Posts Tagged‘Resources for Jewish reading’

Home » Resources for Jewish reading » Page 74

From My Bookshelf: A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I’ve mentioned before how grateful I am to be taking a noncredit course on “Zionist Thought & Statesmanship” this spring. Among other benefits, the seminar has provided me with an excellent reading list. Most recently, I finished reading A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh. (It is worth noting that May 14 will mark the 65th anniversary of the United States, under President Truman’s leadership, becoming the first nation to recognize the State of Israel.)

TrumanPublished in 2009, the book won the Washington Institute’s Book Prize (for nonfiction books on the Middle East). It received widespread attention; rather than give you a summary/review myself, I’ll point you to some existing analyses.

  • “Zionist in the White House,” by Jonathan Tepperman (New York Times Book Review)
  • Review by Walter Russell Mead (Foreign Affairs)
  • “Success Has Many Parents,” by Daniel E. Levenson (New Vilna Review)

    • But wait–there’s more. Bonus material that I’ve located online includes an excerpt and a video (which I hope to have the opportunity to watch in the near future myself) that features the authors discussing their book at the YIVO Institute.

    Have any of you already read the book? What are your thoughts?

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • From the The Jewish Week: “Elie Wiesel’s ‘Open House'”.
  • The Canadian Jewish News catches up with JewishFiction.Net and its editor, Nora Gold, who has a new novel coming next year (I can’t wait to read it!).
  • Even if I hadn’t had the privilege of meeting YIVO Executive Director Jonathan Brent this week, his important reflections on “the last books” for Jewish Ideas Daily would have made this list.
  • A few words about “Germany After 1945: A Society Confronts Anti-Semitism, Racism and Neo-Nazism,” a traveling exhibition that is making its U.S. debut in NYC.
  • And my review of “Holocaust Literature: A History and Guide,” by David Roskies and Naomi Diamant, in The Forward.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • Can you describe your Jewish mom in six words? The Forward would like you to try.
  • “This is a complicated story, but here goes.” So begins Joan Acocella’s (The New Yorker) tale of book-reviewing, Primo Levi, and Israel.
  • This month’s Jewish Book Carnival is hosted by the Jewish Book Council, and there are some real goodies included.
  • A fascinating glimpse into Albert Einstein’s last speech.
  • Finally, I wish I could attend the “Holocaust Lives” panel at this weekend’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Panelists include Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal Books Editor and author of a book I’m especially eager to read: The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan. (See Michael Berenbaum’s review.)

    • Shabbat shalom.

    Jewish Literary Links for Shabbat

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Photo Credit: Reut Miryam Cohen
    Every Friday morning My Machberet presents an assortment of links, primarily of the literary variety.

  • A new issue of JewishFiction.net is always a cause for celebration.
  • Some background on the Sophie Brody Medal for outstanding achievement in Jewish literature (includes a shout-out to Quiet Americans!).
  • Mazel tov to Francesca Segal, winner of the 2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her novel The Innocents.
  • Some context for how I discovered Atar Hadari’s stories “about how a man loses pieces of his life on a religious kibbutz in Israel.”
  • This weekend, BookTV will air coverage from the “Roth@80” conference that was held last month to honor Philip Roth.

    • Shabbat shalom.

    From My Bookshelf: Three Reading Recommendations

    by Erika Dreifus on
    3

    I’ve been reading some wonderful new books lately. Although I may not have the opportunity to write full reviews of all of them, I wanted to make sure I brought at least three of this spring’s releases to your attention. All three can described as “Jewish books”–and they’re all books of fiction–but I think that they also demonstrate what I’m always trying to point out: “Jewish literature” is, in fact, remarkably diverse.

    Tsabari
    First up: Ayelet Tsabari’s The Best Place on Earth. Tsabari is an Israeli-born writer of Yemeni descent who currently lives in Canada. Her new book of short stories hasn’t yet been published in the United States, but once I became familiar with her work, I simply had to splurge and order my copy via Amazon.ca. I’m so glad that I did. These finely crafted stories feature the voices and experiences of Mizrahi Jews–Jews from the Middle East/North Africa–a group that I haven’t often seen depicted in fiction (at least, not in English-language or translated fiction).

    Sinners and the Sea
    Next: Minnesota-based Rebecca Kanner‘s Sinners and the Sea. If you liked the way that Anita Diamant brought the biblical Jacob’s daughter Dinah to life in The Red Tent, you’ll surely admire Kanner’s novel as well. Sinners and the Sea depicts the story of Noah and the famous Ark from the perspective of Noah’s wife (who doesn’t even get a name in the Bible). Creative and compelling. I consider myself lucky to have been offered a review copy.

    gerber
    Finally: Merrill Joan Gerber’s The Hysterectomy Waltz, which traces–with sly wit and humor–the diagnosis, surgery, and recovery of a Brooklyn-born Jewish woman. I requested a review copy from the publisher, Dzanc Books, after reading an excerpt online in The Literarian. I suggest that you read the excerpt, too, and if it appeals, be sure to put the novel on your list (it will be out in May). Although Gerber’s work is new to me, she has published many books (now available in digital formats through Dzanc’s rEprint series), and is a past recipient of Hadassah‘s prestigious Ribalow Prize for outstanding Jewish-themed fiction.

    What have you read lately that you’d recommend?