Every new haggadah struggles with the balance between telling too much and telling too little, between pursuing the endless paths down which our intellects can lead us and enjoying the emotional flow of the evening with its four cups of wine and its many melodic songs. Seder Talk: The Conversational Haggada by Erica Brown, who […]
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This haggadah is a thought-provoking and inspiring work that can be read during the Passover holiday or at any time during the year when one wants to learn about Judaism. It reflects the views of Open Orthodoxy, which its founder, Rabbi Avi Weiss, defined as the movement within Orthodox Judaism “completely committed to Torah min
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The men and women honored to light the torches as part of this year’s official Independence Day ceremony in Israel were chosen for their trailblazing contributions to Israeli society; among this elite group was Malka Puterkovsky. Puterkovsky holds a B.A. in Jewish Studies from Bar-Ilan University and an M.A. in Talmud from Tel Aviv University.
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This novel is a boundary-crosser. Although it is categorized as young adult fiction, it has depth and depiction of harsh life circumstances that make it entirely suitable for adults. Although it is a work of fiction, it is well researched and could pass as a memoir or a work of Holocaust history. As Holocaust stories
My Real Name Is Hanna Read More »
Megillat Esther, the book of Esther, is composed of ten perakim (chapters) and takes a little under an hour to read. Sandra Rapoport has spun this story into an (almost) 500- page novel. She has added layer upon layer of visual and sensual details, historical background, midrashic traditions, and even political theory (with a hat
The Queen and the Spymaster: A Novel Based on the Story of Esther Read More »
The two words of the title of this book, “Questioning,” and “Return,” are the two poles between which the protagonist, Wendy Goldberg, moves in this sensitive, brainy, and surprisingly learned novel. Wendy, a Ph.D. student from Princeton, is on a one-year fellowship to study American ba’alei teshuvah in Jerusalem. Her academic pursuits, as well as
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Debbie Weissman was one of the early activists in changing the status of women in Jewish life, yet few in JOFA today likely know her name—possibly because she made aliyah in 1972, before the internet or cheap long-distance phone calls. She made her mark in Israel in the field of Jewish education, as head of
Memoirs of a Hopeful Pessimist: A Life of Activism through Dialogue Read More »
Lost family and restituted art are the themes that bind the many layers of this skillfully woven historical novel by Ellen Umansky. The story begins in Vienna in 1936 with Rose Zimmer, a beloved child born into an haute bourgeois Jewish family that has collected a (fictional but historically credible) painting, The Bellhop, by Chaim
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If one wanted to trace the beginnings of formal Jewish education for women in the modern era, one could do no better than to read Naomi Seidman’s Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement. This volume is both a scholarly history of the movement and a translation of many of Schenirer’s writings into English for
Sarah Schenirer and the Bais Yaakov Movement: A Revolution in the Name of Tradition Read More »
For those privileged to grow up with Bible study as a steady companion, the Bible’s distance from the sensibilities, assumptions, and conditions of our world may take time to detect. Among the gifts of immersion in the verses, chapters, and books of the Torah is a strong sense of familiarity with the Bible’s contours, despite
Song of Riddles: Deciphering the Song of Songs Read More »
