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Orders are fulfilled by Amazon.com Net proceeds are donated to tzedakah Visit our Tzedakah Page Tzedaka.ORG penny harvest Siddur Audio heeb magazine bar mitzvah disco the Hasidic rebel blog about his dislikes in the Hasidic world Matt Messinger Casting American Jewish World Service Dry Bones Urban Kvetch Jewish Council on Urban Affairs Elat Chayim New Shul Scottsdale Shalom Center Tikkun Leil Shabbat Times Fool Association of Jewish Librarians Jewish Values site Avhana.co.il Avodah Beach Hillel Bikkurim - Jewish incubator Cambridge Minyan Workmen's Circle/Arbiter Ring Tehillah Riverdale DC Minyan Darkhei Noam Gawker.com gizmodo Hazon Tzedek Hillel IKAR Isabella Freedman JCRC Boston Jdub Records Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action Jewish Community Action SchmoozeDance 2005 SchmoozeDance 2006 schmoozedance 2007 Jewish Funds for Justice Selah Cohorts Jewish Labor Committee Jewish Organizing Initiative JewLicious JewSchool Jews for Racial and Economic Justice Jewish Social Policy Action Network Jspot- Jewish Justice spot Jews United for Justice Kavana Seattle Moishe/Kavod House Boston Hadar Kol HaKfar Kol Tzedek West Philly Kol Zimrah Mazon Minyan Tehillah Cambridge Mitziut Chicago Nashuva LA network 2020 PANIM Panim Hadashot DC Park Slope Minyan Progressive Jewish Alliance Rabbis for Human Rights - North America Riverway Project Boston Storahtelling Synagogue 3000 Tekiah Tikkun Ha-Ir wonkette delete		FALL 2007 BOOK READINGS Aug 01, 2007: NyFoodMuseum.org Exhibit on 100 Yrs of JoyVa Halva Aug 29, 2007: Rabbi David Aaron reads from Inviting God In: Celebrating the Soul-Meaning of the Jewish Holy Days. B&N UWS NYC, 7 PM Sep 06-15, 2007: TIFF, Toronto Intnl Film Festival Sep 09, 2007: Alan Zweibe; speaks at Vihillel.org Virginia Tech Hillel, VA Sep 09, 2007: Healing the World. A Day of Learning with Hebrew University. 9-3:30, NYC afhu.org $250. Sep 11, 2007: Hanna Rosin reads from GOD's HARVARD. B&N Chelsea NYC Sep 11, 2007: Melissa Plaut reads from HACK, HOW I STOPPED.... B&N GV NYC Sep 11, 2007: David Raab reads from BLACK SEPTEMBER.... B&N Lincoln Triagle NYC Sep 12, 2007: Jewish New Year begins tonight Sep 16, 2007: International Pickle Day. Orchard St, NYC 11AM Sep 16, 2007: Brooklyn Book Festival, Boro Hall. NYC 11AM-6PM. Includes Elisa Albert, How This Night Is Different: Stories; Wayne Barrett, Rudy!, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11; Moustafa Bayoumi, coeditor: The Edward Said Reader; David Bouley, East of Paris, Chef's Story; Dominic Carter, No Momma's Boy; Dave Eggers, McSweeney's Quarterly; Mike Farrell, Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist; Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated; Myla Goldberg, Bee Season; Charles Hynes, Triple Homicide; Simon Shimon Jacobson, Toward a Meaningful Life; Chuck Klosterman; Seth Kushner; Jonathan Lethem; Tao Lin; Phillip Lopate; Ed Park; Neal Pollack; Francine Prose, Blue Angel, A Changed Man, Reading Like a Writer; the poet Harvey Shapiro; Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons; Amy Sohn; Lauren Weinstein and many more. Get schedule at brooklynbookfestival.org Sep 17, 2007: ALAN GREENSPAN reads from THE AGE OF TURBULENCE, B&N Union Sq Sep 19, 2007: RUTH WISSE reads from JEWS AND POWER, B&N UWS NYC Sep 21, 2007: ALAN GREENSPAN and ANDREA MITCHELL host a book party for GREENSPAN's THE AGE OF TURBULENCE, Washington DC. Oops.. wait.. .it is a conflict with Yom Kippur, so Jewish friends may come to the party at 5PM and leave for Kol Nidre. Sep 21, 2007: Yom Kippur begins tonight Sep 24, 2007: Iran's President speaks at Columbia University on Iran, Iraq, Zionism, the Holocaust, Israel and other topics, NYC Sep 29, 2007: The National Book Festival, Washington DC Includes: Ken Burns, Sanjay Gupta, Joan Nathan, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Oren, and dozens more Oct 01, 2007: ABRAHAM FOXMAN reads from THE DEADLIEST LIES, BN UWS-82nd NYC Oct 07, 2007: RUTH WISSE speaks on JEWS AND POWER. Washington DC JCC / Nextbook Oct 08, 2007: JIMMY CARTER reads from his newest booka bout how great he is and will probably slam Israel if he gets a chance, BN Union Square NYC Oct 09, 2007: Shalom Auslander reads from FORESKIN'S LAMENT, BN Chelsea NYC Oct 09, 2007: Idan Raichal at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, NYC Oct 11, 2007: NY Knicks vs Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, NYC Oct 11, 2007: Jewish Daily Forward lecture on 100 Years of Jewish Theater Music. Museum of the City of New York Oct 12, 2007: Eldridge Street Synagogue Festival of 75+ klezmer musicians. A Parade to Seward Park. 11:30 AM, 12 Eldridge St, NYC Oct 13, 2007: Evening concert at CUNY Elebash recital hall (365 5th Ave) of klezmers Oct 14, 2007: Symphony Space NYC: The Eldridge Street Project. Isaiah Sheffer and klezmer music October 15-21, 2007: Statewide Great Day Tour throughout New York State, NYC Oct 15, 2007: MICHAEL WEX reads from JUST SAY NU!, BN Lincoln NYC Oct 15, 2007: Anne Roiphe teaches a course on the Jewish Short Story. at Skirball in NYC Oct 15, 2007: SHALOM AUSLANDER reads from FORESKIN'S LAMENT. Washington DC JCC / Nextbook Oct 16, 2007: The Creative non Fiction Writers' Beit Midrash at Skirball in NYC Oct 16, 2007: Jewish Daily Forward lecture on Yiddish is Alive and Well (with Michael Wex) Museum of the City of New York Oct 16, 2007: DANIEL B. SILVER, author of REFUGE IN HELL, speaks on how the 1000 Jews survived in the Jewish Hospital in Berlin throughout WWII, and the role of Dr. Lustig. Mount Sinai Hospital, NYC 5PM Oct 21, 2007: JEWS, COMICS, and .. The Superhero. at Skirball in NYC Oct 21, 2007: For There Is Hope: Gender and The Hebrew Bible. A Conference to honor the memory of Dr. Tikva Frymer-Kensky. Featuring over nine speakers. KTS NYC 10am-5pm. www.hopeconference2007.com Oct 21, 2007: A Day of Learning with Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School, featuring a dozen speaking rabbis on topics of abuse, parenting, infrimed elderly parents, generational differences in religious observance, and more. Kehilat Jeshuruan NYC 9:30AM Oct 21, 2007: ALAN MORINIS and IRA STONE on MUSSAR 92nd St Y NYC 8:15PM Oct 22, 2007: Author JEFFREY TOOBIN on breaking news in the Jewish world. 92nd St Y NYC 8:15PM Oct 23, 2007: DR. WENDY MOGEL reads from BLESSING OF A SKINNED KNEE, Stephen Wise, NYC 7PM Oct 24, 2007: Jewish Daily Forward lecture on Ethnic Power in NYC; Jews, Italians and the Irish, with Ed Koch, Pete Hamill, and Professor Frank Macchairola. Museum of the City of New York Oct 24, 2007: Authors LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN, TONY KUSHNER, ALFRED FOX UHRY, and DAVID GRUBIN on the PBS Documentary, THE JEWISH AMERICANS. 92nd St Y NYC 8PM Oct 25, 2007: Yiddish Sing Along. Rodeph shalom, NYC 7:30 PM Oct 27, 2007: Crown Point Film Festival Begins. LES, NYC. CrownPointFestival.ORG Oct 29, 2007: Righteous Indignation at Skirball in NYC Oct 29, 2007: DIANA ACKERMAN discusses THE ZOOKEEPER'S WIFE. 92nd St Y NYC 7:30PM Oct 29 - Nov 07, 2007: AJWS Study Tour to Thailand and Cambodia Oct 30, 2007: Amy Bloom reads from AWAY, BN Chelsea NYC Oct 31, 2007: ERIC SUNDQUIST speaks on The Holocaust in American Literature, UCLA 4PM Oct 22, 2007: Authors LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN and PHILLIP DAVIS on the life of Bernard Malamud 92nd St Y NYC 7:30PM Nov 01, 2007: ADAM GOPNIK reads from his works. Washington DC JCC / Nextbook Nov 04-11, 2007: Miami Book Fair. MiamiBookFair.com Nov 04-Dec 04, 2007: National Jewish Book Month Nov 05, 2007: Carter buddy LEON CHARNEY on THE KADDISH 92nd St Y NYC 8:15PM Nov 07, 2007: MAGGIE ANTON on the RASHI'S DAUGHTERS trilogy 92nd St Y NYC 7:30PM Nov 08-15, 2007: The Other Israel Film Festival. Cinema Village, NYC Nov 08, 2007: How To Get Your Poetry Published. Aaww.org NYC Nov 08, 2007: MICHAEL STANISLAWSKI speaks on A MURDER IN LEMBERG: THE ASSASSINATION OF REFORM RABBI ABRAHAM KOHN IN 1848. UCLA 7PM Nov 12, 2007: MEIR SHALEV reads from A PIGEON AND A BOY. Washington DC JCC / Nextbook Nov 15, 2007: Miss. A 2-Act Play by Wuang Bao. Aaww.org NYC Nov 19, 2007: The Idan Raichal Project at The Fillmore, NYC Nov 27, 2007: RUTH BEHAR reads from AN ISLAND CALLED HOME: RETURNING TO JEWISH CUBA. Washington DC JCC / Nextbook Nov 28, 2007: KENNETH TURAN speaks on THE JEW AS CRITIC, UCLA 4PM Nov 29, 2007: SUSAN DERWIN speaks on BENJAMIN WILKOMIRSKI's "FRAGMENTS," UCLA Noon Dec 03, 2007: 10th Annual Asian American Literary Awards. Aaww.org NYC Dec 09, 2007: Dr. Arnold Eisen speaks on Revitalizing American Judaism. 92nd St Y, NYC 92y.org Dec 21, 2007: Jewmongous comedy act with Sean Altman. NYC Dec 23, 2007: HEEB Storytelling presents Jon Kesselman (Hebrew Hammer) and Sam Levine (Fraks and Geeks). Joe's Pub NYC 7PM Dec 23, 2007: Putting The HA in HANUKKAH, sponsored by HEEB MAGAZINE hits NYC Dec 24, 2007: Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad. At The Zipper Factory NYC Dec 24, 2007: Good For The Jews, a comedy music duo perform at The Knitting Factory NYC Dec 25, 2007: Zamir Choral Fdtn open sing with M Lazar. JCC Manhattan NYC 1PM Dec 25, 2007: Klez for Kids. Eldridge St Synagogue. NYC Dec 25, 2007: Challah lujah. Concert with Joshua Nelson and the Kosher Gospel Choir. Museum of Jewish Heritage, NYC 1 and 3:30. NYC HEY.. NOW YOUR CAN SEARCH OUR SITE, INSTEAD OF JUST SEARCHING AMAZON. TRY IT OUT... Search: search tips sitemap SEPTEMBER 2007 BOOKS Note to file: Let's publish a series of books on Spiritual Journey's with famous guides... for example, "36 Days with Heschel;" "36 Days with Soloveichik;" and "36 Days with Reb Nachman."... Would you buy it? Let us know. September is here... the High Holidays are here... Let's start the month off with a very special book. The High Holidays' liturgy tells us to LISTEN, Hear O Israel, LISTEN UP O ISRAEL... well, here is a book about listening and hearing, by NYC resident, Josh Swiller. Also, with regard to the High Holidays, you can read this book and keep in mind the difficulty of getting things done (as we review our behavior over the past year) and the consequences of decisions made (with regard to Josh's bus ride to return to his village to get a spare hearing aid after his primary one is stolen): THE UNHEARD A Memoir of Deafness and Africa by Josh Swiller September 2007, Holt The monkey will not escape the burning grass two times, and never steal a fish from another man's net. Josh Swiller has had a wide variety of careers including forest ranger, raw food chef, sheepskin slipper salesman and Zen monk. He currently works at a hospice in Brooklyn. He has been profoundly deaf since birth. He fought this 'condition,' and was so good at lip reading that some family members did not even know he could hear less than 14% of the words said. A Yale grad, he joined the Peace Corps and arrived in Mununga (ma noon gah), a dusty village on the shores of Lake Mweru. Deaf since a young age, Swiller spent his formative years in frustrated limbo on the sidelines of the hearing world, encouraged by his family to use lip-reading and the strident approximations of hearing aids to blend in. It didn't work. So he decided to ditch the well-trodden path after college, setting out to find a place so far removed that his deafness would become irrelevant. That place turned out to be Zambia, where Swiller worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years. There he would encounter a world where violence, disease, and poverty were the mundane facts of life. But despite the culture shock, Swiller finally commanded attention-everyone always listened carefully to the white man, even if they didn't always follow his instruction. Spending his days working in the health clinic with Augustine Jere, a chubby, world-weary chess aficionado and a steadfast friend, Swiller had finally found, he believed, a place where his deafness didn't interfere, a place he could call home. Until, that is, a nightmarish incident blasted away his newfound convictions. At once a poignant account of friendship through adversity, a hilarious comedy of errors, and a gripping narrative of escalating violence, The Unheard is an unforgettable story from a noteworthy new talent. In terms of one of the stories, the Peace Corp member must figure out whether he has done any good at all and how best to get things done in a culture where direct confrontation is not well liked. Sadly, in one incident involving a switched bus seat, the author must deal with the consequences of choices. From Publishers Weekly: Although doctors diagnosed [Josh] Swiller's deafness early enough to fit him with hearing aids, the young man from Manhattan's Upper West Side still felt different. As a young adult he drifted from college to college, job to job, relationship to relationship, never quite finding what he was looking for: a place beyond deafness. He found that place in the mid-1990s, when the Peace Corps posted him to a remote corner of Zambia. During his two-year stint working in a run-down health clinic in a rural village, he fought for irrigation projects and better AIDS facilities. He befriended a young local who played chess and provided constant counsel in the ways the young white American could-and did-run afoul of local tribesmen (and women) and their age-old ways. Deafness would have provided a unique sensory filter for anyone, yet while Swiller may have his particular aural capabilities, he also has literary talents-an eye, a voice and a narrative talent-in abundance. A story in any other Peace Corps volunteer's hands might have been humdrum, but in Swiller's becomes intensified, like the rigors of day-to-day Zambian life, through deprivation. Click the book cover to read more. Little known tidbits... Beverly Bubbles Sills knew ASDL sign language... and Marcel Marceau / Bip was Jewish, a member of the French resistance and even trained a MIME RABBI , ... I wonder what ever happened to him... CHURCHILLS'S PROMISED LAND ZIONISM AND STATECRAFT BY MICHAEL MARKOVSKY September 2007, New Republic Books This book is the first to explore fully the role that Zionism played in the political thought of Winston Churchill. Michael Makovsky traces the development of Churchill's positions toward Zionism from the period leading up to the First World War through his final years as prime minister in the 1950s. Setting Churchill's attitudes toward Zionism within the context of his overall worldview as well as within the context of twentieth-century British diplomacy, Makovsky offers a unique contribution to our understanding of Churchill. Moving chronologically, the book looks at Churchill's career within the context of several major themes: his own worldview and political strategies, his understanding of British imperial interests, the moral impact of the Holocaust, his commitment to ideals of civilization, and his historical sentimentalism. While Churchill was largely sympathetic to the Jews and to the Zionist impulse, he was not without inconsistencies in his views and policies over the years. Makovsky's book illuminates key aspects of Middle Eastern history; Zionist history; and British political, imperial, and diplomatic history; and further helps us understand one of the pivotal figures of the twentieth century. Click the book cover to read more. CHURCHILL AND THE JEWS A LIFELONG FRIENDSHIP By Sir MARTIN GILBERT Fall 2007, Henry Holt An insightful history of Churchill's lifelong commitment-both public and private-to the Jews and Zionism, and of his outspoken opposition to anti-Semitism. Winston Churchill was a young man in 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, was convicted of treason and sent to Devil's Island. Despite the prevailing anti-Semitism in England as well as on the Continent, Churchill's position was clear: he supported Dreyfus, and condemned the prejudices that had led to his conviction. Churchill's commitment to Jewish rights, to Zionism-and ultimately to the State of Israel-never wavered. In 1922, he established on the bedrock of international law the right of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. During his meeting with David Ben-Gurion in 1960, Churchill presented the Israeli prime minister with an article he had written about Moses, praising the father of the Jewish people. Drawing on a wide range of archives and private papers, speeches, newspaper coverage, and wartime correspondence, Churchill's official biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, explores the origins, implications, and results of Churchill's determined commitment to Jewish rights, opening a window on an underappreciated and heroic aspect of the brilliant politician's life and career. Click the book cover to read more. The Deadliest Lies The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control by Abraham H. Foxman September 2007. Palgrave From Publishers Weekly: In opposing the view that there is an Israel lobby with disproportionate influence on U.S. foreign policy (a view that Foxman says plays into the traditional anti-Semitic narrative about 'Jewish control'� ), the national director of the Anti-Defamation League focuses on the controversial 2006 paper The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (their book of the same title will be published in September). Foxman demolishes a number of shibboleths about the lobby's power. Much of the book's second half then takes on what Foxman sees as the biases and distortions in former president Carter's Palestine Peace or Apartheid, offering evidence, for example, that Yasser Arafat, not Ehud Barak, was the obstacle to an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement at the Taba negotiations. But Foxman never really defines what the Israel lobby is, paying more attention to the ADL than to that lobby's main instrument, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee. And many will find debatable his claim that Israel has proven to be the single greatest source of stability in the region. This book succeeds far more as a rebuttal of a pernicious theory about a mythically powerful Jewish lobby than as a look at the real institutions that lobby in support of Israel or at Israel's complex role in the Middle East. Click the book cover to read more. IF YOU PURCHASE THE BOOK BELOW... PLEASE ALSO BUY ABE FOXMAN'S BOOK ABOVE. THANKS If you want to read a great comparison between these two books on The Israel Lobby, use the link below for Samuel G. Freedman's review of the books in the Washington Post Book World (October 7, 2007), in which he uses the idea of "original sin" as a starting point for understanding the book below. According to Freedman, the authors, Mearsheimer and Walt, view the U.S. support for Israel as the root cause for Islamic terrorism, political instability, and American insecurity, and that Zionists (some Jews, some evangelicals, and others) are puppet masters of the U.S. Congress. Not to mention that Israel is a political liability ... Click here to read Freedman's review The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt September 2007. FS&G The Israel Lobby," by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked outrage and cheers on the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy. (or the alleged impact) In this book, Mearsheimer and Walt expand their argument and include their views on recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. They describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. Mearsheimer and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-reaching impact on America's posture throughout the Middle East-in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict-and the policies it has encouraged are in neither America's national interest nor Israel's long-term interest. The lobby's influence also affects America's relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror. Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, "Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington's 'The Clash of Civilizations?' in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force." The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-about books of the year. Click the book cover to read more. FRIENDS... THIS IS ONE OF THE TOP READS FOR THE FALL: The Zookeeper's Wife A War Story by Diane Ackerman September 2007. WW Norton From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. Ackerman (A Natural History of the Senses) tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who, with courage and coolheaded ingenuity, sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. Using Antonina's diaries, other contemporary sources and her own research in Poland, Ackerman takes us into the Warsaw ghetto and the 1943 Jewish uprising and also describes the Poles' revolt against the Nazi occupiers in 1944. She introduces us to such varied figures as Lutz Heck, the duplicitous head of the Berlin zoo; Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, spiritual head of the ghetto; and the leaders of Zegota, the Polish organization that rescued Jews. Ackerman reveals other rescuers, like Dr. Mada Walter, who helped many Jews pass, giving lessons on how to appear Aryan and not attract notice. Ackerman's writing is viscerally evocative, as in her description of the effects of the German bombing of the zoo area: ...the sky broke open and whistling fire hurtled down, cages exploded, moats rained upward, iron bars squealed as they wrenched apart. This suspenseful beautifully crafted story deserves a wide readership. Click the book cover to read more. THE AUTHOR'S FAIL TO BE BALANCED BELOW, AND IN HINDSIGHT, THE FORGET THAT ISRAEL WAS WEAK IN 1967 and 1973, AND HAD A GREATER DESIRE FOR THE LAND THAN NOW.. But the authors do not discuss this Lords of the Land The War for Israel's Settlements in the Occupied Territories, 1967-2007 by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar September 2007. Nation Books Lords of the Land tells the tragic story of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of the 1967 war and Israel's devastating victory over its Arab neighbors, catastrophe struck both the soul and psyche of the state of Israel. Based on years of research, and written by one of Israel's leading historians and journalists, this involving narrative focuses on the settlers themselves - often fueled by messianic zeal but also inspired by the original Zionist settlers - and shows the role the state of Israel has played in nurturing them through massive economic aid and legal sanctions. The occupation, the authors argue, has transformed the very foundations of Israel's society, economy, army, history, language, moral profile, and international standing. "The vast majority of the 6.5 million Israelis who live in their country do not know any other reality," the authors write. "The vast majority of the 3.5 million Palestinians who live in the regions of their occupied land do not know any other reality. The prolonged military occupation and the Jewish settlements that are perpetuating it have toppled Israeli governments and have brought Israel's democracy and its political culture to the brink of an abyss." Click the book cover to read more. HOW DO YOU RAISE A JEWISH DOG?? BY USING GUILT! Everything a dog owner needs to know to nurture a canine companion with both an exaggerated sense of his own wonderfulness and paralyzing self doubt How to Raise a Jewish Dog by Rabbis of Boca Raton Theological Seminary with Barbara Davilman and Ellis Weiner September 2007. Little Brown In the words of a famous rabbi, we all should strive to be the people that our dogs think we are. The authors of "Yiddish with Dick and Jane" have written a more insightful book which can be used to raise dogs, as well as families; for are our dogs not our children? It seems as if there was a rabbinical seminary started in Boca (BCTS: Boca Raton Theological Seminary, serving neo Revisionist Progressive Reform Trans. synagogues), but they figured out that in addition to Tanakh, they were very good at training canines (Barbara's cousin's rommate's sister's boyfriend's therapist tuned the authors onto the seminary's successes). So..., nu, and how do they train them? And Why is a Jewish dog different from all other dogs? In the spirit of Jonathan Segal Chicken, they train dogs the Jewish way. These rabbis teach us that we should tell our dogs how it hurts us when they do the wrong thing, and how we should compare them to other dogs who behave properly in order to guilt them into the proper behavior. Jewish dogs do NOT need dog whisperers. No. With a Jewish dog, loudness and over the top unconditional (sort of conditional) love and doggie treats and scrambled eggs are allowed. Jewish dogs don't get scolded, they get guilted. Most dogs are trained to follow commands and be good dogs. Jewish dogs are trained to be perfect so as not to disappoint those who love them. They are trained to fear lunatics, and be paranoid of those who are not part of the family. Jewish dogs should possess an exaggerated sense of its own wonderfulness In addition to tables and so much training information, there are great pictures of dogs and their owners(?), masters(?), Jewish parents(?). There is a listing of pure breeds, mixed and cross breeds and their abilities to be Jewish dogs. Did you know that a German Shepherd-Springer Spaniel mix is a Jerry Springer? Or a St Bernard-Malamute mix is a literate Bernard Malamute? (and there so many more). The authors discuss the inner monologues of owners, conventionally trained dogs and the Jewish trained dog. You will learn so much from these sections and learn to empathize with dogs and others. You will learn that you must be trained just as much as your dog must be trained. You will learn the importance of unconditional love, but also conditional-unconditional love. Remember that a Jewish dog already knows what it is supposed to be trained. You should act accordingly: you should be tentative, with an implied "but" when you say "Good boy/Good girl." And you should say "so, sit" or "nu, sit" instead of just "sit." Remember, some dogs will try to assimilate and act like other dogs. They are like German Jews, not Russian Jews. It is a natural evolution There is so much more in this book. It will keep you entertained and enlightened for weeks, perhaps years. It includes chapters on diet and exercise, obedience, traveling (traveling by jet is a killer section), aging, and emotional health in addition to just physical health. Rabbi Monica and Rabbi Alan show you how, step by step, to use guilt, shame, passive aggression, sarcasm, and Conditional Unconditional Love to create an unbreakable bond with your dog. The five ways of commanding "Sit!" ("What, would it kill you to sit down for one lousy second?"), A useful list of Advanced Commands ("Don't stare at Cousin Edith's hair when she comes over."), How to use Situational Martyrdom when the dog disobeys ("Fine. Do what you want. I hope you have a nice life."), Sensitive, age-appropriate commands for the older dog ("Don't start.") are all included. Just like with Levy's Rye Bread, you don't have to be Jewish to benefit from their program. Click the book cover to read more. IS JUDAISM GOING TO THE DOGS? YIDDISH FOR DOGS CHUTZPAH, FEH!, KIBBITZ, AND MORE EVERY WORD YOUR CANINE NEEDS TO KNOW by Janet Perr September 2007. Hyperion Art Director and designer, Janet Perr, has collected Yiddish words that your dog should know. Is your dog a shmendrick? A putz? Or�oy vey�a goniff? There is only one way to find out, so nu, dive in to Yiddish for Dogs. This alphabetical handbook of Yiddish words features adorable and hilarious pictures of irresistible pooches. These dogs embody the meaning of well-known words such as kibbitz, tsuris, feh!, shlep, chutzpah, and many more. But that�s not all. Consider yourself warned. Once the Yiddish comes out, these dogs have much to say. These dogs kvell. They go through the dreck. They recognize a mensch. They appreciate a nosh. And, believe it or not, they know you�re mishuggeh. So the next time your canine friend does a flying leap into your lap, instead of exclaiming, �What a klutz!�, ask yourself�Does my dog want to kibbitz? Written and illustrated by award-winning art director and graphic designer Janet Perr, Yiddish for Dogs will have you howling with laughter. Click the book cover to read more. GOD'S HARVARD A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE ON A MISSION TO SAVE AMERICA BY HANNA ROSIN September 2007. Harcourt How do you balance humility and ambition? Imagine if there was a Brandeis or Yeshiva University which had the mission of training a cadre of committed Jews, politically conservative, and placing them, through contacts and affiliations, into great jobs in the federal government in order to influence American policy and culture and return it to the evangelical vision of God's grace. Well, such a school exists, except for Christians. It is Patrick Henry College, less than a decade old in its current form and based in Virginia, 45 miles from DC. Hanna Rosin, the spouse of another writer, David Plotz of Slate magazine, and an Israeli born Jewish woman, embedded herself at the school for our benefit and has created an empathetic portrait of the school and its committed and doubting students. The fact that she was Jewish and Israeli-born made her akin to catnip to the evangelical leaders at the school. (ironically, Patrick Henry was not a fan of religion in the political sphere). Luckily there is one rabble rouser at the school, a woman who likes to dance. You will not be surprised to know that one of the women profiled in the book... interned for Karl Rove. As you continue reading, you learn that all is not peaches and cream at Patrick Henry, and there are some cracks in the fa�ade. For example, the most popular teacher questioned the existence of God. From Publishers Weekly: Envisioned by its founder as a "Christian equivalent of the Ivy League," Patrick Henry College positions itself as a training ground for God's cultural soldiers to take on the secular mainstream; at the seven-year-old Virginia school for evangelicals, religion and political journalist Rosin reports, girls are warned by e-mail if their bra strap is showing, dating requires parental permission and students fast forward through sex scenes in movies. Though they might seem out of touch, students here are as ambitious as any Ivy Leaguers, interning in the White House and Hollywood, volunteering on political campaigns and doggedly pursuing studies like baraminology (creationist biology). Having spent a year and a half immersed in the campus culture, Rosin weaves a deft and honest narrative of evangelical education, combining historical background (the roots of evangelism, the story of founder Michael Farris), close observation and skeptical wit. Among other students and faculty, Rosin introduces Derek, the fresh-faced, idealistic political volunteer; and Farahn, who gave up dancing for the Lord. Making it clear that the American evangelical population is growing in political and cultural influence, Rosin provides an illuminating, accessible guide to the beliefs, aspirations and ongoing challenges of its next generation. Click the book cover to read more. Feminism Encounters Traditional Judaism Resistance and Accommodation by Tova Hartman September 2007. Brandeis University professor and social activist Tova Hartman, discouraged by failed attempts to make her modern Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem more inclusive of women, together with other worshippers, set about creating their own own, Shira Hadasha ("a new song"). Since it opened in 2002, this new synagogue's mission--to develop a religious community that embraces halakhah (Jewish law), tefillah (prayer), and feminism--has drawn thousands to services. The courageous act of creating the synagogue--against amazing odds--is testimony to Hartman's own deeply felt commitment to both feminism and modern Orthodox Judaism. The story of the creation and ongoing development of similar "partnership minyans" in Jerusalem and elsewhere anchors and ties together this book's five essays, each of which explores a vital contact point between contemporary feminist thought and aspects of Jewish tradition. Hartman discusses three feminist analyses of Freudian psychology for reading Jewish texts; modesty and the religious male gaze; the backlash against feminism by traditional rabbis; the male imagery in liturgy; and Orthodox women and purity rituals. Throughout, Hartman emphasizes the importance of reinterpretation, asking her readers to view as "creative tensions" what seem like obvious and insurmountable contradictions between traditional and modern beliefs. Such tensions can offer unexpected connections as well as painful compromises. The conclusion revisits the construction of the synagogue as well as discusses its impediments and actualizing these types of social and religious changes. Hartman's book will speak directly to scholars and students of gender, religion, and psychology, as well as anyone interested in the negotiation of feminism and tradition. Click the book cover to read more. The Healthy Jew The Symbiosis of Judaism and Modern Medicine by Mitchell B. Hart September 2007. Cambridge University Press The Healthy Jew traces the culturally revealing story of how Moses, the rabbis, and other Jewish thinkers came to be understood as medical authorities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such a radically different interpretation, by scholars and popular writers alike, resulted in new, widespread views on the salubrious effects of, for example, circumcision, Jewish sexual purity laws, and kosher foods. The Healthy Jew explores this interpretative tradition in the light of a number of broader debates over 'civilization' and 'culture,' Orientalism, religion and science (in the wake of Darwin), anti-Semitism and Jewish apologetics, and the scientific and medical discoveries and debates that revolutionized the fields of bacteriology, preventive medicine, and genetics/eugenics. The Healthy Jew ask that we rethink the place and value of Jews and Judaism in the Western medical, scientific and, ultimately, political imagination. Click the book cover to read more. The Beast That Crouches at the Door Adam & Eve, Cain & Abel, and Beyond by D. Fohrman September 2007. Devora Press Rabbi David Fohrman directs the Hoffberger Foundation for Torah Studies, and is an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins University, where he teaches Biblical Themes. In this book, he clarifies the meaning of early Genesis narratives. What are we to learn from the narratives in the Torah? A walking, talking snake. A tree that bears mysterious knowledge of Good and Evil. A mark upon Cain for all to see. The early narratives in the Book of Genesis are familiar to us from childhood, yet the meaning of these stories often seem maddeningly elusive. For example: By forbidding Adam and Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, did God really not want mankind to be able to distinguish right from wrong? This book examines the early stories in the Book of Genesis, calling attention to the big questions that bother us all, as well as to the hidden subtleties of text and language. As clues and questions are pieced together, deeper layers of meaning begin to emerge. In the end, the reader gains an experience in the richness and depth of Torah, and a profound confrontation with concepts that define the core of what it means to be a Jew. Click the book cover to read more. See also: http://www.hffts.1shoppal.com/page/page/2344987.htm Hours of Devotion Fanny Neuda's Book of Prayers for Jewish Women Edited by Dinah Berland September 2007. Schocken An adaptation of the prayers of a 19th Century Jewish woman who was the daughter of a Moravian rabbi. Written in the nineteenth century, rediscovered in the twenty-first, timeless in its wisdom and beauty, Hours of Devotion by Fanny Neuda, (the daughter of a Moravian rabbi), was the first full-length book of Jewish prayers written by a woman for women. In her moving introduction to this volume--the first edition of Neuda's prayer book to appear in English for more than a century--editor Dinah Berland describes her serendipitous discovery of Hours of Devotion in a Los Angeles used bookstore. She had been estranged from her son for eleven years, and the prayers she found in the book provided immediate comfort, giving her the feeling that someone understood both her pain and her hope. Eventually, these prayers would also lead her back to Jewish study and toward a deeper practice of her Judaism. Originally published in German, Fanny Neuda's popular prayer book was reprinted more than two dozen times in German and appeared in Yiddish and English editions between 1855 and 1918. Working with a translator, Berland has carefully brought the prayers into modern English and set them into verse to fully realize their poetry. Many of these eighty-eight prayers, as well as Neuda's own preface and afterword, appear here in English for the first time, opening a window to a Jewish woman's life in Central Europe during the Enlightenment. Reading "A Daughter's Prayer for Her Parents," "On the Approach of Childbirth," "For a Mother Whose Child Is Abroad," and the other prayers for both daily and momentous occasions, one cannot help but feel connected to the women who've come before. For Berland, Hours of Devotion served as a guide and a testament to the mystery and power of prayer. Fanny Neuda's remarkable spirit and faith in God, displayed throughout these heartfelt prayers, now offer the same hope of guidance to others. Click the book cover to read more. Well.. although we think the rep from the Yale Univ Press was rude... here is one of their books.. I mean, you don't expect us to exclude it out of spite .. or can we?: But seriously. Isn't it peculiar that no one, before this amazing book, questioned how two Jewish authors lived in Vichy France during WWII, and were never deported to Auschwitz. These two thinkers waffled for years on whether to stay or leave, until it was too late. Why did Toklas defend Fay, who was responsible for many murders, even after the war? Did you know that Toklas changed the occurrences of the word "may" in one of Stein's poems to "can," since she hated the word "may," because Stein fell in love with a woman named May. Their's was a quite turbulent sniping sadomasochistic relationship... Two Lives Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm September 2007. Yale From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. In this startling study of Stein and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, acclaimed journalist Malcolm (The Journalist and the Murderer) puts their relationship in a new light, demonstrating that lives and biographies are not always self-evident. Through careful readings of Stein's writing, Malcolm makes the case, quoting English professor Ulla Dydo, that Stein's lifting words from the lockstep of standard usage was indeed, the work of a (granted, self-described) genius. Malcolm gets into more controversial territory in exploring Stein and Toklas's stormy and complicated relationship-fraught with sadomasochistic emotional undercurrents-and their energetic sex life. But her real discovery is that Stein and Toklas-two elderly Jewish women-survived the German occupation of France because of their close friendship with the wealthy, anti-Semitic Frenchman Bernard Fa�, a collaborator responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Freemasons. Fa� continually intervened with the authorities on the pair's behalf. This friendship was so deep that after the war Toklas helped the imprisoned Fa� escape. Malcolm's prose is a joy to read, and her passion for Stein's writing and life is evident. This is a vital addition to Stein criticism as well as an important work that critiques the political responsibility of the artist (even a genius) to the larger world. Click the book cover to read more. Blood and Soil A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur by Ben Kiernan September 2007. Yale For thirty years Ben Kiernan has been deeply involved in the study of genocide and crimes against humanity. He has played a key role in unearthing confidential documentation of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge. His writings have transformed our understanding not only of twentieth-century Cambodia but also of the historical phenomenon of genocide. This new book-the first global history of genocide and extermination from ancient times-is among his most important achievements. Kiernan examines outbreaks of mass violence from the classical era to the present, focusing on worldwide colonial exterminations and twentieth-century case studies including the Armenian genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, Stalin's mass murders, and the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides. He identifies connections, patterns, and features that in nearly every case gave early warning of the catastrophe to come: racism or religious prejudice, territorial expansionism, and cults of antiquity and agrarianism. The ideologies that have motivated perpetrators of mass killings in the past persist in our new century, says Kiernan. He urges that we heed the rich historical evidence with its telltale signs for predicting and preventing future genocides. Click the book cover to read more. Righteous Indignation A Jewish Call for Justice Edited by Rabbi Or N. Rose, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, and Margie Klein Rabbi David Ellenson (Foreword) September 2007. Jewish Lights For the first time, and in time for the 2008 election season, the voices of leading progressive Jewish activists are gathered together in one groundbreaking volume as they seek meaningful intellectual and spiritual foundations upon which to base their social justice work. This important collection features broad discussions of the historical, political and theological dimensions of Jewish justice work. It also includes commentary on specific contemporary issues such as poverty, genocide, gay rights, stem cell research, and the environment. Informed by spirited activists, intellectuals, and religious leaders, this provocative book will: Articulate progressive Jewish positions on key contemporary issues that draw on tradition and modern thinking; Motivate Jewish communities to take action by demonstrating to readers the importance of activism and community organizing in Jewish life; Help reorient the contemporary discourse on religion and politics in America. Contributors include: Dr. Rebecca Alpert, Rabbi Saul Berman, Ellen Bernstein, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Michael Brown, Dr. Aryeh Cohen, Rabbi Fred Dobb, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff, Dr. Leonard Fein, Rabbi Steve Gutow, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Dr. Shaul Magid, Ruth Messinger, Jay Michaelson, Dr. Judith Plaskow, Rabbi David Saperstein, Rabbi Harold Schulweis, Rabbi Sidney Schwarz, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow. Click the book cover to read more. PLEASE NOTE TO OUR READERS IN THE NYC AREA. THE SKIRBALL in MANHATTAN will host a class beginning on October 29 (through May 19) which will feature several of the authors from this book each session. Go to www.AdultJewishLearning.ORG/openings for more information Speaking of righteous indignation... MERE ANARCHY BY WOODY ALLEN Summer 2007. Yale From Booklist: It's been 25 years since Woody Allen's last humor collection, and for lovers of the New Yorker "casual" (a blend of goofy personal essay and literary parody), that's far too long. Most of these pieces appeared originally in the New Yorker , but there are a handful of originals as well, all of which will please those determined souls who like their humor distinctly old school ("On a Bad Day You Can See Forever," a rant about the horrors of rehabbing a condo, begins with the narrator reading Dante and wondering why there is no circle in hell for contractors). The topsy-turvy literary allusions pour from Allen's pen like bullets from a Gatling gun (an appropriately obscure simile), exposing the intellectual pretensions of a ragtag assortment of Allenesque everymen--endearingly unkempt nebbishes who, despite knowing their Dostoevsky, can't quite deal with the absurdities of daily life. Take Flanders Mealworm, the unfairly unheralded author of The Hockfleisch Chronicles, who, desperate for cash, agrees to write a novelization of a Three Stooges movie: "Calmly and for no apparent reason, the dark-haired man took the nose of the bald man in his right hand and slowly twisted it in a long, counterclockwise circle." If Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe weren't exactly what Yeats had in mind when he used the phrase "mere anarchy" in "The Second Coming," they should have been. Click the book cover to read more. Peace, Justice, and Jews Reclaiming Our Tradition Edited by Murray Polner and Stefan Merken 2007. Bunim and Bannigan From Publishers Weekly: Unabashedly left-leaning, but by no means homogenous, this literate, thought-provoking collection examines from all angles, in some four dozen essays, the idea that editors Polner and Merken believe "reflects the most basic attitude in our Jewish heritage": Shalom, "much more than the absence of war... it encompasses wholeness, grace, and truth." Covering everything from scriptural imperative to Israel to Arab-Jewish relations to animal rights, this is an excellent addition for libraries and classrooms. Standouts include Kenny Freeman's Middle East dispatches, in which friendships with Arabs illustrate how "Jews and Arabs could live together... if their primary allegiance was to a unified Holy Land, rather than to their own nationalist needs." Claudia Freeman contributes a remarkable elegy, recalling trips to Germany on which she pieced together the story of 14 family members killed by the Nazis. Helen Fein's vital essay addresses the false "Articles of Faith" that form part of the Holocaust's legacy, such as the lingering myths that "our existence is always in peril," and that Jewish victims "went dumbly... to their deaths, 'like sheep to the slaughter.' " Calls to action include Richard Schwartz admonishing readers "not to wait for the right opportunity to come along... but to actively seek opportunities to practice justice." Though some essays feel slight-especially in the opening section, "What We Believe"-there is much to learn here for anyone, Jew or Gentile, interested in global issues of peace and justice. Click to read more. From one of America's top bible scholars: How to Read the Bible A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James L. Kugel September 2007, Free Press Scholars from different fields have joined forces to reexamine every aspect of the Hebrew Bible. Their research, carried out in universities and seminaries in Europe and America, has revolutionized our understanding of almost every chapter and verse. But have they killed the Bible in the process? In How to Read the Bible, Harvard professor James Kugel leads the reader chapter by chapter through the "quiet revolution" of recent biblical scholarship, showing time and again how radically the interpretations of today's researchers differ from what people have always thought. The story of Adam and Eve, it turns out, was not originally about the "Fall of Man," but about the move from a primitive, hunter-gatherer society to a settled, agricultural one. As for the stories of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Esau, these narratives were not, at their origin, about individual people at all but, rather, explanations of some feature of Israelite society as it existed centuries after these figures were said to have lived. Dinah was never raped -- her story was created by an editor to solve a certain problem in Genesis. In the earliest version of the Exodus story, Moses probably did not divide the Red Sea in half; instead, the Egyptians perished in a storm at sea. Whatever the original Ten Commandments might have been, scholars are quite sure they were different from the ones we have today. What's more, the people long supposed to have written various books of the Bible were not, in the current consensus, their real authors: David did not write the Psalms, Solomon did not write Proverbs or Ecclesiastes; indeed, there is scarcely a book in the Bible that is not the product of different, anonymous authors and editors working in different periods. Such findings pose a serious problem for adherents of traditional, Bible-based faiths. Hiding from the discoveries of modern scholars seems dishonest, but accepting them means undermining much of the Bible's reliability and authority as the word of God. What to do? In his search for a solution, Kugel leads the reader back to a group of ancient biblical interpreters who flourished at the end of the biblical period. Far from na�ve, these interpreters consciously set out to depart from the original meaning of the Bible's various stories, laws, and prophecies -- and they, Kugel argues, hold the key to solving the dilemma of reading the Bible today. How to Read the Bible is, quite simply, the best, most original book about the Bible in decades. It offers an unflinching, insider's look at the work of today's scholars, together with a sustained consideration of what the Bible was for most of its history -- before the rise of modern scholarship. Readable, clear, often funny but deeply serious in its purpose....It offers nothing less than a whole new way of thinking about the Bible. Click the book cover to read more. MAKE ROOM.. VOLUME FOUR IS NOW AVAILABLE: The Zohar Pritzker Edition, Volume Four Translated by Daniel Matt September 2007, Stanford Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed and overwhelmed readers ever since it emerged mysteriously in medieval Spain toward the end of the thirteenth century. Written in a unique, lyrical Aramaic, this masterpiece of Kabbalah exceeds the dimensions of a normal book; it is virtually a body of literature, comprising over twenty discrete sections. The bulk of the Zohar consists of a running commentary on the Torah, from Genesis through Deuteronomy. This fourth volume of The Zohar: Pritzker Edition covers the first half of Exodus. Here we find mystical explorations of Pharaoh's enslavement of the Israelites, the birth of Moses, the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the Revelation at Mount Sinai. Throughout, the Zohar probes the biblical text and seeks deeper meaning-for example, the nature of evil and its relation to the divine realm, the romance of Moses and Shekhinah, and the inner meaning of the Ten Commandments. In the context of the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea, Rabbi Shim'on reveals the mysterious Name of 72, a complex divine name consisting of 216 letters (72 triads), formed out of three verses in Exodus 14. These mystical interpretations are interwoven with tales of the Companions-rabbis wandering through the hills of Galilee, sharing their insights, coming upon wisdom in the most astonishing ways from a colorful cast of characters they meet on the road. Click the book cover to read more. Or click on Volumes 1, 2, and 3 below From Manhattan's premier toilet smasher: Craving the Divine A Spiritual Guide for Today's Perplexed by Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein September 2007, Paulist Press From Publishers Weekly: Covering a wide array of emotions and states of being-disorientation, panic, loneliness, yearning, anger, determination, surrender and emergence-Goldstein (Gonzo Judaism), founding rabbi of the New Shul in New York City, above all simply reminds readers that we are human. In his easygoing style, he uses an engaging mix of Bible tales, congregants' stories and personal anecdotes, as well as cultural references, to illustrate a sort of eight-step program for opening oneself spiritually. Some are extreme examples of life's pain-homelessness, suicide, terrorist bombings-and others all too common encounters with job loss, cancer and death. Each story is tempered with a corresponding example of hope, a reason to carry on. Goldstein comes across as neither smug nor cavalier, nor does he consider this a self-help book. Rather, he seeks to address not personal loss so much as the phenomenon of being lost, of becoming a wanderer, a soul unable to find its way. As a seasoned extreme traveler himself, he knows what it is to wander, and readers of all spiritual persuasions will appreciate his gentle prodding as a fellow traveler on the journey. Click the book cover to read more. From Manhattan's premier guy who had three-and-counting bris's: Shattered Tablets Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril by David Klinghoffer September 2007, Doubleday From Publishers Weekly: Contrary to Mel Brooks's humorous presentation of Moses and the 10 Commandments on film, Klinghoffer (The Lord Will Gather Me In; Why The Jews Rejected Jesus) does not think these biblical laws are a laughing matter. A writer and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, Klinghoffer warns that America is ignoring the commandments and sinking deeper into a quagmire of immorality. Using the Northwest's urban environs in which he lives as a case study, he warns that Seattle suffers from an advanced case of moral retardation that could easily spread to the rest of the country. The main culprit is secularism, says Klinghoffer, a modern and resurgent paganism. Although this seems somewhat overstated, in light of religion's ascendancy in much of America, the author's argument that the U.S. has slighted a communitarian ethic in favor of increased individualism is compelling. Klinghoffer writes with passion and is genuinely concerned with the moral state of the union. However, he often slips into acerbic commentary that distracts from his more salient points. For every example given regarding the moral ineptitude of some residents of Seattle, there could be 10 provided about those who are fighting the good fight and living by God's word. Click the book cover to read more. From Rabbi Paul Steinberg of Big "D", Dallas Texas (not to be confused with the late Rabbi Paul M. Steinberg of HUC) Celebrating the Jewish Year The Fall Holidays -- Rosh Hashanah - Yom Kippur - Sukkot by Rabbi Paul Steinberg. And edited By Janet Greenstein Potter September 2007, JPS. Jewish Publication Society From Publishers Weekly: Steinberg, a rabbi and educator, calls the Jewish holidays fundamental expressions of our spirituality. In Judaism's holistic approach, he says, spirituality encompasses the interaction of a person's intellectual, emotional and physical aspects, so the holidays tie us to history, the earth, the Jewish people and God. This first of three volumes explores Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Each section discusses a holiday's biblical origins, ideology and customs, followed by writings from Jewish thinkers throughout history, contemporary perspectives and alternative meditations. What makes this volume stand out from other holiday guides is an additional section with sacred texts presented in and inspired by Talmudic format. Steinberg examines each text at three different levels-literal, interpretive and personal. He doesn't shy away from questioning practices that may seem outmoded, but challenges readers not to abandon them abruptly. His careful, thorough and reasoned explanations will deepen understanding of each holiday's history and tradition, allowing celebrations to become, in fact, more celebratory. Click the book cover to read more. See the Table of Contents at http://www.jewishpub.org/pdf/celebratingtoc.pdf Read a sample chaper at http://www.jewishpub.org/pdf/heartandmind.pdf See also: Celebrating the Jewish Year Winter Holidays -- Hanukkah, Tu B'shevat, Purim (Paperback) by Rabbi Paul Steinberg. And edited By Janet Greenstein Potter Fall 2007, Jewish Publication Society The second volume of JPS's new holiday series. JPS's new holiday books take us through the joys, spirit, and meaning of the seasons. Blending the old and the new, they ground us in the origins and traditions of each holiday and open up to us ways we can add our own expression to these special days. Although synagogue ritual is touched upon, the real focus here is on our personal connections to each holiday and our home observance. As we move from season to season, Paul Steinberg shares with us a rich collection of readings from many of the Jewish greats -- Maimonides, Rashi, Nachmanides, Shlomo Carlebach, Marge Piercy, Elie Wiesel, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Arthur Green, and others -- and he guides us in discovering for ourselves the many treasures within each text. The readings teach us about the history of each holiday, as well as its theological, ethical, agricultural, and seasonal importance and interpretation; others give us inspiration and much food for thought. These stories, essays, poems, anecdotes, and rituals help us discover how deeply Jewish traditions are rooted in nature's yearly cycle, and how beautifully season and spirit are woven together throughout the Jewish year. Click the book cover to read more. Spiritual Radical Abraham Joshua Heschel in America, 1940-1972 by Edward K. Kaplan, Brandeis University September 2007. Yale Born in Warsaw, raised in a Hasidic community, and reaching maturity in secular Jewish Vilna and cosmopolitan Berlin, Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) escaped Nazism and immigrated to the United States in 1940. This lively and readable book tells the comprehensive story of his life and work in America, his politics and personality, and how he came to influence not only Jewish debate but also wider religious and cultural debates in the postwar decades. A worthy sequel to his widely praised biography of Heschel's early years, Edward Kaplan's new volume draws on previously unseen archives, FBI files, interviews with people who knew Heschel, and analyses of his extensive writings. Kaplan explores Heschel's shy and private side, his spiritual radicalism, and his vehement defense of the Hebrew prophets' ideal of absolute integrity and truth in ethical and political life. Of special interest are Heschel's interfaith activities, including a secret meeting with Pope Paul VI during Vatican II, his commitment to civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr., his views on the state of Israel, and his opposition to the Vietnam War. A tireless challenger to spiritual and religious complacency, Heschel stands as a dramatically important witness. Click the book cover to read more. See Also: From a soft-spoken former child actor: WHO STOLE THE FUNNY? A NOVEL BY ROBBY BENSON September 2007. Harper From Publishers Weekly: Drawing on his experience directing Friends, Benson offers in his debut a derivative parody of behind-the-scenes Los Angeles that fails to skewer any of its easy targets. Has-been sitcom director J.T. Baker, a passionate schmuck in a self-imposed exile from Hollywood, is picked to helm the hit show I Love My Urban Buddies (the biggest sitcom in eons) after his predecessor meets an unfortunate end via an unfaithful wife, a hot tub and a nail gun. Desperate for money and health insurance to cover his son's kidney dialysis treatment, J.T. accepts the assignment and flies to California. Upon his arrival, he clashes with Debbie, the voluptuous sexpot network liaison; Lance, the underqualified studio exec; and the married terrors Stephanie and Marcus Pooley, the show's creators. J.T.'s only ally on the lot is his friend Asher Black, who helps J.T. survive Marcus's lecherous casting sessions, puerile assistant directors, an on-set pederast and a cast of babied egoists. ..... Click the book cover to read more. ABRAHAM'S SEARCH FOR GOD BY JACQUELINE JULES September 2007, KAR-BEN Ages 4 - 8 Jules imagines Abraham, in this picture book, as a child who questions the idea that one should worship idols and have multiple gods. He questions the status quo, who made rainbows and clouds amd nature, and figures out that there must be one great power.. Click the book cover to read more. My First Ramadan by Karen Katz September 2007, Holt Ages 2 - 5 Move over My First Chinese new Year and My First Kwanzaa and My First Rosh Hashana.. here is My First Ramadan. A young boy tells the story of his family, Islam, and the Ramadan period. Click the book cover to read more. A Dream of Zion American Jews Reflect on Why Israel Matters to Them Edited by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin Fall 2007. Jewish Lights Contributors include: Samuel Bak Barbara Balser Eli N. Evans Sylvia Barack Fishman, PhD Abraham H. Foxman Jane Friedman Stanley P. Gold Dr. Arthur Green David A. Harris Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar David Klinghoffer Shulamit Reinharz, PhD Thane Rosenbaum Jonathan D. Sarna, PhD Alfred Uhry Michael Walzer, PhD, and Rabbi David Wolpe. Discover what Jewish people in America have to say about Israel-their voices have never mattered more than they do now. As anti-Israel sentiment spreads around the world-from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to former President Jimmy Carter-it has never been more important for American Jews to share their feelings and thoughts about Israel, and foster a connection to Israel in the next generation of Jewish and Christian adults. This inspirational book features the insights of top scholars, business leaders, professionals, politicians, authors, media personalities, scientists, artists, and community and religious leaders covering the entire denominational spectrum of Jewish life in America today. Presenting a diversity of views, it will encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to think about what Israel means to them and, in particular, help young adults jump start their own lasting, personal relationship with Israel. Powerful statements by contributors address: The role Israel has played in their lives; What keeps them connected to Israel, How Israel fits in their sense of what it means to be Jewish and American. Click the book cover to read more. THE LOST YEARS Bush, Sharon, and Failure in the Middle East by Mark Matthews September 2007. Nation Books From Publishers Weekly: Matthews, who covered the Middle East for the Baltimore Sun, documents the changes that the rise of George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon brought to the American-Israeli relationship in this ambitious journalistic effort. As earlier prospects for negotiations with Palestinians receded into the background, the two leaders pursued ambitious, sometimes conflicting and ultimately ill-fated plans to advance their interests unilaterally, a development which, in Matthews's analysis, reduced the chances for peace. Quoting extensively from politicians, military personnel and others in the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian territories and international organizations, Matthews offers a balanced, if opinionated, view of the conflict and of the major personalities that have shaped it. While the author paints relatively sympathetic portraits of Bush and Sharon, he is far less sanguine about the causes they have chosen to endorse, deploring missed opportunities to implement a two-state solution. He particularly faults Bush's grandiose visions of regime change and democracy promotion for weakening America's hand. Though numerous details and anecdotes provide more padding than relevance, Matthews's account remains readable and offers much of interest to the student of Israeli or American politics. Click the book cover to read more. THE FAMILY DIAMOND BY EDWARD SCHWARZSCHILD September 2007. Algonquin The mostly middle class, Jewish Philadelphians of Schwarzschild's adept story collection (following the debut novel Responsible Men) lead clannish, semi-marginalized existences. The young boy of "No Rest for the Middleman" finds himself, on the holiest day of the Jewish year, a pawn in a questionable deal between his father and two shady businessmen. In "Reunion," the pregnant Kim exhausts her brother, sister-in-law and dying mother with her irresponsible search for perfect love. The longest and most dramatically satisfying story in the collection, "What to Expect," tells of early widower Claude, who must let go of his adult son, Larry, as the latter marries and expects a child of his own. Several other stories feature Charlie and Milly Diamond, an elderly married couple facing the indignities of old age together. All the stories are told in a naturalistic style, except for the last, "Irreversible," in which Charlie and Milly regain their youth to the puzzlement of the other residents at the Spring Garden Retirement Community. The bonds of love are alternately tenuous and tensile in Schwarzschild's acutely observed and quietly affecting stories. Click the book cover to read more. RASHI'S DAUGHTER BOOK II: MIRIAM A NOVEL OF LOVE AND THE TALMUD IN MEDIEVAL FRANCE BY MAGGIE ANTON September 2007. PLUME Book 1 focused on Yocheved. In this second novel of the trilogy, we meet the second daughter. In is Troyes France in 1078. Shlomo ben Yitzhak (RaSHI) teaches his middle daughter the Talmud and she pushes the boundaries. She is mourning for her fiance. She wants to be a mohel as well as a midwife. When a new suitor arrives in Troyes, she must decide on her career path and family. See www.RashisDaughters.com . Click the book cover to read more. The Book of Psalms A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter September 10, 2007. WW NORTON Alter brings eloquence to the English versions of the psalms. Like the Five Books of Moses a cornerstone of the scriptural canon, the Book of Psalms has been a source of solace and joy for countless readers over millennia. The cleansing purity of its images invites reflection and supplication in times of sorrow. The musicality of its powerful rhythms moves readers to celebration of good tidings. So today as it has been throughout our past, this is a book to be cherished as the grounding for our daily lives. This timeless poetry is beautifully wrought by a scholar whose translation of the Five Books of Moses was hailed as a "godsend" by Seamus Heaney and a "masterpiece" by Robert Fagles. Robert Alter's The Book of Psalms captures the simplicity, the physicality, and the coiled rhythmic power of the Hebrew, restoring the remarkable eloquence of these ancient poems. His learned and insightful commentary shines a light on the obscurities of the text. Click the book cover to read more. Alter writes, "What I have aimed at in this translation - inevitably, with imperfect success - is to represent Psalms in a kind of English verse that is readable as poetry yet sounds something like the Hebrew - emulating its rhythms wherever feasible, reproducing many of the effects of its expressive poetic syntax, seeking equivalents for the combination of homespun directness and archaizing in the original, hewing to the lexical concreteness of the Hebrew, and making more palpable the force of parallelism that is at the heart of biblical poetry." Now ... with regard to psalms you may know by heart...: Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd...", in this translation is: The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. In grass meadows He makes me lie down, By quiet waters guide me. My life He brings back. He leads me on pathways of justice For His name's sake. Though I walk in the value of death's shadow, I fear no harm. For you are with me.... Alter's commentary states: Although the likening of God or a ruler to a shepherd is a commonplace in this pastoral culture, this psalm is justly famous for the affecting simplicity and concreteness with which is realizes the metaphor. Thus, in the next line the shepherd leads his sheep to meadows where there is abundant grass and riverbanks and where quiet waters run that the sheep can drink... [he makes me lie down] The verb used here, HIRBITS, is a specialized one for making animals lie down...... [My life he brings back] Though "he restoreth my soul" is time-honored, the Hebrew NEFESH down not mean "soul" by "life breath" or "life." The image is of someone who has almost stopped breathing and is revived, brought back to life... ... [in the vale of death's shadow] The intent of the translation is not to avoid the proverbial "in the show of the valley of death" but rather to cut through the proliferation of syllables in the King James Version, however eloquent, and better approximate the compactness of the Hebrew - BEGEY TSALMAWET. Though philologists assume that the Masoretic TSALMAWET is actually a misleading vocalization of TSALMUT - probably a poetic word for "darkness" with the UT ending simply a suffix of abstraction- the traditional vocalization reflects something like an orthographic pun or a folk etymology (TSEL means "shadow" MAWET means "DEATH"), so there is justification in retaining the death component... ... ... [You moisten my head with oil] The verb here, DISHEN, is not the one that is used for anointment, and its associations are sensual rather than sacramental... Or, take Psalm 137: you may recall it as, "By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion." In the Alter translation, we get: By Babylon's streams / there we sat, oh we wept, / when we recalled Zion. /On the poplars there / we hung up our lyres. / For there our captors has asked of us / words of song, / and our plunderers - rejoicing / "Sing us from Zion's songs." But it is in the commentary that the esteemed Alter shines, when he write, "This psalm was almost certainly composed shortly after the deportation of the Judeans by the Balylonians in 586 BCE - the experience of exile is fresh and acutely painful...... The first Hebrew noun, NEHAROT, generally means "rivers," but because the more probable reference is to the network of canals that connected the Tigris and the Euphrates, "streams" is a preferable translation here. It should be noted that in keeping with the evolution of Hebrew poetry in the later biblical period, semantic parallelism within the lines in this poem is weak, an absence occasionally compensated for by interlinear parallelism." Alter goes on to explain how the Hebrew use of the word SHAM (there), twice, in the next line is used poetically to express the alienation of the collective speakers from the place they find themselves, and how "hung up our lyres" can refer to the hiding of their lyres in the foliage, or a gesture of renunciation of their use. I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski Life, The Big Lebowski, and What Have You by Bill Green, Ben Peskoe, Scott Shuffitt, and Will Russell September 2007. Bloomsbury To some The Big Lebowski is just a movie, to others it's THE MOVIE. Over the past several years the movie has developed a massive and passionate cult following, led by the creation of Lebowski Fest, a traveling festival celebrating all things Lebowski. Held in a bowling alley, it features bowling, costume and trivia contests, live music, a screening of the movie, White Russians, and what-have-you. Attendance has grown exponentially and the Fest has been featured in virtually every national media outlet, from NPR to the New York Times. The Associated Press called it "kind of a 'Star Trek' convention, but without all the geeks." SPIN Magazine called it one of the "19 events you can't miss!" Now, at last, comes the book that the legion of Lebowski fans (aka Achievers) has been waiting for. I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski is a treasure trove of trivia and commentary, hilarious throughout and illustrated with photos from the film, including dozens taken on the set by Jeff Bridges. It includes interviews with virtually every major and minor cast member including John Goodman, Julianne Moore and John Turturro, as well as the real-life individuals who served as inspiration for the characters such as Jeff Dowd and John Milius. Fellow Achievers Patton Oswalt, Tony Hawk and Powerpuff Girls creator Craig McCracken give their thoughts on the movie and the phenomenon that surrounds it. The book features a handy guide to speaking Achiever, tips on how to Dude-ify your car, office, and living space, Lebowski Fest highlights and so much more. Click the book cover to read more. Letters from Nuremberg My Father's Narrative of a Quest for Justice by Senator Christopher Dodd with Lary Bloom September 11, 2007. Crown I met Senator Dodd (the younger one) when he spoke as a U.S. Presidential candidate before the NJDC, National Jewish Democratic Council's policy conference in April 2007. He spoke of his father (the Senator Dodd Senior) and Nuremberg. His father, a young attorney and soldier saved Judge Jackson with his cross examination of Hermann Goring. In 1990, the Dodd family found Atty. Dodd's letters from Nuremberg back home to his wife. This is his story. "At times anguished and stimulating, always informative and insightful, Thomas Dodd's personal letters from the Nuremburg trial to his wife as presented by his son, Senator Christopher Dodd, constitute an important contribution to History. All those interested in the events resulting from the darkest zones of humanity will find this volume of great value." -Elie Wiesel You should note that in the book, one of Dodd's letter refer to the Jews. He reminds his wife how he has battled against racism and anti Semitism, but he wants Jews to avoid these trials. In context, what he meant was that many people still blamed the war on the Jews, and if Jews became too involved in Nuremberg, these forces would gain strength and continue to blame the Jews for forcing us into WW2. Click the book cover to read more. The Party of the First Part The Curious World of Legalese by Adam Freedman September 2007. Holt From Publishers Weekly: Freedman, who translates legal jargon into English for an investment bank and writes the Legal Lingo column for the New York Law Journal, offers a cornucopia of hilarious, offbeat and downright bizarre examples of simple concepts contorted into words that defy understanding, often retaining centuries-old lingo like Further affiant sayeth naught (which means: this is the end of the affidavit). Freedman is as much reformer as humorist, and he ably demonstrates that legal documents can be written in understandable prose. He also skewers the contingent of lawyers and academics who resist such changes in the name of precision and lampoons flaws in the legal system, such as judges' refusal to explain instructions to jurors who are mystified by phrases such as Circumstantial evidence is evidence that, if found to be true, proves a fact from which an inference of the existence of another fact may be drawn. Occasionally the three-jokes-a-page approach is more cute than clever, but this lighthearted farrago of the follies of the law is sure to amuse and to convince readers that legal language can be made plain. Click the book cover to read more. Aaronsohn's Maps The Untold Story of the Man Who Might Have Created Peace in the Middle East by Patricia Goldstone September 10, 2007. Harcourt From Publishers Weekly: Journalist Goldstone (Making the World Safe for Tourism) puts scarce Mideastern water resources front and center in this flawed biography of Aaron Aaronsohn (1876-1919), a founder of NILI, a group that spied for the British in Palestine during WWI, and a pioneering agronomist and hydrologist. Goldstone is best at depicting British diplomacy and intra-Jewish politics leading up to the 1917 Balfour Declaration supporting a Jewish homeland in Palestine-a British declaration influenced, she shows, by a 1916 memo from Aaronsohn on Palestine's potential to absorb million of Jews. Goldstone makes errors (such as stating that Israel lost the Sinai Peninsula in the 1973 Yom Kippur War) and offers the tendentious, unsourced claim that in 2003, right-wing Jewish lobbyists hoped that a defeated Iraq would be used as a haven for persecuted Palestinians run out of Israel. Above all, she never makes a case for her thesis that Aaronsohn's plan for regional sharing of water resources could have prevented the longstanding Arab-Israeli conflict. Click the book cover to read more. THE BUSINESS OF SPIRITS HOW SAVVY MARKETERS, INNOVATIVE DISTILLERS, & ENTREPRENEURS CHNAGED HOW WE DRINK BY NOAH ROTHBAUM September 2007. Kaplan Walk into a liquor store today and you'll be faced with an unprecedented variety of vodka, gin, whisky, cognac, rum and even tequila. In the past decade, the amount of spirits sold in bars, stores and restaurants has climbed nearly sixty percent. Celebrating the acumen of the businessmen and craftsmen responsible for this phenomenal sales growth, The Business of Spirits: How Savvy Marketers, Innovative Distillers, and Entrepreneurs Changed How We Drink, is a cocktail of history and insight into a rapidly growing industry. Journalist Noah Rothbaum takes readers from the cellars of Cognac, France, to the Scottish Highlands to the agave fields of Mexico to find out what's now driving this age old industry. The book explores new production techniques, cutting-edge marketing campaigns and introduces a new crop of crafty entrepreneurs. Click the book cover to read more. The Portable Jewish Mother Guilt, Food, And... When Are You Giving Me Grandchildren by Laurie Rozakis 2007. Adams Media Lately, have you not felt enough guilt? Forgotten to worry if you're getting too thin? Or heard too few complaints about your being single? Well then, here you go! All the kvetch-ing and moaning only a Jewish mother could provide. Laurie Rozakis brings you the good, the bad, and the guilt with The Portable Jewish Mother. Serving up a healthy, heaping portion of Mom's love and wisdom, all without the gefilte fish aftertaste. Complete with quizzes and recipes, myths and misconceptions, this book answers any and all questions you could ever have about Jewish mothers. Even if your mom is a shiksa, she'll love The Portable Jewish Mother. Because all mothers have a little Jewish mother in them! Click the book cover to read more. Yiddishe Mamas The Truth About the Jewish Mother by Marnie Winston-Macauley 2007. Andrews McMeel Marnie, a writer for AS THE WORLD TURNS, writes: "We've all heard them. The Jewish mother stereotypes, borne of ridicule, heightened by Borscht belt comics, portrayed in media. And so, we have become the "cartoon." The prototype of the overzealous, over-involved, over-worried, over-protective, over-nurturing, over-bearing presence that has invaded popular culture. In every stereotype, there is an element of truth. I recall my late mother ripping the heads off photos of boys who dumped me. My grandmother's entire reason for living after the death of my grandfather, was "to move in" - with us. From her mission came stories and anecdotes only a Carl Reiner could write. Yes, my grandmother sounded selfish. But then we look beyond at Gram. A woman who bribed border guards to get to America before the Nazis took over, leaving her birth family behind - forever. This is why I needed to look before the period, at the backgrounds, religion, and principles of these women. The joke had a predecessor. And without examination, the meaning - and truth - is lost. Many Jewish Mother stereotypes are about intrusion, child-first suffocation, lack of boundaries. Yet these "traits" are also the very qualities: protection, education, nourishment and survival, during pogroms, throughout the Holocaust and other incalculable calamities, that have kept us alive and intact these 5,000 years. In this work, I hope you will see the special soul of Jewish motherhood through the sacrifices, the extraordinary belief in the future through our children that Jewish women over the centuries have possessed. You will also read fascinating facts, anecdotes and yes, humor that was vital and kept us going while we were running - always running. Jewish women, simply - are funny." Click the book cover to read more. The Volunteer The Incredible True Story of an Israeli Spy on the Trail of International Terrorists by Michael Ross and Jonathan Kay September 2007. Skyhorse From Publishers Weekly: It's not surprising for an ex-spy to have an uncomplicated, us-them worldview. Accordingly, Ross, former member of the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, allows for little nuance in this memoir, which maintains a nearly colonialist view of the Muslim world, positing Israel as a microcosm of the civilized world's struggle against a murderous ideology and drawing unsupported parallels between Palestinian nationalist Islamism and al-Qaeda's world-spanning nihilism. Canadian-born Ross is clearly proud of his service to his adopted homeland and accepts Israel's view of its place in the Middle East. He discusses Arab torture without mention of its Israeli (or Western) counterpart and claims Israel has given the Palestinians a state, though Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands remains intact. When describing his operations, Ross's tone is engaging, and details of spycraft remind readers that real spies don't live in movies-everyone, for instance, talks when tortured. Readers looking for such tales will be better served than those looking for a cogent analysis of the region. Click the book cover to read more. The Age of Turbulence Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan September 2007. Penguin In the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, in his fourteenth year as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Alan Greenspan took part in a very quiet collective effort to ensure that America didn't experience an economic meltdown, taking the rest of the world with it. There was good reason to fear the worst: the stock market crash of October 1987, his first major crisis as Federal Reserve Chairman, coming just weeks after he assumed control, had come much closer than is even today generally known to freezing the financial system and triggering a genuine financial panic. But the most remarkable thing that happened to the economy after 9/11 was...nothing. What in an earlier day would have meant a crippling shock to the system was absorbed astonishingly quickly. After 9/11 Alan Greenspan knew, if he needed any further reinforcement, that we're living in a new world - the world of a global capitalist economy that is vastly more flexible, resilient, open, self-directing, and fast-changing than it was even 20 years ago. It's a world that presents us with enormous new possibilities but also enormous new challenges. The Age of Turbulence is Alan Greenspan's incomparable reckoning with the nature of this new world - how we got here, what we're living through, and what lies over the horizon, for good and for ill-channeled through his own experiences working in the command room of the global economy for longer and with greater effect than any other single living figure. He begins his account on that September 11th morning, but then leaps back to his childhood, and follows the arc of his remarkable life's journey through to his more than 18-year tenure as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, from 1987 to 2006, during a time of transforming change. Alan Greenspan shares the story of his life first simply with an eye toward doing justice to the extraordinary amount of history he has experienced and shaped. But his other goal is to draw readers along the same learning curve he followed, so they accrue a grasp of his own understanding of the underlying dynamics that drive world events. In the second half of the book, having brought us to the present and armed us with the conceptual tools to follow him forward, Dr. Greenspan embarks on a magnificent tour de horizon of the global economy. He reveals the universals of economic growth, delves into the specific facts on the ground in each of the major countries and regions of the world, and explains what the trend-lines of globalization are from here. The distillation of a life's worth of wisdom and insight into an elegant expression of a coherent worldview, The Age of Turbulence will stand as Alan Greenspan's personal and intellectual legacy. Click the book cover to read more. WOMEN REMAKING AMERICAN JUDAISM EDITED BY RIV-ELLEN PRELL, University of Minnesota, Professor of American Studies Late September 2007. Wayne State University Press With its contemporary and denominational emphases, Women Remaking American Judaism fills a gap in scholarship and is a good complement to existing volumes on Jewish feminism. The rise of Jewish feminism, a branch of both second-wave feminism and the American counterculture, in the late 1960s had an extraordinary impact on the leadership, practice, and beliefs of American Jews. Women Remaking American Judaism is the first book to fully examine the changes in American Judaism as women fought to practice their religion fully and to ensure that its rituals, texts, and liturgies reflected their lives. In addition to identifying the changes that took place, this volume aims to understand the process of change in ritual, theology, and clergy across the denominations. The essays in Women Remaking American Judaism offer a paradoxical understanding of Jewish feminism as both radical, in the transformational sense, and accomodationist, in the sense that it was thoroughly compatible with liberal Judaism. Essays in the first section, Reenvisioning Judaism, investigate the feminist challenges to traditional understanding of Jewish law, texts, and theology. In Redefining Judaism, the second section, contributors recognize that the changes in American Judaism were ultimately put into place by each denomination, their law committees, seminaries, rabbinic courts, rabbis, and synagogues, and examine the distinct evolution of women's issues in the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements. Finally, in the third section, Re-Framing Judaism, essays address feminist innovations that, in some cases, took place outside of the synagogue. An introduction by Riv-Ellen Prell situates the essays in both American and modern Jewish history and offers an analysis of why Jewish feminism was revolutionary. Women Remaking American Judaism raises provocative questions about the changes to Judaism following the feminist movement, at every turn asking what change means in Judaism and other American religions and how the fight for equality between men and women parallels and differs from other changes in Judaism. Women Remaking American Judaism will be of interest to both scholars of Jewish history and women's studies. Contributors: Andrew Bush, Karla Goldman, Lisa D. Grant, Norma Baumel Joseph, Adriane B. Leveen, Rochelle L. Millen, Deborah Dash Moore, Jody Myers, Pamela S. Nadell, Vanessa L. Ochs, Riv-Ellen Prell, Shuly Rubin Schwartz, and Chava Weissler. Click the book cover to read more. SAND DEVIL By Michael B. Oren September 2007. Toby Press The heat of the Negev Desert is captured in this collection of three novellas. An escaped murderer holds a young woman hostage in House of Bondage. In The Maestro of Yerucham, a Russian violinist who has survived the Nazis and the Soviet regimes finds a young girl he believes to be the heir to his talents. And in Sand Devil, the adolescent son of a fundamentalist family discovers the terrifying secrets of the desert. Click the book cover to read more. Papa Jethro by Deborah Bodin Cohen and Jane Dippold Kar Ben Books September 2007 Ages 4 - 8 Why can't you be Jewish like me? Why can't I be Christian like you? a young Jewish girl asks her non-Jewish grandfather. In answer, her grandfather tells her the biblical story of Jethro, Moses' non-Jewish father-in-law, whose relationship with his grandson Gershom is a model of love and respect. With warm watercolor artwork and a gentle storyline, Papa Jethro sensitively looks at the issue of interfaith families and reminds us that the Bible has timely lessons for every generation Concealment and Revelation Esotericism in Jewish Thought and its Philosophical Implications by Moshe Halbertal with Jackie Feldman as the Translator September 2007 Princeton University Press During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, great new trends of Jewish thought emerged whose widely varied representatives--Kabbalists, philosophers, and astrologers--each claimed that their particular understanding revealed the actual secret of the Torah. They presented their own readings in a coded fashion that has come to be regarded by many as the very essence of esotericism. Concealment and Revelation takes us on a fascinating journey to the depths of the esoteric imagination. Carefully tracing the rise of esotericism and its function in medieval Jewish thought, Moshe Halbertal's richly detailed historical and cultural analysis gradually builds conceptual-philosophical force to culminate in a masterful phenomenological taxonomy of esotericism and its paradoxes. Among the questions addressed: What are the internal justifications that esoteric traditions provide for their own existence, especially in the Jewish world, in which the spread of knowledge was of great importance? How do esoteric teachings coexist with the revealed tradition, and what is the relationship between the various esoteric teachings that compete with that revealed tradition? Rabbi Halbertal concludes that, through the medium of the concealed, Jewish thinkers integrated into the heart of the Jewish tradition diverse cultural influences such as Aristotelianism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticisims. And the creation of an added concealed layer, unregulated and open-ended, became the source of the most daring and radical interpretations of the tradition. Click the cover to read more. L'Oreal Took My Home The Secrets of a Theft by Monica Waitzfelder, with a Preface by Serge Klarsfeld September 2007, Arcadia Books Behind one of the world's largest beauty and cosmetics companies lay some ugly secrets, which Monica Waitzfelder attempts to uncover in this compelling personal account. During World War II, as Jewish homes were being seized one after another, the Rosenfelder family was forced to flee the nation, leaving behind their jobs, their possessions, and their family home. After the fighting ended, the family discovered that they were unable to return to what had rightfully been their property; cosmetics giant L'Oreal had taken over the building and made it their head office. Refusing to recognize the building's original owners, the corporation was brought to court by the Rosenfelder's young daughter, Monica, an ordeal that she chronicles in this honest, personal tale of one family's ongoing struggle to regain what it lost during the war. . Click the cover to read more. Torah Through Time Understanding Bible Commentary, from Rabbinic Times to Modern Day by Shai Cherry September 2007, JPS Jewish Publication Society Every commentator, from the classical rabbi to the modern-day scholar, has brought his or her own worldview, with all of its assumptions, to bear on the reading of holy text. This relationship between the text itself and the reader's interpretation is the subject of Torah Through Time. Shai Cherry traces the development of Jewish Bible commentary through three pivotal periods in Jewish history: the rabbinic, medieval, and modern periods. The result is a fascinating and accessible guide to how some of the world's leading Jewish commentators read the Bible. Torah Through Time focuses on specific narrative sections of the Torah: the creation of humanity, the rivalry between Cain and Abel, Korah's rebellion, the claim of the daughters of Zelophephad, and legal matters concerning Hebrew slavery. Cherry closely examines several different commentaries for each of these source texts, and in so doing he analyzes how each commentator resolves questions raised by the texts and asks if and how the commentator's own historical frame of reference -- his own time and place -- contributes to the resolution. A chart at the end of each chapter provides a visual summary that helps the reader understand the many different elements at play. Shai Cherry received a B.A. in philosophy, politics, and economics from Claremont McKenna College, and a Ph.D. in Jewish thought from Brandeis University. He is currently completing his studies for rabbinic ordination in Los Angeles Click the cover to read more. MICROTRENDS The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes by Mark Penn with E. Kinney Zalesne September 2007, Twelve I enjoy demographic and trend books, like "Lattitudes and Attitudes," and was slightly enchanted by Claritas urban/rural clusters, like "Shotguns and Pickups." But this book is far better at discovering behavioral groups and driving home, with humor and data, the trends as well as the policy or business options to complement the highlighted behaviors. Three decades ago, Penn sat in a Harvard library and read a book by Valdimer Orlando Key, Jr., in which he wrote that `voters are not fools.' Key was known for promoting realism and rationality in the analysis of politics and election returns. Voters and consumers should be seen as being rational. As Penn writes, it is not about a male candidate's necktie color, but real issues. If one takes the time to understand the trends, one can find the roots of behaviors and desires, and potentially the future consuming and voting patterns. To that end, Penn, a pollster for over 30 years (actually he first administered a poll on his teachers at the age of 13), Clinton's lead pollster/strategist, and the person credited with defining "soccer moms" (busy suburban mothers with families and careers and political policy goals who were swing voters in the last decade) has explored and highlighted 75 out of hundreds of microtrends - these small, under the radar forces that involve as little as 1% of America's population and registered prime voters - which may affect America's future. In the book, Penn is quick to point out that a microtrend is not merely a development, like the increased use of debit cards or wives changing their surnames upon marriage, but a growing interest group with needs and desires which are unmet by the corporate or political environment. The authors have made it easy to digest, have used a lot of humor to reinforce the points, and have closed each microtrend discussion with specific business or policy products or ideas that can meet the needs of the group. For some microtrends, they include a section on international comparisons to the American trend. Some of the most interesting microtrends are: The growth of households comprised of single women (In 198