Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist by Pierre Birnbaum book cover

Book Review // Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist

In November 1938, as Hitler was preaching his gospel of hate, French Prime Minister Léon Blum delivered a speech to the International League Against Anti-Semitism about “the tragic Jewish question.” Urging European nations to open their doors to the growing number of Jewish refugees who had been condemned “to a bitter and unfortunate fate,” he left no doubt about his identity…

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The Pawnbroker's Daughter: A Memoir by Maxine Kumin book cover

Book Review // The Pawnbroker’s Daughter: A Memoir

The recently published posthumous publication, The Pawnbroker’s Daughter: A Memoir, draws attention to the powers of endurance of the American Jewish poet Maxine Kumin (1925-2014). The Yiddish word for strength, koyach, might have been the middle name of Kumin, a skilled swimmer and horsewoman who battled back after a near-fatal carriage-driving accident at age 73

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