The first time I found myself in synagogue for the chanting of the Book of Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes—typically read by Ashkenazi Jews during the Shabbat of Sukkot, the fall harvest festival—my first astonished thought was that I’d wandered into the wrong room, or at least picked up the wrong book.
The rise of Volodymyr Zelensky from comic improv-artist-turned-movie-star, to wealthy producer, to wartime leader of a besieged Ukraine is improbable enough to invite hyperbole.
Both writers weave intricate yet leisurely plots and present an array of colorful, characters. Above all, they portray a fundamental decency and a hopeful vision.
Barbra Streisand remains the single most powerful and enduring female Jewish cultural figure of my lifetime, writes Glenn Frankel.
What becomes of the national leader deemed guilty, but whose popularity is such that punishing him would risk political upheaval or a “lost cause” movement ? Two books, focused on a historic trial, seek to answer the question.
Why do so few of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s historical roots and possible solutions, once actively discussed by both Jews and Arabs, make it into the conversation today?
2023 was one of those years when we really, really needed our books.
Henry Kissinger, now 99 years old, has added to his prodigious scholarship a valuable and enjoyable book on the qualities of great leadership.
Through all the multiple David Mamets, one personality remains constant: a bold, aggressive, exceedingly confident, superbly well-read, arguably narcissistic provocateur.
Jewish Baby Boomers like me grew up hearing about Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. because they were two intellectually precocious, rich Chicago teenagers who were also Jewish.
In 1974, Martin Peretz and his wife Anne bought The New Republic with her money.
