with fatherhood. Theodore Bikel, Stuart Eizenstat and Senator Carl Levin are among the celebrities who talk more about their own careers than about being a father. More space is sometimes given to the interviewee's relationship with his own father than with his children. The men selected for inclusion cover a wide range: observant, non-observant, single fathers, divorced, gay, converts, immigrants, inter-married, rural, urban, famous and obscure. What unites them is that each is a mensch, a man of rectitude and dignity who is "an upright, trustworthy person." Click the book cover above to read more. JEWISH MOTHERS A LEGACY OF LOVE by David Von Drehle 2002. Jewish Lights Press Each woman shares her life experience, her dreams, struggles, hopes, pains; pleasures, traditions, and transitions, her memories of her mother, child-raising, and what it is to be Jewish. Women describe their labor pains and their euphoria at giving birth. A few paint in cautious words their image of God. Older participants recall the sadness they felt watching their immigrant mothers singing opera over the stove and slaving in sweatshops. There is great depth in these memories, fertile wellsprings salted sometimes by tears. Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, likes to joke about her Nobel Prize in biomedicine by shrugging her shoulders and saying "Bronx housewife makes good." Sydell Laskowitz, who became a bat mitzvah at 101, contends "I have overcome everything." Midwife Alice Bailes welcomes newborns into the world singing from Psalms- "From the narrow place I call to God and God answers me in this great expanse of space." "Being a mother is its own religion." asserts comedian Lotus Weinstock, "You must pay full and utter attention. Click the book cover above to read more. THE ARAB MIND by RAPHAEL PATAI Why the heck am I adding this book from 1983, a book that I think many of you will find gross? Because it is THE book that is used by the U.S. army war colleges.. and it is THE book which "influenced" what is happening at Iraqi prisons, it is an important books for us to skim. This analysis purports to unlock the mysteries of Arab society to help us better understand a complex culture. The Arab Mind discusses the upbringing of a typical Arab boy or girl, the intense concern with honor and courage, the Arabs' tendency toward extremes of behavior, and their ambivalent attitudes toward the West. Chapters are devoted to the influence of Islam, sexual mores, Arab language and Arab art, Bedouin values, Arab nationalism, and the pervasive influence of Westernization. With a new foreword by Norvell B. DeAtkine, Director of Middle East Studies at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg, N.C., this book unravels the complexities of Arab traditions and provides authentic revelations of Arab mind and character. This is why prisoners were stripped naked and made to touch other men. Personally, I think Patai's analysis is moronic and has no basis in fact or psychological theory, but since the Army beleives it - read it.. Click the book cover above to read more. WEEK OF April 23, 2006 Half/Life Jew-ish Tales from Almost, Not Quite, and In-between by Laurel Snyder April 2006. Soft Skull Press. WEEK OF April 16, 2006 The Spirituality of Welcoming How to Transform Your Congregation Into a Sacred Community By Ron Wolfson, PhD Spring 2006, Jewish Lights. WEEK OF April 9, 2006 MAN IN THE SHADOWS INSIDE THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS WITH A MAN WHO LED THE MOSSAD BY EFRAIM HALEVY April 2006. ST MARTIN'S PRESS. WEEK OF April 2, 2006 My China Eye: Memoirs of a Jew and a Journalist by Israel Epstein (1915-2005), editor of China Today Long River Press. April 2005 Tired of the hype of The Passion for the Christ Try this much better produced film instead (at right): SOUTH PARK. THE PASSION OF THE JEW Our friends at HEEB MAGAZINE have written this definitive (satiric) guide to Jewish conspiracies, from the Jewish role in 9/11 to the nefarious idea of circumcision to make Jewish men look bigger. Read it and enjoy Who's your Papa? A classic book by a new scene-ster in Rome Many Religions, One Covenant Israel, the Church, and the World by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger By renewing the Church's appreciation of the new covenant, Cardinal Ratzinger proposes a fully integrated Christian life, with Christ at the center of the Scriptures, but also at the center of the Church today. For in the Eucharist he is still, as ever, fulfilling the old covenant and ratifying the new. Speaking of covenants.. The URJ PRESS has some great book buys for this Winter. They are selling the $50 HAFTARAH COMMENTARY, with commentary by Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut with a new translation of the Hebrew text by Chaim Stern. With the assistance of Philip D. Stern, S. David Sperling: Consulting Editor FOR ONLY $10. ONLY $10. SAVE EIGHTY PERCENT. Tell them we sent you. thanks WEEK OF September 25, 2005 Light And Fire of the Baal Shem Tov by Yitzhak Buxbaum Continuum International Publishing Group (September 1, 2005) WEEK OF September 18, 2005 DON'T GET TOO COMFORTABLE The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never-Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems BY DAVID RAKOFF DOUBLEDAY, September 2005 WEEK OF September 4, 2005 WHERE GOD WAS BORN A JOURNEY BY LAND TO THE ROOTS OF RELIGION by BRUCE FEILER William Morrow (September 2005) As September begins, we recall with affection two rabbis who passed away: Rabbi Balfour Brickner - We read his book as preteens in 1973 on Jewish social action and it influenced our lives; and Rabbi Cynthia Culpeper - she succumbed to AIDS in Birmingham Alabama on August 29. Rabbi Culpeper did not want to be known as the JTS grad-rabbi who was raised Catholic, or the rabbi with AIDS. We don't know her as that; just we recall her as a great teacher. We also recall Simon Wiesenthal, who passed away in Vienna at the age of 96 on September 20. A FANATIC for justice, he survived 5 death and labor camps and was a vioce for justice at a time when other remained silent. He brought over 1,000 criminals to justice. August 1, is here, Shavuot is over, Tisha B'Av approaches, and though I never mix meat and milk, here is a little known item. Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, who just won the unkosher hot dog eating contest for his 5th straight year, wins not only a crown, but he will receive from MyJewishBooks.com a free copy of JEWISH FOOD. And a loaf of Levy's Jewish Rye. Seriously, Takeru (can we call you Ta-ka ?... rhymes with Taka Meshuga), eating nearly 50 hot dogs and moist buns is nothing. We at MyJewishBooks.com challenge you to a race to eat a loaf of sliced Jewish Rye Bread. We know food is nothing to joke about, with so many malnourished and starving people, so of course, after the race, we will, through our brother site, Tzedaka.org, make a donation to Mazon. WEEK OF July 24, 2005 The Other Shulman A Novel by ALAN ZWEIBEL Villard (July 5, 2005) In remembrance of Saul Bellow, one of America's top Jewish novelists and Nobel Laureate (1976), who passed away on April 5 in Brookline, MA, at the age of 89. A scholar as well as teacher, he read deeply and quoted widely, often referring to Henry James, Marcel Proust and Gustave Flaubert. But at the same time he was apt to tell a joke coined by Henny Youngman. Solomon's father, Abram, failed at one enterprise after another. His mother, Liza, was deeply religious and wanted her youngest child, her favorite, Solomon Bellow, to become either a rabbi or a concert violinist. He became a novelist instead. He also spoke only YIDDISH to his sister, and after her death, he kept up his Yiddish skills with a Professor at Harvard, Ruth Wisse: SEX IN THE CITY DVD SEASON SIX - PART ONE And SEX IN THE CITY DVD SEASON SIX - PART TWO The sixth season of SEX IN THE CITY. In Season Six, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) dates again, an old high school flame (David Duchovny) shows up, as does a reknowned painter (Mikhail Baryshnikov). Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) has an affair with Mr. Perfect (Blair Underwood). Charlotte's (Kristin Davis) finds love with Mister Jewish (Evan Handler), but they still have a few things to iron out. Great Jewish issues abound. Samantha's (Kim Cattrall) is in a hot relationship with waiter-actor-stud Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis). Episodes (written by Cindy Chupack, Julie Rottenberg, Elisa Zuritsky, Michael Patrick King, Amy B. Harris, and others) are: Episode 75: "To Market, To Market"; Episode 76: "Great Sexpectations" or the great conversion decision; episode 77: "The Perfect Present" or the accelerated conversion; episode 78: "Pick-A-Little, Talk-A-Little", or Charlotte's first Shabbat dinner in which she says, "Hi, Mrs. Collier. I'm a Jew now. How are you?" (Directed by: David Frankel Written by: Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky); episode 79: "Lights, Camera, Relationship"; episode 80: "Hop, Skip And A Week"; when Charlotte goes to a blase synagogue singles event; episode 81: "The Post-it Always Sticks Twice"; episode 82: "The Catch", which should be titled, you can take the beemer and I will take the Bimah (filmed at Congregation Bnai Jeshurun on W 88th St); episode 83: "A Woman's Right to Shoes"; episode 84: "Boy, Interrupted"; episode 85: "The Domino Effect"; and episode 86: "One." Click the book cover above to read more. IN THE PART TWO OF SEASON SIX - Going down the final stretch--and Samantha's cancer--gives the series a more serious tone, but there's always a jab to tickle the funny bone: Miranda's awkwardness with happiness, Charlotte's latest passion, Carrie typing someplace new, and Samantha getting into Paris Hilton territory. Like any series winding down, there is a wedding, a baby, old faces popping up, and some star-ladened new ones (like creative consultant Julia Sweeney as a nun). In the final two-part episode, "An American in Paris," Carrie faces her romantic destiny, but also solidifies herself as a fashion icon, an Audrey Hepburn for 21st-century television. In the penultimate episode, she asks her friends an emotional question: "What if I never met you?" Certainly fans can ask of themselves the same question and reminisce how much better TV became since they first tuned in these four women of the City. IF BOOKS COULD MARRY... WOULD THEY PRODUCE A BABY BOOK? WEEK OF July 17, 2005 Triple Identity An Intelligence Thriller (Dan Gordon Thrillers) by Haggai Carmon Steerforth Press, July 5, 2005 WEEK OF July 10, 2005 THE jGirl's Guide A Young Jewish Woman's Handbook for Coming of Age By Penina Adelman, Ali Feldman, and Shula Reinharz June 2005, Jewish Lights And while we are discussing Torah and Haftarah, take a look at this very exciting find, a new translation of the Book of Ruth: And who knew that Lenny Kravitz was a bible scholar? Ruth: A Modern Commentary (Paperback) by Leonard S. Kravitz, Kerry M. Olitzky From the authors of classic modern commentaries on Pirke Avot, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs comes this new volume on the Book of Ruth. A chronicle of loss and despair, love, romance, and hope, the Book of Ruth includes themes and lessons applicable to the lives of contemporary readers: rebuilding a life after extreme loss; conversion to Judaism; women's roles, sexuality, and legal status; finding love again; and more. The authors incorporate interpretations from the Targum, Rashi, and Ibn Ezra, along with scholarly and contemporary sources to create an engaging and accessible modern commentary on this ancient text. Includes complete Hebrew text of the Book of Ruth, an original translation, commentary, gleanings, and topical essays WEEK OF July 3, 2005 The Neoconservative Revolution Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy by Murray Friedman Cambridge University Press (June 30, 2005) WEEK OF June 26, 2005 COMPANY C An American's Life as a Citizen Soldier in Israel By Haim Watzman June 2005. FS&G Farrar Strauss & Giroux BEWARE OF GOD Stories by Shalom Auslander March 2005, Simon and Schuster An inventive, surreal, and absurd collection--and much anticipated literary debut of a fresh young humor writer. Violent rabbis, lovelorn wives, a busy Grim Reaper, shame-filled simians, and one seriously angry deity populate this humorous and disquieting collection. Shalom Auslander's stories in Beware of God have the mysterious punch of a dream. They are wide ranging and inventive: A young Jewish man's inexplicable transformation into a very large, blond, tattooed goy ends with a Talmudic argument over whether or not his father can beat his unclean son with a copy of the Talmud. A pious man having a near-death experience discovers that God is actually a chicken, and he's forced to reconsider his life -- and his diet. At God's insistence, Leo Schwartzman searches Home Depot for supplies for an ark. And a young boy mistakes Holocaust Remembrance Day as emergency preparedness training for the future. Auslander draws upon his upbringing in an Orthodox Jewish community in New York State to craft stories that are filled with shame, sex, God, and death, but also manage to be wickedly funny and poignant. THE FINAL SOLUTION A STORY OF DETECTION by Michael Chabon November 2004. Fourth Estate. In only 131 pages, the celebrated novelist, Michael Chabon tells the tale of a retired Sherlock Holmes (not actually mentioned by name) who meets a young German Jewish refugee during WWII. In deep retirement in the English country-side, an eighty-nine-year-old man, vaguely recollected by locals as a once-famous detective, is more concerned with his beekeeping than with his fellow man. Into his life wanders Linus Steinman, nine years old and mute, who has escaped from Nazi Germany with his sole companion: an African gray parrot. What is the meaning of the mysterious strings of German numbers the bird spews out -- a top-secret SS code? The keys to a series of Swiss bank accounts perhaps? Or something more sinister? Is the solution to this last case -- the real explanation of the mysterious boy and his parrot -- beyond even the reach of the once-famed sleuth? Subtle revelations lead the reader to a wrenching resolution. Click the book cover above to read more. WEEK OF June 19, 2005 JUBANA ! THE AWKWARDLY TRUE AND DAZZLING ADVENTURES OF A JEWISH CUBANA GODDESS By GIGI ANDERS June 2005. Raya WEEK OF June 5, 2005 THE AMOROUS BUSBOY OF DECATUR AVENUE A MEMOIR by ROBERT KLEIN June 2005. S&S WEEK OF APRIL 29, 2005 Did you know that HAMAN had an elementary school? I wonder what they teach there. The three "R's" ? I will leave the three R's to your imaginations, but reading Jewish books is not one of them. But we jest... < Seriously, some people will BEAT and PUMMEL a path to find a good Jewish Book... But once again, we jest... THIS PAST FALL WAS THE SEASON OF JEWISH BOOK FAIRS AND FESTIVALS. THE MOST POPULAR AUTHORS WERE: Dear Readers: All proceeds to MyJewishBooks.com in January was given to Tsunami Relief Programs. We have been associated with AJWS since its inception, and will funnel our donation through it. CLICK to donate to the TSUNAMI Relief through the American Jewish World Service. Thanks You can also donate to the UJA, which will funnel 100% of donations directly to Asia Readers can also donate to ISRAaid through Shachar Zahavi at: 054-567-9979 szahavi@hotmail.com www.israaid.org.il ISRAaid, wearing "ISRAEL" on their t shirts have already set up a base camp, clinic, and kitchen to feed 5,000 a day in Sri Lanka, with the aid of the Sri Lankan government Goshen Shushan Chelm MyJewishBooks.com HQ BRUNDIBAR by Tony Kushner, Maurice Sendak, Michael di Capua October 2003 Hyperion MDC Books Over six decades ago, the opera Brundibar (Czech slang for bumblebee) was written. When the writer (Adolf Hoffmeister) was imprisoned by the Nazis in Terezin, the opera he and Hans Krasa wrote was smuggled into the camp. The children performed the opera; it kept their minds off the impending doom. The Nazis even filmed one of the 55 performances for a propaganda film, showing Terezin to be a model city for the Jews. Kushner and Sendak collaborated for over three years on this book, which recreates the opera in book form. At one point, Sendak even tore up all his drawings and started over. This is a masterpiece for children as well as adults. The prose is lyrical in tempo and style; the drawings are exquisite. The use of colored and Italian pencils evoke the crayons that the children of Terezin used (under the teaching direction of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, who was deported to Terezin in 1942, and then murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.) In the story, a brother and sister (Aninku and Pepicek) are sent by a doctor to the village's market square to fetch milk for their ill mother. Here they meet the milkman, the baker, and the ice cream maker. But without money, they can buy no milk. They spy Brundibar, a child-hating, loud, brash, mean, street musician, dressed in a Napoleon hat and old medal filled uniform. With him around, they can make no money singing to pay for the milk. But with the help of some talking animals and other children, they perform a lullaby and earn the needed funds to help their mother. Brundibar is defeated (When performed as an opera, the children and audience understood that Brundibar represented their jailers.) Adults will note the added last page, in which Brundibar writes a final note. Bullies and Brundibar vow to return one day. The note is written on the replica of a crumbled invitation, the actual party invitation that the Nazis used to invite dignitaries and Red Cross officials in 1944 to the actual performances. It is replete with a dancing man who wears a Jewish star on his costume (who is recreated in the role of the doctor). Click the book cover above to read more. Pictured above are: The book cover; A drawing of the milkman; Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak sign a copy of Brundibar for MyJewishBooks.com, which we will use for a contest prize; Ela Stein Weissberger shows her Jewish star which she war at Terezin, where she was imprisoned, and where she performed the role of the "cat" in Brundibar. Ela was saved by a farmer, who hired her from Terezin' kommandant to work in the fields. Only 4 of the 64 members of her family survived the war. I AM JEWISH REFLECTIONS INSPIRED BY THE WORDS OF DANIEL PEARL Edited By Ruth and Judea Pearl January 2004. Jewish Lights. Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's last words were, "I am Jewish." Famous Jews reflect on these words in these very personal essays. With contributions from Bronfman, Dershowitz, Kitty Dukakis, Thomas Friedman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Senator Lieberman, Peres, Rabbis Sasso and Schulweis, Wiesel, and dozens more. Click the book cover above to read more. GOLD?! No... FRIDMAN. Congrats to Gal (wave) Fridman, who won GOLD in Athens. Windsurfer Gal Fridman made history by winning Israel's first Olympic gold medal in any sport. Fridman, 28, captured the men's Mistral title after finishing second in the final race, the exhausted Israeli raising his arms to the heavens in triumph. WEEK OF APRIL 22, 2005 The Matzo Ball Boy by Lisa Shulman, Rosanne Litzinger (Illustrator) Winter 2005. Dutton Juvenile Ages 4-8 WEEK OF APRIL 17, 2005 Light of Redemption A Passover Haggadah Based on the Writings of Rav Kook by Rabbi Gideon Weitzman, founder the Kansas City Community Kollel and served as its first Rosh Kollel March 2005, URIM WEEK OF APRIL 10, 2005 OMAHA BLUES A MEMORY LOOP by JOSEPH LELYVELD April 2005, FS&G WEEK OF APRIL 3, 2005 A CHANGED MAN A novel by FRANCINE PROSE March 2005, HarperCollins WEEK OF MARCH 6, 2005 Little Edens: Stories by Barbara Klein Moss WW NORTON; (January 2005) WEEK OF FEBRUARY 27, 2005 THE GUGGENHEIMS A FAMILY HISTORY By Irwin Unger and Debi Unger HarperCollins; (January 2005) GOLD?! No... FRIDMAN. Congrats to Gal (wave) Fridman, who won GOLD in Athens. Windsurfer Gal Fridman made history by winning Israel's first Olympic gold medal in any sport. Fridman, 28, captured the men's Mistral title after finishing second in the final race, the exhausted Israeli raising his arms to the heavens in triumph. THE ARAB MIND by RAPHAEL PATAI Why the heck am I adding this book from 1983, a book that I think many of you will find gross? Because it is THE book that is used by the U.S. army war colleges.. and it is THE book which "influenced" what is happening at Iraqi prisons, it is an important books for us to skim. This analysis purports to unlock the mysteries of Arab society to help us better understand a complex culture. The Arab Mind discusses the upbringing of a typical Arab boy or girl, the intense concern with honor and courage, the Arabs' tendency toward extremes of behavior, and their ambivalent attitudes toward the West. Chapters are devoted to the influence of Islam, sexual mores, Arab language and Arab art, Bedouin values, Arab nationalism, and the pervasive influence of Westernization. With a new foreword by Norvell B. DeAtkine, Director of Middle East Studies at the JFK Special Warfare Center and School, Fort Bragg, N.C., this book unravels the complexities of Arab traditions and provides authentic revelations of Arab mind and character. This is why prisoners were stripped naked and made to touch other men. Personally, I think Patai's analysis is moronic and has no basis in fact or psychological theory, but since the Army beleives it - read it.. Click the book cover above to read more. Although this is not a book, it is an important read for anyone in institutional Judaism. It is a creative brief on how to communicate to younger American Jews. Click the report cover to read the report for free. LOST TRIBE JEWISH FICTION FROM THE EDGE Edited by PAUL ZAKRZEWSKI (pronounced Zak-shef-ski) August 2003. Harperperennial. A collection of writings from 25 great new funny, dark, raw writers, including Nathan Englander ("The Last One Way"), Ellen Miller ("In Memory of Chanveasna Chan, Who Is Still Alive", a dark satire on the persecution image), Myla Goldberg, Jonathan Safran Foer, Steve Almond, Dara Horn, Jon Papernick, Aimee Bender, Rachel Kadish, Nelly Reifler (Julian, a sexual coming of age story), Gabriel Brownstein, Gloria Kirchheimer, Ben Schrank, Judy Budnitz, Binnie Kirshenbaum ("Who Knows Kaddish") Suzan Sherman, Joan Leegant, Gary Shteyngart ("Several Anecdotes About My Wife"), Michael Lowenthal, Aryeh Lev Stollman, Ellen Umansky, Ehud Havazelet, Tova Mirvis, Simone Zelitch, and Peter Orner. Issues are flirted with (sex, intolerance, the Holocaust's legacy). Call them the "post Roth" generation. Just as Philip Roth unleashed his irreverent wit in "Portnoy's Complaint" to depict the shortcomings of his 1950s urban Jewish upbringing, these writers flirt with controversial topics-such as sex, materialism, religious intolerance, and the contentious legacy of the Holocaust-to create a stirring mirror of Jewish life today. With their evocative storytelling abilities, exquisite attention to language, and profound compassion for the complex lives of their characters, these 25 authors are creating an exciting new direction for contemporary Jewish fiction. Click to read more. WEEK OF FEBRUARY 21, 2005 THE WHITE ROSE By Jean Hanff Korelitz Miramax; (January 2005) WEEK OF FEBRUARY 7, 2005 History on Trial My Day in Court with David Irving by Deborah E. Lipstadt, Emory University February 2005, Ecco WEEK OF JANURY 2, 2005 Jewish Book of the Week Pigeons eat too many hot dogs, don't you think? David Sedaris says DRESS YOUR FAMILY IN CORDUROY AND DENIM ? What, what, what? You would dress your mishpacha in such schmattas? What kind of Jewish best selling book is this? Well.. his name is Sedaris.. as in Passover Seder.. and he does include a darkly hilarious piece about his visit to the cozy comfortable attic of Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam. An excerpt: "... On our first afternoon we took a walk and came across the Anne Frank House, which was a surprise. I'd had the impression she lived in a dump. But it's actually a very beautiful seventeenth-century building right on the canal. Tree-lined street, close to shopping and public transportation: in terms of location, it was perfect. My months of house hunting had caused me to look at things in a certain way, and on seeing the crowd gathered at the front door, I did not think, TICKET LINE, but OPEN HOUSE! We entered the annex behind the famous bookcase.... I felt an absolute certainty that this was the place for me. That it would be mine. The entire building would have been impractical and far too expensive, but the part where Anne Frank and her family had lived, their triplex, was exactly the right size and adorable, which is something they never tell you." Click the icon to the right for more information on his latest best seller. MODIGLIANI BEYOND THE MYTH by Mason Klein, Maurice Berger, Emily Braun, Tamar Garb, and Griselda Pollock June 1, 2004, Yale University Press This book is the catalogue for a major exhibition at The Jewish Museum, New York (May 21 to September 19, 2004); the Art Gallery of Ontario (October 23, 2004 to January 23, 2005); and the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (February 19 to May 29, 2005). Amedeo Modigliani (1884--1920) is one of the greatest-and most misunderstood-artists of the twentieth century. His incisive portraits, erotically charged nudes, beautiful drawings, and primitivistic sculpture have been admired for decades. Modigliani's work, however, has typically been examined in the limited context of his so-called "bohemian," anti-intellectual lifestyle. This groundbreaking book revises this approach toward Modigliani's art, presenting a convincing revisionist examination of the unique historical, social, religious, and cultural significance of his oeuvre. Modigliani: Beyond the Myth looks at the artist and his art from a variety of important perspectives: his proud heritage as a Sephardic Jew, whose spirituality embraced non-Western, classical, and Christian iconography while retaining his own ethnic identity; his critical engagement with the dialogues of the most radical of his avant-garde contemporaries (Picasso, Chaim Soutine, Henri Matisse, and Brancusi); the influence of tribal art and Judaism on his portraiture; the representation of the female nude in his works from a feminist cultural perspective; and the remarkable reception of his work in Italy during his lifetime. Lavishly illustrated and including a detailed chronology of his life, this fascinating book situates Modigliani anew in the history of twentieth-century art. Click the book cover above to read more. RAID ON THE SUN INSIDE ISRAEL'S SECRET CAMPAIGN THAT DENIED SADDAM THE BOMB by RODGER W. CLAIRE April 2004, Broadway From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So, when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned-especially when they discovered that Iraqi scientists had already formulated a secret program to extract weapon-grade plutonium from the reactor, a first critical step in creating an atomic bomb. The reactor formed the heart of a huge nuclear plant situated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv. By 1981, the reactor was on the verge of becoming "hot," and Israeli Prime Minister Begin knew he would have to confront its deadly potential. He turned to Israeli Air Force commander General David Ivry to secretly plan a daring surgical air strike on the reactor-a never-before contemplated mission that would prove to be one of the most remarkable military operations of all time. Written with the full and exclusive cooperation of the Israeli Air Force high command, General Ivry (ret.), and all of the eight mission pilots (including Ilan Ramon, who became Israel's first astronaut and tragically perished in the shuttle Columbia disaster), Raid On the Sun tells the extraordinary story of how Israel plotted the unthinkable: defying its U.S. and European allies to eliminate Iraq's nuclear threat. In the tradition of Black Hawk Down, journalist Rodger Claire re-creates a gripping tale of personal sacrifice and survival, of young pilots who trained in America on the then-new, radically sophisticated F-16 fighter-bombers, then faced a nearly insurmountable challenge: how to fly the 1,000-plus-kilometer mission to Baghdad and back on one tank of fuel; he recounts Israeli intelligence's incredible "black ops" to sabotage construction on the French reactor and eliminate Iraqi nuclear scientists; and he gives reader a pilot's-eye view of the action on June 7, 1981, when the planes roared off a runway on the Sinai Peninsula for the first successful destruction of a nuclear reactor in history. Click the book cover above to read more. HOW ISRAEL LOST THE FOUR QUESTIONS by Richard Ben Cramer May 12, 2004. Simon and Schuster Cramer's book is divided into four questions about the conflict ("Why do we care about Israel?", "Why don't the Palestinians have a state?", "What is a Jewish state?", and "Why is there no peace?") modeled after the questions asked at a Passover seder. But you may say, "DAYENU" ENOUGH ALREADY.. but you would be wrong. Cramer is fresh and a great read, and funny as well. PW writes, "Cramer, who won a Pulitzer in 1979 for Middle East reporting, divides his book into four parts, dealing with four questions on the model of the four questions asked by children at the Passover seder. He blends up-to-the-minute events of the Palestinian uprising with memories of his time as a Middle East correspondent in the late 1970s and early 1980s for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Cramer is great at telling an anecdote, whether about his visit as a correspondent to an Arab village where he learns about both hospitality and honor, or about a recent visit to an Israeli family that he finds instructive regarding Palestinians' inability to reconcile themselves to a Jewish presence. When it comes to prognosis, Cramer shoots straight from the hip in giving advice to both sides. He's of the "plague on both of their houses" school ("I should have told [the mother of a dead Palestinian militant] the same thing I would have told Sharon: ...you can't make a nation... based on whom you hate, or how many of them you kill"), and he's equally dismissive of Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon, although he seems to come down harder on the Israelis for failing to recognize the Arab world's need for honor." Click the book cover above to read more. WEEK OF NOVEMBER 28, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week A Confused Hanukkah An Original Story of Chelm by Jon Koons, Illustrated by S. D. Schindler September 2004, Dutton WEEK OF NOVEMBER 21, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week Matzo Balls for Breakfast and Other Memories of Growing Up Jewish by Alan King Free Press; (November 22, 2004) Memories by the late comedian, Alan King, who passed away in May 2004. This rewarding book, which you'll want to pass on to family and friends, is the first of its kind. Until King undertook this project, no celebrity had ever before assembled a book about growing up Jewish that presents totally new writing by famous people, many of them entertainers themselves. Combining warmhearted humor with a prideful nostalgia, these essays discuss life in the Jewish family and neighborhood, being a Jew in a non-Jewish world, Jewish holidays, and discovering the essence of being Jewish. WEEK OF NOVEMBER 14, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week A Wandering Feast A Journey Through the Jewish Culture of Eastern Europe (Arthur Kurzweil Books) by Yale Strom, Elizabeth Schwartz Jossey Bass; (Fall 2004). WEEK OF OCTOBER 24, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week The Book of Customs A Complete Handbook for the Jewish Year by Scott-Martin Kosofsky HarperSanFrancisco, October 2004 Kosofsky was a little estranged from organized Jewish religion, just as many Jews feel foreign in a synagogue, until about 15 years ago, when he was asked to design some illustrations for the Harvard Hillel Sabbath Songbook. While researching the project at a Cambridge library, he came across some old woodcuts. It was bashert. The source was a "populist" Amsterdam 1645 Sefer Minhagim, or Book of Customs. He was intrigued by these day by day, Jewish farmers' almanac sort of books that existed for 400 years. The "Customs Book" was a beautifully designed and illustrated guide to the Jewish year written in Yiddish, the Jewish people's vernacular language. Captivated, he investigated further and learned that from 1590 to 1890, this cross between a prayer book and a farmer's almanac was immensely popular in households all across Europe (the Rabbi Eyzik Tyrnau text dates back to about 1410, or to the time after the Black Death of 1348-1350). This predated Yosef Karo's BET YOSEF (1520-1550) or Shulhan Arukh, and Moshe Isserles 1564 MAPAH. Published in dozens of editions and revised over the centuries in Venice, Prague, Amsterdam, and throughout Germany before moving eastward in the nineteenth century to Poland and Russia, these books detail the evolution of Jewish custom over three hundred years. Households had a prayer book, a haggadah, and a book of customs. But by the 1890s, as Jewish practice became polarized between the secularist and traditionalist views, the Minhogimbukh disappeared. Poof. Maybe it was the fragmentation of Jews between Orthodox and Reform, or nationalism, or urbanization, but there are no works quite like the historical customs books available today and none so thorough and concise, intuitive in organization, and beautiful. In the foreward, Lawrence Kushner reminds us that there are 613 commandments, but there are 7 customs that are not found within them. But the customs of lighting Sabbath candles, observing Hanukkah, reading the Megillah, and setting Sabbath boundaries are not found in the Torah. Sometimes customs become like laws, and laws become commandments, and customs are proto-mitzvot and in utero-commandments.. Inspired by the originals, Kosofsky set out to make his own, adapting the books for modern use, adding historical perspective and contemporary application. The result is the reappearance of the Minhogimbukh after more than a hundred-year absence, and the first complete showing of ALL THE ORIGINAL WOODCUTS -- a visual vocabulary of Jewish life -- since the 1760s. Faithfully based on the earlier editions, The Book of Customs is an updated guide to the rituals, liturgies, and texts of the entire Jewish year -- from the days of the week and the Sabbath to all the months with their festivals, as well as the major life-cycle events of wedding, birth, bar and bat mitzvah, and death. With the revival of this lost cultural legacy, The Book of Customs can once again become every family's guide to Jewish tradition and practice. Note: He also reproduces the title page from a 1593 edition that promises to teach readers "how to live like a good person" and boasts its superiority to all previous versions. Kosofsky's book is interesting both as a history lesson-12 of the woodcuts depict monthly farming activities, for example, showing how agricultural Jewish life was a few centuries ago-and a spiritual guide for modern readers. Click the book cover above to read more. Are you and your family going to Spiderman 2 this Summer? Then why not read the "Jewish" story behind Spiderman and Marvel comics Comic Wars How Two Tycoons Battled Over the Marvel Comics Empire--And Both Lost by DAN RAVIV WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 12, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week Yiddish with Dick and Jane by Ellis Weiner, Barbara Davilman, Gabi Payn Little, Brown; (September 13, 2004) Schmooze Dick Schmooze Jane works in Real Estate/ Jane has an Open House / Schlep Jane Schlep Mary and Dick go out for Cantonese with their kids Alice and Zach You will plotz! Television and film writer Barbara Davilman and humorist Ellis Weiner's YIDDISH WITH DICK AND JANE, a parody kids'book/language primer wherein grown-up versions of Dick and Jane help us all learn Yiddish. a primer like no other! In an inspired parodic twist, the two least Jewish characters in American literature spout some of the edgy, ironic Yiddishisms that have become part of the American vernacular Click the book cover above to read more. The Two Americas Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It by Stanley B. Greenberg January 2004, Thomas Dunne Books Co You Want to Be Viewed as a Genius at your synagogue men's club, minyan, or sisterhood event? Do you want to know why certain candidates lost the primaries and others won. THEN READ THIS BOOK THIS IS THE PLAYBOOK of the DNC. PW writes: " Pollster Greenberg (ed: Democracy Corps, with partner James Carville), who was part of Bill Clinton's victorious "war room" team during the 1992 presidential campaign, is dissatisfied with the country's political split down the middle and has ideas for how to break the Democratic/Republican impasse. He considers the last, embattled presidential election "just the current moment in an era of political deadlock" stretching back to the Eisenhower administration, a half-century in which the two parties have traded power back and forth unable to form a lasting dynasty. The 2004 election, he says, promises to be just as competitive. Analyzing each party's potential, Greenberg breaks down their loyalists into identifiable factions, like "F-You Boys" (Deep Southern white male blue-collar workers who "think President George W. Bush is their guy") and "Super-Educated Women" (Democratic loyalists though their husbands, "Privileged Men," are Republicans), Then Greenberg closely examines three regional blocs that may be up for grabs: he calls them Tampa Blue, Seattle's Eastside Tech and Heartland Iowa. In the second half of the book, he imagines how party leaders might plan to keep or retake the White House. His analysis of the GOP's strategy to present Bush as the carefully scrubbed "Reagan's Son" seems dead-on. Several possible strategies are described for Democrats, but his clear preference is for putting a 21st-century spin on the values and agenda of the Kennedy-Johnson era, with such talking points as universal health care and education, tax reform, even a new "Apollo project" to tackle energy security and global warming. Intricate strategic analysis and close attention to a wavering electorate make this political handbook stand out from the pack." Click the book cover above to read more. WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 5, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week In the Beginning A Short History of the Hebrew Language by Rabbi Joel M. Hoffman August 2004. NYU Press. WEEK OF JULY 18, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS? Madonna is changing her name to Esther, just as some ill Jews change their name to Chaim. Guess what she told us she is reading? Visit our newest page: What Jewish librarians, authors, and leaders are reading: Click here to see their selections. It's Summer Beach reading season in North America, the annual meeting of Jewish librarians in Brooklyn is history, as is the annual Book Expo America in Chicago. So, stock up on your books now. Here in New York City we are busy reading books to add to the site, and developing our plans for our new reality show. You've heard of The Apprentice?? Our newest show will be The Assistant Rabbi. A large metropolitan synagogue is the setting for this show. Each week, starting with 6 male and 6 female rabbis, they will vie for the role of Assistant Rabbi. The last one left will be the Assistant Rabbi at a six figure salary, and the board will throw in a house (or one bedroom apartment with tasteful furnishings.) As the 12 candidates are given weekly competitive tasks, like getting the child of the synagogue's biggest contributor into a selective school, the board and Senior rabbi will decide who stays and who get's fired each week. Check your local listings for upcoming times. Please check your local television listings for our new show Frum Eyes for the Straight Guy. Yes, coming in 2004, we are producing a show in which Five Fab Frum (THE FRUM FIVE) men visit a non-Frum Jewish man. One Frumkin will check the mezuzah. Another will re-do the kitchen and make sure he has two sets of dishes, as well as a set for Pesach. Another will add a chandelier to his ceiling, while another will check the wardrobe for Shatnez. By the end of the show, their host will sign up on FRUMSTER.com You get the idea. No? [all rights reserved by MyJewishBooks.com for the Frumkins and Frum Eyes for the Str8 guy and Queer Eye for the Rab-bi] We recall the lives of Naomi Shemer, the greatest modern songwriter of Israel, who passed away in June 2004; and the comedian Alan King, who succumbed on May 9, 2004 to cancer. Shemer wrote Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, and King authored Anyone Who Owns His Own Home Deserves One" (1962) and "Help! I'm a Prisoner in a Chinese Bakery." She gave us hope in 1967, and he marched with MLK Jr. The CD's are at www.Sifrutake.com (tell them we sent you) WEEK OF JULY 11, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week Speaking of Summer 2004, it is the centennial of Isaac Bashevis Singer's birth in 1904. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978; he passed away in 1991. If you want to celebrate his writings, check out some of the items below. If you despise his memory, check out the works of Inna Grade (GRA-duh), the widow of Chaim Grade, also below (she calls Singer a blasphemous buffoon). For a list of events, visit www.Singer100.ORG Becoming an American Writer: The Life and Work of IB Singer: traveling exhibit at Amherst til July 18; Boca Raton in September/October; and NYC in November/December IB Singer Birthday Bash, July 14, KGB Bar in East Village NYC Conference: The Imaginary World of IB Singer: National Yiddish Book Center, Hampshire College, Amherst, July 11-15 Performance of two Singer plays, "The Slave" and "Shosha", NYC Lincoln Center, July 20-23 WEEK OF JULY 4, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week Our Mothers' War American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II by Emily Yellin Spring 2004. The Free Press WEEK OF JUNE 27, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week CROSSING CALIFORNIA A NOVEL by ADAM LANGER June 3, 2004. Riverhead Books. WEEK OF JUNE 20, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week FATHER DAY SPECIALS WEEK OF MAY 30, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week The View from Stalin's Head by AARON HAMBURGER Random House WEEK OF MAY 23, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week RAID ON THE SUN INSIDE ISRAEL'S SECRET CAMPAIGN THAT DENIED SADDAM THE BOMB by RODGER W. CLAIRE April 2004, Broadway WEEK OF MAY 16, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week TORAH YOGA EXPERIENCING JEWISH WISDOM THROUGH CLASSIC POSTURES by DIANE RACHEL BLOOMFIELD April 2004, Jossey Bass Aleph-Bet Yoga Embodying the Hebrew Letters for Physical and Spiritual Well-Being by Steven A. Rapp Jewish Lights Publishing WEEK OF MAY 9, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week We recall Rabbi Schwartz, who recently succumbed to cancer on April 10 at the age 0f 52. SWIMMING IN THE SEA OF TALMUD by Michael Katz, Gershon Schwartz Jewish Publication Society; (May 1998) Happy Purim. Who knew that Haman started a School? For info on our Purim Books, click here. For info on our Passover Books, click here. DIASPORA Homelands in Exile (2 Volume Set) by Frederic Brenner Rosh Hashana 2003. See also the Fall 2003 exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum from October 2003 - January 2004. or visit the Howard Greenberg gallery in nyc. Since 1978, French photographer Fr�d�ric Brenner has been chronicling the Jewish Diaspora by producing visual social histories of Jewish communities. Diaspora is a photographic record of his 25-year search for the Jewish population in 40 countries over five continents. Volume I, 344 pages, is a collection of 264 of Brenner's more than 80,000 photographs, the most extensive and diverse visual record of Jewish life ever created. A four page color insert includes two full-color photographs. Volume II is 164 pages of evocative essays by leading intellectuals on the meaning and significance to each of them of 60 of Brenner's photographs, reproduced here in smaller format. Diaspora is a landmark project that captures the scope and dynamism of one of the world's oldest, most diverse communities, and challenges stereotypes held by Jews and non-Jews alike. Click to read more... Autobiography by Helmut Newton (actually was born Helmut Neustadter to an assimilated Berlin button manufacturer) Fall 2003. Nan Talese. The autobiography of the famous fashion photographer who died in an accident after suffering a heart attack in January 2004 in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills at the Chateau Marmont. Newton, 83, who had health problems recently, only days before he had been swimming, dining with friends and attending a party in celebration of the designer Alexander McQueen. Newton, who was Jewish, was born in Berlin but lived a nomadic life after his family fled the Nazis. He bought his first camera at 12 and gained acclaim when he joined French Vogue in 1961. He worked as a teenage giggilo in Singapore's Raffles Hotel after Hitler's rise to power, and then served 5 years in the Australian Army. Over the years, Newton established a reputation for a style of fashion photography that was icy and aloof. His models stood and lounged about in a haughty manner, sometimes rudely ignoring the camera and at other times staring intently and tauntingly into the lens Booklist writes, "A woman kneels on a bed wearing a saddle. An elegant nude leans on a cane, her neck in a surgical collar, one leg in a thigh-high cast. These are the sort of disturbing yet sexy images that made photographer Helmut Newton famous. The sultan of glossy erotica now tells his genuinely amazing and entertaining life story, decoding, along the way, the iconography of his stylishly risque oeuvre. The spoiled son of wealthy Berlin Jews, he was equally passionate about girls and photography, and lucky to escape Nazi Germany at age 18. He found refuge in Singapore, where he lived well as a gigolo, then was shipped to Australia, where he was drafted by the army and got married. Given his unabashed chronicling of carefree sexual exploits, his happy marriage and his wife's essential role in his work come as a pleasant surprise. Blunt about his sexuality, self-centeredness, and driving ambition, and generous in his chronicling of his radical approach to fashion photography, Newton is a beguiling and provocative autobiographer clearly grateful for his fabulous good fortune." Click the cover to read more. CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE JEWISH SOUL STORIES TO OPEN THE HEART AND REKINDLE THE SPIRIT Edited By Jack Canfield and Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins (Princeton) September 2001. HEATH. Portion of proceeds go to Hadassah and the National Yiddish Book Center. Well, the Chicken Soup series, that Jews were immune to, has now hit the Jewish reader. This is a collection of stories by celebs such as Rabbis Lawrence and Harold Kushner, Ed Koch, the late George Burns, Anne Frank, Kirk Douglas, Golda Meir, and others. Collected and edited by Rabbi Elkins. It even includes a story by his son (who said anything about nepotism, just kidding) Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls by Stephanie Wellen Levine, Carol Gilligan November 2003. NYU PRESS Just in time for Jewish Book Month comes this absorbing book. From the ardently religious young woman who longs for the life of a male scholar to the young rebel who visits a strip club, smokes pot, and agonizes over her loss of faith to the proud Lubavitcher with a desire for a high-powered career, Stephanie Wellen Levine provides a rare glimpse into the inner worlds and daily lives of these Hasidic girls. Levine spent a year living in the Lubavitch community of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, participating in the rhythms of Hasidic girlhood. Drawing on many intimate hours among Hasidim and over 30 in-depth interviews, Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers offers rich portraits of individual Hasidic young women and how they deal with the conflicts between the regimented society in which they live and the pull of mainstream American life. Perhaps counterintuitively for those who envision meek, religious girls confined within very structured roles, Levine finds that on the whole, these young Hasidic women seem more confident and have a greater sense of self than many of their mainstream peers. Levine explores why this might be the case, and what we can learn from their example for girls' positive development more generally. Click to read more. To read the introduction for free.. please copy and paste this address into your browser http://www.nyupress.org/webchapters/081475192Xintro.pdf DIASPORA Homelands in Exile (2 Volume Set) by Frederic Brenner Rosh Hashana 2003. See also the Fall 2003 exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum from October 2003 - January 2004. or visit the Howard Greenberg gallery in nyc. Since 1978, French photographer Fr�d�ric Brenner has been chronicling the Jewish Diaspora by producing visual social histories of Jewish communities. Diaspora is a photographic record of his 25-year search for the Jewish population in 40 countries over five continents. Volume I, 344 pages, is a collection of 264 of Brenner's more than 80,000 photographs, the most extensive and diverse visual record of Jewish life ever created. A four page color insert includes two full-color photographs. Volume II is 164 pages of evocative essays by leading intellectuals on the meaning and significance to each of them of 60 of Brenner's photographs, reproduced here in smaller format. Diaspora is a landmark project that captures the scope and dynamism of one of the world's oldest, most diverse communities, and challenges stereotypes held by Jews and non-Jews alike. Click to read more... WEEK OF MARCH 29, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week The Holistic Haggadah How Will You Be Different This Passover Night? by Michael Kagan Urim. March 2004. WEEK OF MARCH 22, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking 200 Seasonal Holiday Recipes and Their Traditions by Phyllis Glazer and Miriyam Glazer March 2004. Harpercollins WEEK OF MARCH 15, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week THE OUTSIDE WORLD A novel by Tova Mirvis March 30, 2004. Knopf WEEK OF MARCH 8, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week Shiksa The Gentile Woman in the Jewish World by Christine Benvenuto March 2004. St Martins Press WEEK OF MARCH 1, 2004 Jewish Book of the Week STILL LIFE WITH BOMBERS ISRAEL IN THE AGE OF TERRORISM by DAVID HOROVITZ (Jerusalem Report) March 2, 2004. Knopf Two books by people connected to the Holy Land of Kiryat Scranton. WEEK OF December 28, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week RISE UP - SHTEYT OYF The Klezmatics May 2003. With an updated group, the Klematics are rooting their music in the ancient modes and melodies of Jewish music and then expanding in contemporary directions. The` Klezmatics produce art that is resonant with tradition and yet unbound by it. Rise Up, their first non-collaborative release in five years, continues the sonic journey begun on classic albums like Jews With Horns and The Well. From the freewheeling to the forlorn, Rise Up reinvents klezmer as only the acclaimed Klezmatics can. Produced by Ben Wisch. Writing in the LA Times in June 2003, Don Heckman stated, "Recorded a little more than a year after 9-11, `Rise Up is invested with an undercurrent touching both pensive mourning and.. sturdy defiance." Cuts include Klezmorimlekh mayne libinke (Beloved klezmorim, my dear ones), sung passionately by Lorin Sklamburg; Kats un moyz (Cat and Mouse) under the direction of pianist Frank London, mixing klez, jazz avant-garde, and and Latin rhythms; Loshn-koydesh (Holy Tongues), which is taken frlom the Song of Songs, but is updated as a song about a teacher's love for his student; Tepel; I Ain't Afraid (a post 9/11 song, by Holly Near); Di gayster (Ghosts); Yo riboyn olam (Creator, Master of this World), in Aramaic, a plea against religious bureaucracy; Bulgars #2 (Tantsn un shpringen); Barikadn (Barricades); Davenen; St. John's Nign; Hevl iz havolim (Vanity is Vanities), Vanity is vanities and the world runs on money, by Frank London; Makht oyf (Open Up); Perets tants; and I Ain't Afraid (English edit). Includes Rob Schwimmer, Steve Sandburg, and Myra Melford. Click the album cover to read the play list and purchase the CD. WEEK OF December 21, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week Lots of Latkes A Hanukkah Story by Sandy Lanton, Vicki Jo Redenbaugh (Illustrator) October 2003. WEEK OF December 14, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week It's a Miracle! A Hanukkah Storybook by Stephanie Spinner (Author), Jill McElmurry (Illustrator) October 2003. Atheneum. WEEK OF December 7, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week Taking Stock A Spiritual Guide to Rising Above Life's Financial Ups and Downs by Benjamin Blech, with James P. Lisante October 2003. AMACOM. WEEK OF November 30, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week Rambam's Ladder A Meditation on Generosity and Why It Is Necessary to Give by Julie Salamon October 2003. WEEK OF November 02, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week And the Dead Shall Rise The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Steve Oney (Author) October 2003. Pantheon. Did you survive the August blackout? Did you read a Jewish book by candlelight? Some of you asked how MyJewishBooks.com stayed up during the outage. No, we did not connect our servers to a car battery (as this student did at right), but we came close. Hey, Fox News network: Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com, the "fair and balanced" webpage of Jewish books and reviews. It's true, we are neither journalists nor television news personalities. But we are well-respected voices in the Western hemisphere. Our voices are not "shrill or unstable, our views do not lack any serious depth or insight." We are neither "intoxicated nor deranged", but if u would like to sue us, please check our contact information below. But we remind you that some martial artist tried to sue us for our Chai-Bo workout, and we kicked their tucchis. Just a word of warning. Speaking of "intoxicated and deranged," here's a contest. Send us an email and tell us what is the last Jewish book you read (or are reading). The first five people who respond will receive a new free copy of a Fall Jewish book. And they dare to say that there are no free lunches in this world. Email us at Admin@MyJewishBooks.com WEEK OF October 26, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week DREAMLAND Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War by Howard M. Sachar 2003. Paperback. Vintage. By the end of World War I, in November 1918, Europe's old authoritarian empires had fallen, and new and seemingly democratic governments were rising from the debris. As successor states found their place on the map, many hoped that a more liberal Europe would emerge. But this post-war idealism all too quickly collapsed under the political and economic pressures of the 1920s and '30s. Howard M. Sachar chronicles this visionary and tempestuous era by examining the fortunes of Europe's Jewish minority, a group whose precarious status made them particularly sensitive to changes in the social order. WEEK OF October 19, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week THE WOMEN'S HAFATARAH COMMENTARY New Insights from Women Rabbis on the 54 Weekly Haftarah Portions, the 5 Megillot and Special Shabbatot. Edited By Rabbi Elyse Goldstein September 2003. Jewish Lights. WEEK OF October 12, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week A SEASON IN BETHLEHEM UNHOLY WAR IN A SACRED PLACE By Joshua Hammer (Newsweek Jerusalem Bureau Chief) September 8, 2003. Free Press. WEEK OF October 5, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week ROTHSTEIN by David Pietrusza September 2003. C&G. WEEK OF September 28, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week Adventures of an Economist by Franco Modigliani 2001. Professor Modigliani... one of my favorite Economists -- a man who told off the ADL for kissing the ass of the current Italian Prime Minister - passed away this week, right before Rosh Hashana. Franco Modigliani's economic theories, recognized globally in 1985 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize, have shaped much of the world's modern research in the areas of savings and corporate finance. He is one of the father's of life cycle theory, in shich the young broow in order to spend, and the elderly spend their savings. In this book, this Italian refugee's story is far more than a journey through economic thinking. It is a study of the great historical, political, and economic events of the past 60 years. The author takes the reader on a journey from his childhood in Rome through fascism and his flight from Nazism to his arrival in the United States. Modigliani's passion for economics ultimately brought him a professorship at MIT, but not before he demonstrated his opposition to the Vietnam War and enjoyed many fascinating encounters with some of the key political figures of the twentieth century, from Kennedy to Reagan. WEEK OF September 21, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week FIVE CITIES OF REFUGE WEEKLY REFLECTIONS OF GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS, AND DEUTERONOMY By Rabbi Lawrence Kushner and Playwright David Mamet August 26, 2003. Schocken Books. We recall with affection Leon Uris, the man of letters who defined our post War literary generation, the author of Exodus, QBVII, and Mila 18, the man who influenced the change in titles of Catch-18 to Catch 22. He wrote: "Battle Cry," (1953); "The Angry Hills," (1955); "Exodus," (1958); "Mila 18," (1961); "Topaz," (1967); "QB VII," (1970); "Trinity," (1976); "The Haj," (1984); "Mitla Pass," (1988); "Redemption," (1995); "A God in Ruins," (1999) WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 14, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week LOST TRIBE JEWISH FICTION FROM THE EDGE Edited by PAUL ZAKRZEWSKI (pronounced Zak-shef-ski) August 2003. Harperperennial. SHALOM Y'ALL THE VIBRANT WORLD OF SOUTHERN JEWISH LIFE Images of Jewish Life in the American South Photographs by BILL ARON Text by Vicki Reikis Fox and Marcie Cohen Ferris. Foreword by Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy, Parade) WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 7, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week The New Anti-Semitism The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It by Phyllis Chesler WEEK OF AUGUST 31, 2003 Jewish Book of the Week