11/11/2020 02:45:51 PM
Discovering a Lost World: The Cairo Genizah
By Robin Jacobson
While traveling in the Middle East in 1896, two wealthy, erudite Scottish sisters bought some antique manuscripts....Read more...
11/03/2020 01:05:25 PM
The Jewish Dynasties of Shanghai
By Robin Jacobson
The intertwined history of two Baghdadi Jewish families in China – the Sassoon and Kadoorie families – is the stuff of epic...Read more...
10/05/2020 03:05:32 PM
Mystery, Suspense, & Troublesome Texts
By Robin Jacobson
A fun suspense novel topped with a generous scoop of Jewish history is a winning combination, even if the history relates to the origins of dark anti-Jewish tropes. Here are two entertaining and informative reads: The Adventure of the Peculiar Protocols by Nicholas Meyer...Read more...
09/04/2020 03:41:13 PM
Masada Backstories
By Robin Jacobson
Two thousand years ago, on a mountaintop overlooking the Dead Sea, 967 Jewish men, women, and children faced down the military might of the Roman empire. When defeat became certain, they chose to take their own lives rather than die at enemy hands or be enslaved. This is the defiant story of...Read more...
08/25/2020 10:40:56 AM
Building a Bridge
By Robin Jacobson
Goldie Goldbloom’s novel On Division is a rarity among books about the Hasidic world. Unlike many books on Hasidic life, it is not a bitter exposé by an ex-community member. Nor is it an admiring outsider’s romanticized view of an exotic culture. Instead Goldbloom, a Hasidic Jew writing from...Read more...
08/18/2020 11:20:09 AM
Finding Truth in Fiction: Recovering Lives Lost to History
By Robin Jacobson
The inspiration for Rachel Kadish’s captivating novel, The Weight of Ink, was a famous essay by Virginia Woolf. If William Shakespeare had an equally brilliant sister, Woolf claimed, she would have died without writing a word, a victim of severe social...Read more...
08/07/2020 01:13:21 PM
Novel Experiments
By Robin Jacobson
Every book browser knows that libraries and bookstores typically separate books broadly into fiction and non-fiction – fiction in these bookcases and non-fiction in the bookcases over there. But some adventurous authors, experimenting with new forms of narration and storytelling, write books that...Read more...
07/28/2020 01:40:18 PM
By Robin Jacobson
A perennial source of fascination to physicists, philosophers, and...Read more...
07/21/2020 03:20:11 PM
By Robin Jacobson
One day, anthropologist Maggie Paxson suddenly snapped. In the words of the classic American spiritual, she vowed to “study war no more.” Weary of...Read more...
07/15/2020 10:19:21 AM
A Salute to Adas Authors
By Robin Jacobson
At a time when stories of hope and fortitude feel essential, we are proud to present four inspiring new memoirs by Adas Israel members Judith Heumann, Esther Safran Foer, Sanford Greenberg, and Ron Hoffer (listed in order of publication). Read...Read more...
07/14/2020 05:15:23 PM
By Robin Jacobson
What to read during a pandemic? Since the Book of Psalms (Sefer Tehilim) is a traditional...Read more...
07/07/2020 05:23:10 PM
Always an Immigrant
By Robin Jacobson
As Moses might have said, “You can take the Jews out of Egypt, but you can’t take Egypt out of the Jews.” It is hard to shed a past life and homeland, even one of misery and persecution. This is the theme of two outstanding books by Jewish émigrés from the former Soviet Union: Savage...Read more...
06/23/2020 01:26:47 PM
By Robin Jacobson
Historical fiction inhabits the sweet spot between history and fiction. It lets us imagine living in a past historical moment and then returns us to our own time with new insights. For young readers (and for adventurous parents who are game for a “family book...Read more...
