Books

'Engaging the Essence': The Lubavitcher Rebbe as philosopher - review

While the Rebbe did not write a system, he spoke to occasions for 40 years. Bronstein anchors the structure of the Rebbe’s talks in his first discourse of 1951.

CHABAD ‘SHLUCHIM’ gather in front of 770 Eastern Parkway, New York, in 2022.
GIRLS CELEBRATE their bat mitzvah in Alexandria, Egypt, 1967.

Fair is not always equal: Adapting bar, bat mitzvahs to developmental challenges - review

Disputation between Christian and Jewish scholars. Woodcut by Johann von Armssheim, 1483.

'Joseph Albo': A sweeping map of Jewish belief - review

Jane Yolen and her most famous book, "The Devil's Arithmetic."

Jane Yolen, whose The Devil’s Arithmetic became a Holocaust classic, dies at 87


'A 3,000-Year History of Jews and the Pig': A Hebrew, Talmud, rabbinic expert goes ‘whole hog’

At the beginning of the Second Temple period, in the Persian era of the 4th to 5th centuries BCE, pigs did not have a unique status; other animals were viewed as equally non-kosher.

Wild boars cross a road in a residential area after the government ordered residents to stay home to fight the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Haifa, northern Israel April 16, 2020.

From golems to Horton to banana menorahs: This year’s Hanukkah kids’ books light up the imagination

Three titles garnered the recommendation of the Association of Jewish Libraries: “Construction Site, Hanukkah Lights,” “Banana Menorah,” and “Lost and Found Hanukkah.”

 An illustrative photo of religious books.

Jerusalem highlights: November 28-December 4

What's new to do in Israel's capital?

Quesadillas (Illustrative).

A book about Germans who had status, safety and power; and still chose to defy Hitler - review

In September 1943, a group that included aristocrats, a diplomat, a pioneering educator, and an intelligence officer gathered in a Berlin drawing room. Not to gossip, but to defy the Nazi regime.

“The Traitors Circle” describes a group of German elites who plotted to fight Nazism.

'Don’t Feed the Lion': Israeli, US journalists collaborate to tackle antisemitism in middle school

CULTURAL AFFAIRS: Keshet 12's Yonit Levi and CNN’s Bianna Golodryga, both respected journalists and Jewish mothers, came together to create a book they wished they found for their own kids.

‘DONT FEED the Lion’ follows three tweens in Chicago, siblings Theo and Annie, who are Jewish, and Gabe, who is part Korean, and examines how they are affected when Theo’s soccer-player idol tweets an antisemitic comment.

'Divrei HaLev': A renowned Talmudist rabbi's weekly Torah portion lessons - review

Rabbi Halivni’s magnum opus is 'Mekorot Umesorot' ('Sources and Traditions'), a monumental 10-volume, source-critical commentary on the Talmud in Hebrew.

Torah scroll 521

'The True Power of Speech': Speaking improperly has cosmic consequences - review

It is a book about what happens in the spiritual world when we cross the boundaries of proper speech into the realm of lashon hara.

THE CHOFETZ CHAIM, Yisrael Meir Kagan, arrives with a group at the first Congress of Agudat Yisrael in Vienna in 1923.

'Zaidy's Band': Revealing Canada’s contribution to World War II - review

Aron Heller's new book brings into the public arena the little-publicized history of the contribution in World War II of the Canadian Armed Forces, particularly its Jews.

THREE OF Zaidy’s comrades lie side by side in the military cemetery in Rehovot.

'Moshe Dayan': Shedding analytical light on an Israeli war hero - review

Moshe Dayan: The Making of a Strategist is an outstanding book on multiple levels, offering valuable historical assessments and useful derivative opportunities to learn from Israel’s past.

MOSHE DAYAN and Jordanian Lt.-Col. Abdullah El Tell reach a ceasefire agreement in Jerusalem, Nov. 30, 1948.

'The Writers' Castle': Nazis at Nuremberg, impossible to defend - review

Uwe Neumahr provides an engaging account of the experiences (and sexual liaisons) of more than a dozen reporters in Nuremberg, their varied responses to the trial.

AT A solemn session in Berlin, representatives of various nations hand over to the tribunal their indictments in the Nuremberg Trials.