Nextbook Press

Sacred Trash authors at Williams College, MA

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:42:44 +0000

Catch authors Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole October 9-11 at Williams College, Williamstown, MA. Details to come.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Vermont Studio Center

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:36:42 +0000

Sacred Trash authors Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole come to the Vermont Studio Workshop October 3.

Sacred Trash presenting at Moscow’s Eshkolot

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:32:33 +0000

Join Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Eshkolot, Moscow May 19th through the 22nd. Details to come.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole in New City discussing Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:30:36 +0000

Join the authors March 8 and 9 in New City, NY. Details to come.

“Father Abraham and the Jews” recounts the tale behind When General Grant Expelled the Jews

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:09:49 +0000

"In his recent book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” Brandeis University Professor Jonathan D. Sarna recounts an important but little known event in 1863 in Lincoln’s quest for full civil, religious and human rights for all Americans — this time, for American Jews." Continue reading →

Jonathan Sarna at the JCC of Columbus

Nextbook Press — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:33:21 +0000

On Sunday, May 6, attend a lecture by Jonathan Sarna, author of When General Grant Expelled the Jews at the JCC in Columbus, Ohio. When General Grant Expelled the Jews is an “excellent study from the gifted and resourceful historian Joanthan D. Sarna” (Washington Post) of General Ulysses S. Grant’s decision, in the middle of the Civil War, to order the expulsion of all Jews from the territory under his command, and the reverberations of that decision on Grant’s political career, on the nascent American Jewish community, and on the American political process.

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. He has written, edited, or co edited more than twenty books and is best known for the acclaimed American Judaism: A History, which received the Jewish Book council’s Everett Family Foundation Jewish Book of the Year Award in 2004.

Author Talk: When General Grant Expelled the Jews

Nextbook Press — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:25:36 +0000

As part of the Jewish Museum’s Saul and Gladys Gwirtzman Lecture series, catch When General Grant Expelled the Jews with Jonathan Sarna author Jonathan Sarna on Monday, April 15 at 11:30am as he discusses his riveting account of General Ulysses S. Grant’s decision, in the middle of the Civil War, to order the expulsion of all Jews from the territory under his command. He will explore the reverberations of that decision on Grant’s political career, on the nascent American Jewish community and on the American political process.

Tickets:
General: $15
Students and 65+: $12
Members: $10

Jonathan Sarna at the Milwaukee JCC’s Day of Discovery 2013 discussing When General Grant Expelled the Jews

Nextbook Press — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:20:49 +0000

As part of the Milwaukee JCC’s Day of Discovery workshops, sign up for an hour with When General Grant Expelled the Jews author Jonathan Sarna in a text study.

Sarna Reading in Los Angeles

Nextbook Press — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:30:29 +0000

Come by Los Angeles’ Stephen Wise Temple for a lecture by Jonathan Sarna whose When General Grant Expelled the Jews shares an account of this little known episode, Grant’s subsequent apology, his groundbreaking appointment of Jews to prominent positions in … Continue reading →

Ben Gurion author Shimon Peres in the New York Times

Nextbook Press — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:48:00 +0000

Said Ronen Bergman, "It is a pleasure to spend time with this man, whom David Ben-Gurion took under his wing and who became a top official of the Israeli defense establishment at age 24. Peres is a man of the world, full of insights and curiosity that have not worn down over the years." Continue reading →

Jonathan Sarna describes the plight of Paducah’s first Jewish Activist in The Times Opinionator

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:16:31 +0000

“I, a peaceable, law abiding citizen, pursuing my legitimate business at Paducah, Kentucky, where I have been a resident for nearly four years, have been driven from my home, my business, and all that is dear to me, at the short notice of twenty-four hours; not for any crime committed, but simply because I was born of Jewish parents,” said a young merchant named Cesar Kaskel to reporters in late December 1862. The accompanying headline disclosed why Kaskel was so abruptly ordered out. It read: “Expulsion of Jews from General Grant’s Department.” Continue reading →

Harold Kushner speaks to Vox Tablet about The Book of Job

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 21:01:06 +0000

Kushner talks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the very personal roots of this exploration, dating back to the 1970s, when his son Aaron was diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease (Aaron died in 1977, at age 14); about the depth and complexity of the Job verses; and about why he believes we must choose between an all-loving God and an all-powerful one. Continue reading →

Rabbi Kushner comes to Marin to talk about suffering

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:58:07 +0000

Harold S. Kushner has spent the past three decades writing about human suffering. It's no surprise then, that he's learned a few things. Continue reading →

Harold Kushner interviewed in Denver on The Book of Job

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:56:05 +0000

"[The Editors of the Jewish Encounters series] wanted me to write a book, not on why people suffer, they wanted me to write about the Book of Job." Continue reading →

Harold Kushner is interviewed on the West Coast

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:44:52 +0000

"In “When Bad Things Happen to Good People,” which I wrote 31 years ago, I devoted about 10 pages or so to the Book of Job; what the problem is and how I think it’s answered. This [new] 200-page book is a chapter-by-chapter guide through Job, because some marvelous things happen there. You really have a debate on both sides of the equation. It’s the only book like it in the Bible, and nobody appreciates it because they read that awful first chapter and they give up on the whole book. There are some wonderful ideas in it." Continue reading →

The Book of Job by Harold Kushner reviewed along with another book on Job

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:36:29 +0000

Unlike a great deal of rabbinic commentary, which condemns Job’s reaction, Kushner believes that being angry with God "may be one of the hallmarks of a truly religious person. It puts honesty ahead of flattery." Job is open and honest with God when he demands that God explain the reason behind his afflictions. Continue reading →

Rabbi Harold Kushner interviewed on MPR about dealing with grief and loss

Nextbook Press — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:44:17 +0000

Rabbi Harold Kushner spoke in Minneapolis about coping with hard times and the lessons that can be learned from the Bible's Book of Job. His newest bestseller is "The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person." He spoke Oct. 18, 2012 at an event sponsored by Park Nicollet Foundation's "Growing Through Grief" program. Continue reading →

Albany NPR’s Roundtable Welcomes Rabbi Harold S. Kushner to the show

Nextbook Press — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:38:00 +0000

What kind of God allows such horrible things to happen to good people, "That is the question, it's the question I'm asking more than any, not only because I wrote a book about it 30 years ago,but because anybody that has any sense of religion and suffers, anybody who has a sense of this fairness that this world ought to treat good people better...you're going to ask this question." Continue reading →

The Book of Job “raises questions at the heart of human existence”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:33:16 +0000

"Throughout The Book of Job Kushner pushes and prods his readers to explore the possibilities with which this difficult text, with its often obscure vocabulary, challenges us to seek our own responses. Serving as a guide, he reviews the answers of classic commentators, then ends with his own understanding, an understanding persuasive for both theological and personal reasons, an understanding that is moving, comforting, and active." Continue reading →

Harold Kushner’s new book The Book of Job uses the biblical story as a departure point for examining how we respond to random tragedy.

Nextbook Press — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:29:09 +0000

"Harold S. Kushner is a rare bird: a popular religious writer set apart by his humility and lack of proselytizing...Kushner's latest book is "The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person," and it too is supported by thoughtful scholarship and his skill at using modern concepts without leaking treacle." Continue reading →

Harold Kushner “assail[s] an insolvable problem with authority” in The Book of Job

Nextbook Press — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:26:43 +0000

"Kushner’s analysis challenges popular understanding of a text written and rewritten by unknown authors perhaps separated by centuries. Job, he says, is more than a fable that says, “Believe.” It poses a question at the center of any faith: Why does God inflict such misery on some people?" Continue reading →

“Although [Harold Kushner] does not resolve the thorny dilemma of why blameless people suffer, he advances our understanding of this quandary.”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:30:36 +0000

When selecting an author for this 21st book in the Jewish Encounters series, editor Jonathan Rosen had a clear choice. Continue reading →

Harold Kushner at Tiburon, CA’s Congregation Kol Shofar

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:36:58 +0000

Join the congregation for a reading and signing of The Book of Job. More>>

Harold Kushner in Miami

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:31:33 +0000

Harold Kushner will appear with his latest,The Book of Job. More>>

Harold Kushner and The Book of Job over Dessert Reception for the JCC of Fort Lauderdale’s 25th anniversary

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:26:38 +0000

Catch Rabbi Kushner reading from The Book of Job in the Sunshine State over sweets. For more details, stay up to date at jccbooks.com

The Book of Job signing at The Basilica in Minnesota

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:23:31 +0000

Reading and signing will be managed by the Bookcase of Wayzata. Check event page for updated information. More>>

Kushner at Barnes & Noble Framingham, MA

Nextbook Press — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:27:02 +0000

Join Harold Kushner at Barnes & Noble in Framingham, MA for a reading and signing of The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person. More>>

Esther Schor at Museum of Jewish Heritage speaking on Emma Lazarus

Nextbook Press — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:04:32 +0000

Emma Lazarus lived as an American and a Jew in a way no one before her had. She was a Jewish-American writer before the category even existed. In this fascinating discussion, Schor will bring a vital, complicated woman to life.

Free with suggested donation. Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Call 646.437.4202

Co-sponsored by the University at Albany Center for Jewish Studies

Presented in conjunction with Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles. Tour the exhibition at 1:30 P.M.

Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman at Durham’s Judea Reform Congregation

Nextbook Press — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:49:32 +0000

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole will speak about Sacred Trash: The Discovery of the Cairo Genizah.

It’s National Poetry Month, check out Peter Cole’s latest The Poetry of Kabbalah Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition

Nextbook Press — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:43:39 +0000

When General Grant Expelled The Jews perfect to “rock the Passover Seder with political debate”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 23:08:45 +0000

"Anyone seeking to rock the Passover Seder with political debate will find the perfect conversation piece in Mr. Sarna’s account of this startling American story. Last graph: Mr. Sarna’s book is part of a prestigious series matching prominent Jewish writers with intriguingly fine-tuned topics." Continue reading →

When General Grant Expelled the Jews: “Yes, this a non-fiction book – who would have thought?”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:29:03 +0000

“Well-written and well researched.” Continue reading →

When General Grant Expelled the Jews “highly recommended”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:25:16 +0000

“This book is highly recommended to those interested in the Civil War and American Jewish history.” Continue reading →

“Sarna did a great job with this book”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 18:24:01 +0000

“The Brandeis professor did a marvelous job with looking into a glimpse of Grant's life and its effect on Jewish-Americans.” Continue reading →

Sarna is a “gifted and resourceful historian,” and When General Grant Expelled the Jews is a “compelling page-turner.”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:36:01 +0000

“Sarna’s account shines brightest around the edges of the story, offering valuable new insights into ethnic politics, press power and the onetime ability of leaders to flip-flop with grace...Sarna’s excellent study offers no excuses...and comes closer than ever to an explanation.” Continue reading →

Leading historian of the Jewish experience Jonathan Sarna “agrees with critics (and Grant himself) that ordering the evacuation was a gigantic blunder” in When General Grant Expelled the Jews

Nextbook Press — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:27:55 +0000

"Brandeis professor Jonathan Sarna examines the order and the long-standing criticism of Grant; the result is the most compelling contextualization available on the issue." A leading historian of the Jewish experience in America, he Continue reading →

When General Grant Expelled the Jews

Nextbook Press — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:22:43 +0000

Jonathan Sarna sheds new light on one of of our most enigmatic presidents, on the Jews of his day, and on America itself.

When General Grant Expelled the Jews praised in Library Journal

Nextbook Press — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:03:56 +0000

“This book, the most detailed study of the topic to date, takes readers from the issuing of the order to Grant’s demise. Sarna sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Civil War and the experience and treatment of Jews during the mid-to late 19th century. A valuable addition to all collections for Civil War and presidential history buffs and specialists, as well as for students of American Jewish history.” Continue reading →

In Shimon Peres’ book on Ben-Gurion, a longing for leadership absent in Israel today

Nextbook Press — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:09:35 +0000

"The more I read “Ben-Gurion: A Political Life” by Shimon Peres, the more I liked to play "What Would the Old Man Do Now?"" Continue reading →

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole discuss Sacred Trash at the University of Florida

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:17:06 +0000

A talk by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Center for Jewish Studies.

Nextbook Press congratulates its National Jewish Book Award Finalists

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:50:02 +0000

A big mazel tov to Sacred Trash authors Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole for their mention under the Gerrard and Ella Berman Memorial Award in History, and to The Eichmann Trial author Deborah Lipstadt for mention under Holocaust titles. Continue reading →

Congratulations to Sacred Trash authors Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, recipients of the 2012 American Library Association’s Sophie Brody Medal for Outstanding Jewish Literature

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:36:48 +0000

Sacred Trash an elegant history of one of the great modern feats of cultural resurrection

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:32:10 +0000

“An elegant history of one of the great modern feats of cultural resurrection… Sacred Trash tells [its] story with narrative vigor and lightness of learning.” Continue reading →

Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky Speaks at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Feb. 7

Nextbook Press — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:57:20 +0000

Dr. Pinksy’s lecture at UTC is entitled “The Value of the Arts and Humanities in Education and Society.” The lecture will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. in the Roland Hayes Auditorium, in the Fine Arts Building on the UTC Campus. The event is free and open to the public. The doors will open at 6 p.m.; seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Every year, the lecture series has provided an incredible opportunity for UTC students and faculty – as well as the broader community – to engage around critical community issues,” said UTC Chancellor Roger Brown. “We are proud to partner with the Benwood Foundation to have Dr. Pinsky, a nationally recognized poet, participate in the series.”

Now in its fourth year, the George T. Hunter Lecture series is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation and UTC. Past speakers have included Doris Kearns Goodwin, Malcolm Gladwell, Mayor Cory Booker and Michelle Rhee.

Author and local food advocate, Michael Pollan, will close out the 2011-2012 Lecture Series on April 19.

Gilead Sher finds Ben-Gurion: A Political Life to be “essential reading for those interested in both statesmanship and the history of Israel”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:50:12 +0000

"History is best written by using primary sources, and there is no better historical source with regard to Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, than his protégé, Shimon Peres." Continue reading →

“She Wrote a Nation’s Welcome:” The work of Emma Lazarus and her biographer Esther Schor recognized in the “Poet of Exiles” exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Nextbook Press — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:29:40 +0000

"Even if Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” had not transformed the gargantuan Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor from an aggressive monument — “Liberty Enlightening the World” — into a welcoming “Mother of Exiles”; even if she had not provided that crowned goddess with a humane voice that still resonates (“Give me your tired, your poor”); even if she had not asserted a powerful connection between liberty and opportunity, the exhibition “Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage demonstrates that there would still be reasons to value her life and work." Continue reading →

Apologia for Ben-Gurion

Nextbook Press — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:18:28 +0000

"They were kindred spirits. Both were voracious readers, polymaths, single-mindedly ambitious, and coldly pragmatic. Both had high, unself-critical opinions of themselves. They ruthlessly battled foes within their political camp, though Ben-Gurion was arguably the more vindictive. Both were Big Idea men. Ben-Gurion envisioned a renascent Israel along vaguely biblical principles; Peres, more ambitious still, sought an entirely "new Middle East."" Continue reading →

When Grant Expelled the Jews “thoroughly researched and crisply written”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:44:29 +0000

"Thoroughly researched and crisply written, this is a very fine work that will interest students of both American and modern Jewish history." Continue reading →

Full Ha’aretz Interview with Deborah Lipstadt

Nextbook Press — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:22:21 +0000

Talking with Haaretz, prominent scholar discusses effect of Eichmann trial of perception of the Holocaust, as well as recent comments by U.S. envoy to Belgium Howard Gutman. Continue reading →

Azrieli welcomes Dr. Deborah Lipstadt

Nextbook Press — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:06:20 +0000

Azrieli welcomes Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. Dr. Lipstadt successfully defended a libel suit brought by David Irving and wrote a gripping account of it in History On Trial: My Day In Court With A Holocaust Denier;most recently, she wrote The Eichmann Trial and will discuss that book on this evening.

Light supper beginning 7:00p.m., followed by a lecture and Q & A session with Dr. Lipstadt.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston with curator Rita Freed

Nextbook Press — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:14:43 +0000

Sacred Trash Found Under the Floorboards

Peter Cole, MacArthur Foundation Fellowship recipient for poetry, author
Rita Freed, John F. Cogan, Jr. and Mary L. Cornille Chair, Art of the Ancient World
Adina Hoffman, essayist, author

Curator Rita Freed discusses Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza with authors Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman. They illuminate the exciting discovery, found beneath a Cairo synagogue, of documents from the 10th to the 19th centuries, ranging from religious manuscripts to business inventories and receipts to private letters and poems. Cole and Hoffman tell the story of how scholars assembled these fragments to get priceless, previously unknown details of life in Cairo.

Book signing follows.

Purchase Tickets Online: using the link in the red box
By phone: call the MFA Ticket line at 1-800-440-6975
In person: at any MFA ticketing desk

Ticketing desk hours: Mon, Tue, Sat, and Sun, 10 am–4:15 pm; and Wed–Fri, 10 am–9:15 pm

Ben-Gurion “invaluable”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:18:54 +0000

With Occupy Wall Streeters under fire for alleged anti-Semitism, it’s worth remembering that Israel was founded by people not unlike them. “The Jews’ greatest contribution to history is dissatisfaction!” Continue reading →

When Grant Expelled the Jews “A well-argued exoneration of a president and a sturdy scholarly study”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:02:55 +0000

Sarna (History/Brandeis Univ.; A Time to Every Purpose: Letters to a Young Jew, 2008, etc.) nimbly reappraises Grant’s presidency as ushering a “golden age” for American Jews, despite the short-lived expulsion order he couldn’t live down. General Orders No. 11, published in 1862 by Gen. Grant as head of the Union Army’s Department of the Tennessee, decreed that “Jews as a class” were to be expelled from the department because of “violating every regulation of trade”—i.e., on account of smuggling. While the order was issued during the pressing exigencies of wartime, then swiftly revoked by President Lincoln when visited by prominent Kentucky merchant Cesar Kaskel and Ohio Congressman John Addison Gurley some weeks later, Grant was vilified by the Jewish community—nearly 150,000 citizens—and hard-pressed to exonerate himself as presidential candidate, then president. Sarna expertly navigates the repercussions of this shocking order, which galvanized the American Jewish community to action, reminding many who were refugees from European expulsions how insecure they were even in America. It also deeply divided the Jewish community when faced with the 1868 Grant-Seymour presidential election. The order aroused a passionate debate both in the Senate, where some Democratic members moved to censure the (Republican) general, unsuccessfully, and in the press, which spoke out against the stereotyping and scapegoating of the Jews as “swindlers.” (Sarna evenhandedly considers the extent to which Jews were involved in smuggling.) Moreover, with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation, Jews expressed their consternation that the rise in status for blacks came at the cost of their own abasement. Jewish leaders such as Simon Wolf and Isaac Mayer Wise wrestled with the ethics of backing the modern-day Haman, as Grant was called, or support the racist, anti-black Democrats. Sarna weighs the short-lived order against important Jewish appointments in Grant’s administration, his humanitarian support for oppressed Jews around the world and lasting friendships with Jews. A well-argued exoneration of a president and a sturdy scholarly study. Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt Discusses The Eichmann Trial at Yeshiva University

Nextbook Press — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:52:36 +0000

The Eichmann Trial: A Legal Travesty or a Crowning Moment in Israel’s History?

Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt, internationally renowned Holocaust scholar and best-selling author of the The Eichmann Trial, will discuss “The Eichman Trial: A Legal Travesty or a Crowning Moment in Israel’s History?” on Monday, December 12, 2011. The event will be held in Koch Auditorium, on Yeshiva University’s Beren Campus, 245 Lexington Avenue, New York City at 8 p.m.

Lipstadt’s lecture has been made possible through its sponsors: Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education, Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program, Hillel Rogoff Memorial Lecture, S. Daniel Abraham Honors Program and Stern College for Women.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information or to RSVP please contact Jaff@yu.edu.

Treasure Trove of Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:37:07 +0000

"The finished product, they said, “is a total collaboration, fact by fact and sentence by sentence. We wrote the book we wanted to write and tried our best to convey our fascination, our enthusiasm, and our sense of discovery.”" Continue reading →

Shimon Peres Takes a Look Back at Israel’s Pragmatic Idealist

Nextbook Press — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:51:34 +0000

"Having Peres write this book is a splendid idea, and one is moved by the extent of devotion and awe that he has for Ben-Gurion...in addition to Ben-Gurion’s critical decisiveness, one of his other virtues was knowing how to pick his disciples well." Continue reading →

Shimon Peres on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:31:49 +0000

"You've written this fascinating and very moving book about your mentor, David Ben-Gurion." Read more of the transcript on CNN. Continue reading →

A “breathtaking” story in Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:07:33 +0000

"BaltimoreJewishLife.com had the opportunity to ask the authors, Hoffman and Cole, how the Geniza is particularly relevant to the Orthodox Jewish community? Their response cut to the heart of what makes the Geniza so fascinating: "The very notion of Orthodoxy isn't really relevant in the Geniza context, since really all the Jews of the Middle Ages are what we’d now consider religious. In that sense, every single scrap of paper or parchment found here is potentially of interest to Orthodox Jews today... It’s also critical to realize that the Judaism of the Middle Ages was basically an Eastern—as opposed to Eastern European--religion. Scholars estimate that at least ninety percent of the world’s Jews during these years lived in the East and eventually under the rule of Islam. These were Arabic-speaking Jews who didn't live in ghettos, but interacted in an involved way with their Muslim and Christian neighbors."" Continue reading →

Sacred Trash a true mystery story

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:03:45 +0000

"Sacred Trash is a true mystery story of how our scholars found and decoded the meanings of objects left behind a thousand years ago in the Cairo Geniza." Continue reading →

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole do up the Cairo Geniza “with the skill of historians and the style of novelists”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 18:00:51 +0000

"With the skill of historians and the style of novelists, Hoffman and Cole tell the remarkable story of the medieval document trove that came to light in the 1890s and has kept scholars busy for over a century." Continue reading →

Sacred Trash: The fascinating tale of deciphering the Geniza documents, fragment by fragment, word by word, and character by character

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:55:58 +0000

"Schechter, who must have “cut a remarkable figure as he strode down King’s Parade . . . [w]ith his bushy, red-tinted beard, unruly hair, and tendency to gesticulate broadly,” marked one of the first and perhaps the most majestic in a long line of characters to throw themselves into the study of the Geniza. And the portraits of these academics grant this book much of its texture." Continue reading →

Sacred Trash reading at Bar-Ilan University in Israel

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:48:57 +0000

Come hear prize-winning authors Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman discuss their book on the people involved in finding the Cairo Geniza.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the UK launch of Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:37:07 +0000

Join us for the UK launch of the highly acclaimed Sacred Trash, with Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman, whose book tells the story of what is arguably the greatest discovery of Jewish manuscripts ever made.

Ben-Gurion delivers a “striking and instructive” political attitude

Nextbook Press — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:25:05 +0000

"Author Shimon Peres writes of David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding father and first prime minister, as "a figure of stirring contradictions -- a prophetic visionary and a canny pragmatist who early grasped the necessity of compromise for national survival." Such a political attitude is striking and instructive today with Israelis and Palestinians deadlocked, seemingly uncompromisingly, over their people's future. Peres writes that "Ben-Gurion supported the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, even though it meant surrendering a two thousand-year-old dream of Jewish settlement for the entire land of Israel." Peres, president of the State of Israel since 2007, sees in Ben-Gurion "a neglected model of leadership that Israel and the world desperately need in the twenty-first century." Shimon Peres has been a key leader of Israel since 1948, when he became head of the nation's naval services. An architect of the Oslo Accords, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994." Continue reading →

“A tender account of Ben-Gurion’s life…[Shimon Peres'] book is well worth your time. It was mine,” says WP’s Richard Cohen

Nextbook Press — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:19:39 +0000

“A tender account of Ben-Gurion’s life . . . . [President Peres] is a man of awesome accomplishment — a Nobel Peace Prize winner, by the way — but his most important accomplishment is how he has come to personify the ethic that David Ben-Gurion represents. His book is well worth your time. It was mine.” Continue reading →

Ben-Gurion given the prophetic treatment by his disciple Peres in Ben-Gurion

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:10:47 +0000

David Ben-Gurion has entered the annals of modern Jewish history as a prophet in his time, and Shimon Peres can rightly claim the title of Ben-Gurion’ s anointed disciple. At the height of power, both were praised and reviled — although we cannot yet know if the still remarkably vigor-ous 88-year-old Peres will ultimately go down as a visionary or a fool. It is only fitting that Peres (with journalist David Landau) has penned this book that offers one historical leader chronicling and analyzing the life and times of his even more important mentor. Continue reading →

Ben-Gurion “a wonderfully intimate and important book”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 23:13:40 +0000

This is a wonderfully intimate and important book about the brave men and women who created Israel against all reasonable odds after the devastation of the Holocaust. Continue reading →

Shimon Peres’ Ben-Gurion an “urbane account” of a man “of a single decision”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:48:07 +0000

“Several of [BEN-GURION: A Political Life’s] chapters end with lively dialogues between Mr. Peres and [David Landau] that are a creative way of handling the teller/as-told-to relationship, and some of Mr. Peres’s personal reminiscences of Ben-Gurion and his entourage are delightful.” Continue reading →

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Sarasota Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 02:08:36 +0000

Sacred Trash is the highly engaging story of the recovery of the Cairo Geniza, which is arguably the greatest discovery of Jewish manuscripts ever made. In Sacred Trash, Hoffman and Cole lead us into the richly textured Jewish world revealed by these manuscripts, as they also present the life stories of the modern scholars who devoted themselves to unearthing and studying the Geniza documents. These treasures, concealed for centuries behind a wall in one of Cairo’s oldest synagogues, reveal an entire civilization.

Adina Hoffman is the author of My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century, which was named one of the best twenty books of 2009 by the Barnes & Noble Review and one of the top ten biographies of the year by Booklist. Peter Cole’s most recent book of poetry is Things on Which I’ve Stumbled, whose title poem revolves around the Cairo Geniza. Cole has received numerous honors for his work, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature; the PEN Translation Prize for Poetry; and fellowships from the NEA, the NEH, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

The authors will sign their book after the lecture. Books will be available for sale courtesy of Circle Books. Cost: Tickets start at $10.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the St. Paul Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:48:06 +0000

MacArthur-winning poet and translator Peter Cole and acclaimed essayist Adina Hoffman tell the story of the retrieval from an Egyptian geniza—a repository for worn-out texts—of the most vital cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered. Presenting a panoramic view of nine hundred years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Hoffman and Cole bring modern readers into the heart of this little know trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed “the Living Sea Scrolls,” and the adventurous characters who revealed its depth. A gripping tale of adventure and redemption.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Austin Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:44:12 +0000

Join us as we kick-off the 2011-2012 Spotlight on Arts & Ideas series with author lectures and discussions, the annual Book Lovers Luncheon, and Texas Book Festival Appearances.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole in Houston for the Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 01:02:21 +0000

In Sacred Trash, Hoffman and Cole lead us into the richly textured Jewish world revealed by these manuscripts, as they also present the fascinating life stories of the modern scholars who devoted themselves to unearthing and studying the Geniza documents. The Geniza’s treasuresconcealed for centuries behind a wall in one of Cairo’s oldest synagoguesreveal an entire civilization, and include personal letters and landmark poems, wills and marriage contracts, medical prescriptions, Bible fragments, money orders, children’s primers, and magical amulets. Presenting a panoramic view of nine hundred years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Hoffman and Cole bring readers into the heart of this little known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed “the Living Sea Scrolls.”

**THIS EVENT HAS A STRICT REFUND POLICY. No refunds will be processed by Brown Paper Tickets more than 12 hours after the time of purchase without the authorization of the producer.**

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole in Portland

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:03:18 +0000

Authors’ Talk: Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole

General Public: $10 OJM Members: $8
Reservations at www.ojm.org or call 503-226-3600

Sacred Trash in Seattle

Nextbook Press — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:48:17 +0000

Translators, poets, publishers, biographers—Jerusalem-based Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman have individually and collaboratively done extraordinary work in bringing literary and cultural marvels to light—and to readers across the borderlines of language and state. They are here this evening with the jointly written book, Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza (Imprint). “One hundred and twenty years ago, time travel was at once realized: With the discovery of the Cairo Geniza, medieval Jewish life in all its sacred and mundane efflorescence came tumbling out in thousands of manuscript fragments, each one a distinct and living voice of an ancestral civilization. No longer can we speak of the seven wonders of the world—in this astounding and acutely relevant tale, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole have uncovered a remarkable eighth; and it is connection to our own humanity, it surpasses all the rest.” – Cynthia Ozick. “Sacred Trash is a small masterpiece. The romance of Hebrew scholarship has never been so vividly conveyed … It will teach common readers, Jewish and gentile, how much spiritual tradition owes to the greatest scholars. This teaching comes through delight.” – Harold Bloom.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Ft. Lauderdale Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:12:39 +0000

Presented by David Posnack Jewish Community Center at David Posnack Jewish Community Center.

Podcast: Father Figure Shimon Peres, Israel’s president, has written a new Nextbook Press biography of David Ben-Gurion, its first prime minster and his mentor

Nextbook Press — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 17:41:44 +0000

Ben-Gurion

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:34:18 +0000

David Ben-Gurion was a mythic figure, a founding father of Israel, and the country’s first prime minister, but he was also a real man, brimming with human contradictions, who was observed in all his complexity by Shimon Peres.

Everything Is Coming Up Lazarus

Nextbook Press — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:03:23 +0000

In marking the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty’s dedication, many organizations have been highlighting the participation of Emma Lazarus, the iconoclastic nineteenth-century poet and activist whose verse gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but whose extraordinary life has remained a mystery until now. Emma Lazarus was a woman so far ahead of her time that we are still scrambling to catch up with her. Before these categories even existed, Lazarus was a feminist, a Zionist, and an internationally famous Jewish-American writer.

The New Colossus: Emma Lazarus’ famous poem comes to life—at your fingertips

Nextbook Press has created an interactive version of Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus,” the sonnet that appears on the statue’s base. The annotations are by Esther Schor, the author of the prize winning biography, Emma Lazarus, written for our “Jewish Encounters” series.

Scroll over the words, and you’ll be able to learn more about the poem, the poet, and the story behind the Statue. We are thrilled to present this classic poem in a new way (designed by Joshua Hester), and we hope you’ll enjoy it and pass it along. Of course, there is much more to be learned in Schor’s book, and we hope this poem will whet your appetite to read even more about Emma Lazarus by checking out Schor’s biography.

Click to explore Nextbook Press’ Interactive “The New Colossus,” Annotated by Esther Schor>>

Goings On About Town

Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles Exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage
Wednesday, October 26
Museum of Jewish Heritage, NYC
Visit the museum.

Only in America: Nextbook Press author Esther Schor on Emma Lazarus in Philadelphia
Thursday, October 27
National Museum of American Jewish History

Nextbook Traveling Exhibitions on Jewish Artists: Emma Lazarus: Voice of Liberty, Voice of Conscience
Ongoing
At a library near you
(Namely Albert S. Cook Library at Towson University (MD), Indiana University East, Kansas City Public Library, Ocean County Library (NJ), The Norwich Free Academy (CT), Philips Library (IL), Athens0Limestone Public Library (IL), Northeastern university (MA)

What People Are Saying

“Emma Lazarus’s sonnet, “The New Collosus,” which articulated the welcome to immigration, is being celebrated by Nextbook-Press with an online annotation of the great poem, and Web cams are scheduled to begin operating in the torch of the statue so that all the world can see the vista of Liberty.”
The New York Sun

The School of Visual Arts Recognizes the Work of its MFA alumni
SVA Blog

Our ‘Brazen Giant’ Turns 125
Tablet Magazine

Mother of Exiles
The Jewish iPhone Magazine

Keep up with us on Twitter and Facebook for Emma Lazarus book giveaways, factoids, and up-to-date news on Nextbook titles.

The New Colossus

Nextbook Press — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:40:56 +0000

To mark the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, Nextbook Press has taken the statue’s classic sonnet – “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus – and updated this 19th century classic for the 21st century. With annotations by Esther Schor, who wrote the biography of Emma Lazarus for the Jewish Encounters book series, this interactive poem offers background, insight, and commentary on the original poem, with videos and photographs and text. You’ll see this legendary work in a whole new way.

Sacred Trash Tour continues in Cambridge

Nextbook Press — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:27:15 +0000

MacArthur Prize-winning poet and translator peter Cole and acclaimed essayist Adina Hoffman tell the story of the Cairo Geniza, the most vital cache of jewish manuscripts ever discovered, often referred to as the “Living Sea Scrolls.” Cole and Hoffman reveal the quiet heroism of Solomon Schechter and other scholars, who sifted through mounds of forgotten paper to reveal the vibrant world of medieval jewish life–letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts, Bibles and trousseaux lists, money orders, fiery dissenting tracts, prescriptions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms.

They will be joined in conversation by Harvard professor and renowned scholar and writer Stephen Greenblatt. he is the author of the New York Times bestseller Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare, and coming this fall, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Herbert Tarr North Shore Institute

Nextbook Press — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:51:46 +0000

The Cairo Geniza is the most vital cache of Hebrew manuscripts ever discovered. It opened up an entire history of Jewish life in the Muslim world providing a rich picture of a little known vibrant Mediterranean Jewish life. Information was found in these papers about Maimonides, Yehuda Halevi and other important Jewish philosophers. This was authenticated by Solomon Schechter who recognized the enormous significance of this accidental historical find by two Scottish sisters traveling in Cairo in 1896. Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, a husband and wife team from Israel, co-authored this book and present a fascinating discussion.

NYC’s Jewish Museum Presents Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:39:36 +0000

The Jewish Museum will present Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza on Monday, October 31 at 11:30 am. In this program, authors Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman offer a vibrant view of medieval Mediterranean Jewish life as they discuss the retrieval of a vital cache of Jewish manuscripts from a geniza – a repository for worn-out books and papers – in Cairo.

This presentation is based on Cole and Hoffman’s book, Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza (Nextbook/Schocken, 2011, $26.95). A book signing will follow the program.

Tickets for this program are $15 for the general public; $12 for students and seniors; and $10 for Jewish Museum members. For further information regarding programs at The Jewish Museum, the public may call 212.423.3337. Tickets for lectures, film screenings and concerts at The Jewish Museum can now be purchased online at the Museum’s Web site, www.thejewishmuseum.org.

Sacred Trash a small masterpiece

Nextbook Press — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:22:02 +0000

"Part biography and part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people placed on the written word, Sacred Trash is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption." Continue reading →

Only in America: Nextbook Press author Esther Schor on Emma Lazarus in Philadelphia

Nextbook Press — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:56:55 +0000

Happy Birthday, Statue of Liberty! This month, the Statue of Liberty turns 125 years old. Originally a gift of friendship from France to the United States, the Statue has become the voice of welcome for generations of immigrants due to the words of one extraordinary American Jewish poet: Emma Lazarus. Emma Lazarus is one of the first 18 Jewish Americans to be included in the Museum’s Only in America® Gallery/Hall of Fame, a signature gallery in the new Museum’s core exhibition sponsored by Nextbook Press.

Join Esther Schor, author of Emma Lazarus as she explores the life and writing beyond the words, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, and for which Lazarus is popularly known, and highlights Lazarus’ unique American Jewish experiences and identity. Book sales and author signings will follow.

Professor Schor will be in conversation with Melissa Martens, curator of Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles, opening Oct. 26 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York.

Jonathan Sarna at 92YTribeca for their 92YU Series

Nextbook Press — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:18:00 +0000

More information to come.

Jonathan Sarna at 92nd Street Y with JTS

Nextbook Press — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:07:20 +0000

More information to come.

Sacred Trash a readable, gripping account

Nextbook Press — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:01:33 +0000

“It has taken over a century, and two non-academics, for us to have such a readable, at times gripping, account of one of the most important modern discoveries of written material from the Middle ages….[A] wonderful book.” Continue reading →

What We Brought Back an Ecclectic Read

Nextbook Press — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:51:22 +0000

"It is a charming little anthology that gives testimony to Birthright's power to enrich and even change individual lives." Continue reading →

Ben-Gurion, a “personal, conversational” story

Nextbook Press — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:01:34 +0000

"This is principally a story about intractable internecine politics and a fierce politician whose intelligence, will, biblical convictions and courage were fundamental in the successful creation of Israel." Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial a “sober yet provocative analysis”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:00:33 +0000

"As Lipstadt elegantly puts it, "The world heard the story of the Holocaust differently and stronger: The telling might not have been entirely new, but the hearing was."" Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz provides a passionate and clear account in Burnt Books

Nextbook Press — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:58:44 +0000

"Kamenetz makes it clear that he is not a mystic, not a Hasid, not even much of a practicing Jew, but nobody reading Burnt Books will doubt that he is spiritually inclined and soulfully attuned." Continue reading →

Acclaimed authors craft a fascinating mix of intellectual heft and muscular writing in Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:43:26 +0000

"Mysterious travel by steamer and train. Piles of bakshish paid for the privelege of crawling through spaces filled with dust, mold, and excrement. Intrigue, claim, and counter-claim by outsized personalities and rival institutions. I have to admit that I never expected to find these packed between the covers of a book on the Cairo Geniza. But I did." Continue reading →

What We Brought Back is “pure fun”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:39:31 +0000

"This latest addition to the growing genre of Birthright literature is pure fun. Billed as "liner notes for the latest album of Jewish life in America," it's a collection of college application-length personal essays by twenty-somethings who participated in Birthright Israel within the last five years." Continue reading →

Robert Pinsky at Folger Elizabethan Theatre

Nextbook Press — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:30:39 +0000

A reading and discussion by three-term United States Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.

Sweet Like Sugar reading in NYC with Nextbook Press’ Wayne Hoffman and Tablet Magazine’s Alana Newhouse

Nextbook Press — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:11:46 +0000

Wayne Hoffman will be reading from his new novel, Sweet Like Sugar. This event is sponsored by Tablet magazine; Tablet editor Alana Newhouse will be leading a Q&A session following the reading.

Sweet Like Sugar follows an unexpected friendship between a young gay Jewish man and an elderly Orthodox rabbi. It’s about fate, faith, and how alienated Jews can reconnect with their identity. Serious stuff. But along the way, it’s also about Kurt Cobain, class stratification in the DC suburbs, Space Mountain, the Book of Esther, the war in Iraq, Israeli dance, Jewish summer camp, Barack Obama, Miami’s bar scene, the Holocaust, interfaith relationships, immigrant communities in Jersey City, Will & Grace, crystal meth, kashrut, Sammy Davis Jr., and much more.

You can hear Wayne talking about the book in a Tablet podcast here: http://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/74886/only-connect/

For more information, visit waynehoffmanwriter.com.

Robert Pinsky at the George T. Hunter Lecture Series: “Placing Value on the Arts in Tough Economic Times”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:12:34 +0000

Buoyed by high attendance and an overwhelming response in the recent past, the George T. Hunter Lecture Series returns with a lineup of nationally renowned experts for 2011-2012. Michelle Rhee, Armando Carbonell, Robert Pinsky and Michael Pollan are speakers for the series that begins Sept. 20, the Benwood Foundation.

Robert Pinsky is a writer, literary critic and former U.S. poet laureate — the first to serve three consecutive terms from 1997-2000. His lecture, “Placing Value on the Arts in Tough Economic Times,” will be at the Roland Hayes Concert Hall on Feb. 7, 2012.

Pinsky has published 27 books, including his acclaimed translation of Dante’s Inferno, and his writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic magazines.

In 1998 the poet laureate created the Favorite Poem Project, a one-year call for Americans to submit their favorite poems. Though he initially expected a modest response, more than 18,000 people contributed to the project. The submissions became the subject of several well-attended public readings, and many of the poems were collected into two anthologies, Poems to Read and Americans’ Favorite Poems.

Pinsky is the poetry editor at Slate and teaches in the graduate writing program for Boston University.

NBP Author David Lehman at the Decatur Book Festival

Nextbook Press — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:29:27 +0000

“David Lehman and Kevin Young, editors of this collection of poetry (Best American Poetry 2011), and contributor, Natasha Trethewey, will share their experiences and read selections from this text .”

Sharon: Life of Leader Conversation at the JCC

Nextbook Press — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:23:44 +0000

Join Gilad Sharon, the youngest son of former Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon, as he discusses his new book on his father.

Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles Exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Nextbook Press — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:08:56 +0000

“…poet Emma Lazarus gave voice to the Statue of Liberty and generations of newcomers to America. However, few people know her fascinating story, her Sephardic background, her American roots, and her work for Jewish causes and a Jewish homeland. Learn … Continue reading →

Peres’ Storytelling Elevates Ben-Gurion “Above a Standard Biography”

Nextbook Press — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:58:40 +0000

Readers will enjoy Peres’s analysis of his relationship with Ben-Gurion and will find his humility appealing: “Why did Ben-Gurion take to me?” And his emotional admissions—that he had never “met a man with [as much] inner strength and determination” as Ben-Gurion and that like “Churchill, the other details of [Ben-Gurion’s] life shrink into insignificance alongside the decisions made at a crucial juncture in Israel’s history”—elevate this book above a standard biography. Continue reading →

The Treasure Trove of the Cairo Geniza

Nextbook Press — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 16:08:15 +0000

“Adina Hoffman and MacArthur-winning poet Peter Cole have written a new book about the find…They tell Marty about the scholars who brought the long forgotten manuscripts to light and what the documents reveal about the people of the past.” Continue reading →

“Deborah Lipstadt” on What’s On Charlie Rose

Nextbook Press — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:51:44 +0000

“Deborah Lipstadt, Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and author of The Eichmann Trial, talks with Charlie Rose about her new book." Continue reading →

Cole and Hoffman Construct a “vivid, human saga”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:16:11 +0000

“It is a testament to Cole and Hoffman that they have fleshed out these ghosts, and patiently constructed a vivid, human saga every bit as extraordinary as a miracle.” Continue reading →

Eichmann Trial Features Thorough and Meticulous Research

Nextbook Press — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:04:21 +0000

“…A penetrating and authoritarian dissection of a landmark case and its after effects.” Continue reading →

Lipstadt’s Eichmann Trial is Really a “Mixed-Genre Text”

Nextbook Press — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:04:24 +0000

“Historian Deborah Lipstadt rakes over the evidence to throw a new beam of light on the past – the trial, the crimes and the key stakeholders. Inevitable, then, the work becomes a mixed-genre text: part history and part historiography, that uniquely absorbing domain specializing in how history itself has been studied." Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt at the Center for Jewish History

Nextbook Press — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:55:34 +0000

“The Eichmann Trial gives an overview of the trial and analyzes the dramatic effect that the survivors’ courtroom testimony had on the world.” Continue reading →

Intellectual Excitement in Sacred Trash Never Flags

Nextbook Press — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:39:39 +0000

“…throughout Sacred Trash, the intellectual excitement never flags, since, in the end, the revelations the genizah provided altered our conception of what Jewish life was like in the ancient world and beyond.” Continue reading →

#on1ft Challenge: Tweeting Judaism

Nextbook Press — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:09:23 +0000

When the great sage Hillel was asked to explain the essence of Judaism while a would-be convert “stood on one foot,” he answered:

What is hateful unto you, do not do unto your neighbor. That is the whole torah, all the rest is commentary. Now, go and study.

Now that is tweetable!

To mark the 5th anniversary of Twitter, and inspired by Joseph Telushkin’s Hillel, Nextbook Press challenges you to come up with your own 140chr essence of Judaism. Become a challenger by tweeting yours with the #on1ft hashtag. Follow @NextbookPress to stay in the loop.

We invited a few friends to kick the challenge off. Here are their #on1ft tweets:

@RobertPinsky: . . . and another thing . . . #on1ft

@DeborahLipstadt: W/other Jews: B Menschim|Study Torah | Know/ Love/ Support Israel | Grind antisemites in2 the dust | B Jews despite not bc of antisemites #on1ft

@jewinthelotus: 1 #on1ft

Ruth Wisse: Yiddish master poet Aaron Zeitlin: Being a Jew means running forever to God…even after all the “evens.” #on1ft

Harold Kushner: Judaism:the most accessible and enjoyable way of becoming a fully realized human being in the image of God. #on1ft

Jonathan Sarna: The essence of Judaism is that it has no essence; it has commandments and boundaries and history. All the rest is commentary. Go & learn. #on1ft

David Lehman: Judaism is the religion of the chosen people, and we do feel chosen, though we’re never sure for what. #on1ft

Marjorie Ingall: To paraphrase Lady Gaga, if she were Jewish: Don’t be a putz, Just be a mensch. #on1ft

See who else is tweeting…

Lessons From A ‘Holy Junk Heap’

Nextbook Press — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:55:12 +0000

Sacred Trash makes it clear that it was hard to know what, in that collection of Cairo writings, was a jewel and what was garbage. One man’s urgent treasure, the authors suggest, was another scholar’s “pestiferous wrack.” Continue reading →

Jewish Book Council’s first ever non-fiction Twitter Book Club read: The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt!

Nextbook Press — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:58:06 +0000

Announcing their first ever non-fiction Twitter Book Club read, The Eichmann Trial by Deborah Lipstadt! Join the discussion on the book with Deborah on Wednesday, July 20th, 12:30-1:10 (Eastern). Follow @JewishBook and keep an eye on #JBCBooks for updates and … Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial “arguably the best non-fiction book of 2011″

Nextbook Press — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:59:11 +0000

It is arguably the best non-fiction book of 2011...[Deborah Lipstadt] tells the story of this trial, what prompted it, how it was defended, the reactions on all sides, and how she won, in her introduction to this almost novel-like history of the Eichmann trial. Continue reading →

Exhibit inspired by David Lehman’s A Fine Romance at a library near you

Nextbook Press — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:27:10 +0000

Much of what is known as the great American songbook is the result of a group of composers who emerged from a common ethnic background. Several libraries will be celebrating that legacy by presenting a traveling exhibit, “A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910‐1965.” Continue reading →

David’s newest book “a sequel to Mamet’s first polemic, The Wicked Son“

Nextbook Press — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:57:27 +0000

"In a sense, the book is a sequel to Mamet's first polemic, "The Wicked Son," a 2006 study of "anti-Semitism, self-hatred and the Jews." But where "The Wicked Son" is a wounded cry, "The Secret Knowledge" is a work of liberation." Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt Q&A

Nextbook Press — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:33:30 +0000

"In fact, one of the British papers stated, “Not since the Nuremburg Trials and the Eichmann Trial has there been as important a Holocaust trial.” [Jonathan] Rosen figured it would be very interesting given my perspective. I thought he was being ridiculous." Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt Appointed to White House Advisory Post

Nextbook Press — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:28:56 +0000

President Obama said, “I am grateful these accomplished men and women have agreed to join this Administration, and I’m confident they will serve ably in these important roles. I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.” Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz at the Dreaming Stories Into Life Retreat

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:42:16 +0000

This retreat is an introduction to dreamwork and the spiritual power of storytelling. Starting with Genesis and those primordial dreamers Jacob and Joseph, tradition intertwines dream and story. That is because imagination has the power to awaken us to the deeper story of the soul. We will begin with an evening of fantastic storytelling performances of the tales of two modern day Jewish dreamers, Rabbi Nachman and Franz Kafka, followed by a discussion of the interaction of dream and story in their work. We will follow in class with an introduction to the language of dreams and how to open them up so they can be used to understand the story of the hidden life of the soul. Our classes will include opportunities to share dreams and act them out. At the end of the retreat, participants will share their own stories, parables or dreams with the group, and we will learn how to go further and deeper with dreams.

Deborah Lipstadt’s participation at Berlin’s Topography of Terror Conference on Eichmann trial makes waves

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:35:26 +0000

"A new exhibition about the trial at the Topography of Terror Museum here devotes a section to reappraising the work of the philosopher Hannah Arendt, pointing out that she failed to attend much of the trial, never saw Eichmann cross-examined and thus didn’t witness his “just following orders” defense crumble." Continue reading →

Sacred Trash Reviewed in The Nation: “From Cairo to Córdoba”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:54:41 +0000

“A literary jewel whose pages turn like those of a well-paced thriller, but with all the chiseled elegance and flashes of linguistic surprise that we associate with poetry…Sacred Trash has made history both beautiful and exciting.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash directs attention to the famous palimpsest–the Cairo Geniza

Nextbook Press — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:19:50 +0000

“A multi-layered work that provokes admiration and excites the imagination on many levels.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash thumbs up on Amitav Ghosh’s blog

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:28:45 +0000

“Sacred Trash is entertaining, lucid, enormously erudite and extremely well-written. Between them the writers possess all the scholarly equipment and narrative gifts that are required for the telling of this tale, and they have done a marvelous job of it. The Geniza is one of the world’s richest and greatest archives: Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole have given it the biography it deserves.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash a hit on the West Coast

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:24:27 +0000

"Beautifully written, learned and lucid, 'Sacred Trash' is a treasure that should not be hidden.... Exquisitely realized." Continue reading →

New York Times Book Review of Sacred Trash: Lively and Elevating

Nextbook Press — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:13:16 +0000

“Both lively and elevating . . . An extended act of celebration of Cairo’s historical Jewish community, their documents, and their documents’ 20th-century students . . . wonderfully revived by Hoffman and Cole.” Continue reading →

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Park Avenue Synagogue

Nextbook Press — Tue, 24 May 2011 15:52:49 +0000

Join the authors as they discuss Sacred Trash. Details on the synagogue’s website.

The Eichmann Trial in International Perspective: Impact, Developments, and Challenges, International Conference

Nextbook Press — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:12:21 +0000

Co-organized by the Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the Topography of Terror Foundation, this interdisciplinary conference will examine the legacy of the Eichmann trial 50 years on. The trial was broadcast widely on radio and television, bringing the testimony of survivors into the public realm in an unprecedented way and marking a turning point in international awareness of the Holocaust. The conference will examine the trial’s lasting impact in the realms of law, media, and history.

Deborah E. Lipstadt—Director of the Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University, Atlanta; Member Emeritus, United States Holocaust Memorial Council; and Member and Chair Emeritus of the Council’s Academic Committee—will present the keynote lecture, titled The Eichmann Trial: A Perspective after 50 Years. Panel presentation subjects include the legal implications of the trial, international reception of the trial in the 1960s, Eichmann and Zionism, the trial as media event, and the trial in contemporary perspective, including its impact and the developments and challenges that have arisen from it.

This conference has been made possible through the generosity of the Curt C. and Else Silberman Foundation.

To view the conference program, please click here.

If you wish to register for this conference, please return the registration form to veranstaltungen@topographie.de.

The Rabbi on the Beach reviews Sacred Trash: “It was amazing”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 20 May 2011 16:28:40 +0000

"Sacred Trash is best known for its wonderful way of weaving together the men and women who discovered the geniza, their motivations and personalities with their discoveries." Continue reading →

David Lehman is Baltimore Bound for A Fine Romance

Nextbook Press — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:04:17 +0000

In connection with his award winning A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters American Songs, David Lehman will make a presentation at the Eldersburg Branch of the Baltimore Public Library. A traveling exhibit based on the book will visit 55 public libraries in 27 states from now through April 2012. The exhibit, which David wrote and designed, centers on lives and works of Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Harold Arlen, and a host of other Jewish songwriters who wove the American songbook deep into the fabric of American culture. A book-signing will follow David’s presentation and the library will serve refreshments. Free.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Chicago’s Newberry Library

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:44:34 +0000

This event is co-sponsored by the Newberry Library’s A.C. McClurg Bookstore. Admission is free and no reservations are required.

Deborah Lipstadt on Panel, “Wagner Through A Jewish Lens”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:33:50 +0000

The Enigma of Wagner’s Genius and Anti-Semitism

With Panelists:
Deborah Lipstadt, Emory University
Randy Cohen, Former author of The New York Times column “The Ethicist”
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle Music Editor

Wagner composed music of astounding beauty. He was also a virulent anti-Semite. Hitler so closely identified with Wagner that he played his operas at Nazi rallies and throughout the death camps. Is Wagner’s music inherently anti-Semitic? Can it be separated from the man? As a community, should we ban performances or try to better understand the enigmatic Wagner?

Standard: $17 Members | $20 Public | $10 Students
Premium: $22 Members | $25 Public

Lecture on The Eichmann Trial for Stephen S. Wise Temple and Schools

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:30:47 +0000

The capture of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents in Argentina in May of 1960, and his subsequent trial in Tel Aviv by an Israeli court, electrified the world. The public debate it sparked on where, how, and by whom Nazi war criminals should be brought to justice, and the international media coverage of the trial itself, is recognized as a watershed moment in how the civilized world in general, and Holocaust survivors in particular, found the means to deal with the legacy of genocide that had never been seen before.

This “trial of the century” offers a legal, moral, and political framework for coming to terms with unfathomable evil and with those who perpetrate it. Dr. Lipstadt will share an overview of this gripping trial and will analyze the dramatic effect that the testimony had on a world that, until then, did not understand the millions who had died and the hundreds of thousands who managed to survive.

Sacred Trash “a wonderfully passionate and lively account”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:13:22 +0000

“A wonderfully passionate and lively account of a civilization we could not have imagined existed and of the men and women whose enthusiasm and dedication brought it to light.” Continue reading →

Emma Lazarus exhibit at Colorado’s Aurora Central Library

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:58:49 +0000

“Emma Lazarus: Voice of Liberty, Voice of Conscience” exhibit curated by Esther Schor and distributed to libraries by ALA and Nextbook Press will be at the New Brunswick temple through late June.

Emma Lazarus Exhibit at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick

Nextbook Press — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:51:56 +0000

“Emma Lazarus: Voice of Liberty, Voice of Conscience” exhibit curated by Esther Schor and distributed to libraries by ALA and Nextbook Press will be at the New Brunswick temple through late June.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Hyde Park’s 57th Street Books

Nextbook Press — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:26:49 +0000

One May day in 1896, at a dining-room table in Cambridge, England, a meeting took place between a Romanian-born maverick Jewish intellectual and twin learned Presbyterian Scotswomen, who had assembled to inspect several pieces of rag paper and parchment. It was the unlikely start to what would prove a remarkable, continent-hopping, century-crossing saga, and one that in many ways has revolutionized our sense of what it means to lead a Jewish life.

In Sacred Trash, MacArthur-winning poet and translator Peter Cole and acclaimed essayist Adina Hoffman tell the story of the retrieval from an Egyptian geniza, or repository for worn-out texts, of the most vital cache of Jewish manuscripts ever discovered. This tale of buried scholarly treasure weaves together unforgettable portraits of Solomon Schechter and the other heroes of this drama with explorations of the medieval documents themselves—letters and poems, wills and marriage contracts, Bibles, money orders, fiery dissenting tracts, fashion-conscious trousseaux lists, prescriptions, petitions, and mysterious magical charms. Presenting a panoramic view of nine hundred years of vibrant Mediterranean Judaism, Hoffman and Cole bring modern readers into the heart of this little-known trove, whose contents have rightly been dubbed “the Living Sea Scrolls.” Part biography and part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people has long placed on the written word, Sacred Trash is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption.

Honoring Elie Wiesel at the USHMM’s Inaugural Museum Award

Nextbook Press — Thu, 05 May 2011 16:15:38 +0000

The Museum is conferring its highest honor on Founding Chairman Elie Wiesel, one of humanity’s most remarkable individuals, in recognition of the singular role he has played in establishing and advancing the cause of Holocaust remembrance. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Award will be given annually to an internationally prominent individual whose actions have advanced the Museum’s vision of creating a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.

Deborah Lipstadt Speaks to PBS on Holocaust Remembrance

Nextbook Press — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:15:36 +0000

"On this Yom HaShoah I think it’s very important for the world to remember that evil begins with a single individual talking to another individual talking to another individual." Maybe they are motivated, as was the case in the Holocaust, by an age-old hatred, but it takes one person with another person with another person to make it happen, and that each of us as individuals have the power to say, “Stop.”" Continue reading →

Sacred Trash Receives a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

Nextbook Press — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:04:22 +0000

“Hoffman and Cole deliver a riveting true account…. Invigorating.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash: Where research meets adventure

Nextbook Press — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:08:52 +0000

“I can’t think of another work that succeeds so well in making archival research into gripping adventure.” Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt at the JCC in Manhattan

Nextbook Press — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 16:55:38 +0000

It has been 50 years since the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel electrified the world. Award winning historian, Deborah Lipstadt, professor at Emory University, has marked this anniversary with a book about the trial under the Nextbook imprint. Author of books including Denying the Holocaust and History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving, Dr. Lipstadt will discuss her latest book which presents an overview of the trial and analyzes the dramatic impact the testimony of survivors had on a world that had not yet fully understood the millions who died and the hundreds of thousands who managed to survive.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Yale University

Nextbook Press — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:35:28 +0000

Celebrating the publication of their new book: Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza
Peter Cole and Adina Hoffman

NYT Sunday Book Review: “Why the Eichmann Trial Really Mattered”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:01:24 +0000

"It is a breathtaking admixture of genres (history, philosophy, journalism) and contains strong, often unconventional, moral judgments (especially her contempt for the Jewish leaders who cooperated with their murderers). It aims to render grand historical conclusions but remains unintentionally and inescapably personal." Continue reading →

Another “Important Contribution to the Jewish Library” in The Eichmann Trial

Nextbook Press — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:46:54 +0000

"Lipstadt infuses a gripping narrative with historical perspective and contemporary urgency." Continue reading →

PODCAST: Sam Tanenhaus goes head to head on The Eichmann Trial

Nextbook Press — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 19:42:40 +0000

This week: Francisco Goldman discusses his new novel, “Say Her Name”; the historian Deborah Lipstadt revisits the trial of Adolf Eichmann; and Pamela Paul talks about Beverly Cleary. As always, Julie Bosman has notes from the field; and Jennifer Schuessler has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host. Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial “an engaging, albeit sometimes painful book”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:04:08 +0000

"Lipstadt's The Eichmann Trial is an important addition to the body of works related to the Eichmann trial, and the Holocaust. As such, it is ideal for use as a supplemental text in both high school and college courses dealing with the Holocaust, World War II, genocide studies, and international law. Continue reading →

Sacred Trash Reviewed: “Surveying the Battlefield of Books; or, Genizaschmutz”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:45:46 +0000

“[Sacred Trash] is a work that will surely become an indispensable read for a growing popular audience of scholarly Jewish literature…..Within the academic community, as well, Sacred Trash will capture the interest of so many students, of all scholarly ages, for its ability to tell the single story of several generations of scholars, woven together in a clear narrative that … has the reader eagerly awaiting the turn of the page.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash a key to the “priceless puzzle” that is the Cairo Geniza

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 18:30:53 +0000

"It's a priceless puzzle which is gradually revealing a clearer picture of medieval Jewish life and literature." Continue reading →

New York Times Book Review: “Lipstadt has done a great service”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:17:42 +0000

“Lipstadt has done a great service by untethering the trial from Arendt’s polarizing presence, recovering the event as a gripping legal drama, as well as a hinge moment in Israel’s history and in the world’s delayed awakening to the magnitude of the Holocaust . . . . After recounting the trial so vividly, Lipstadt recounts the aftermath . . . . Her conclusions about ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’ are rendered calmly and with devastating fairness. This is the right tone.” Continue reading →

“Varied and Deep” Accounts in What We Brought Back Worth the Read

Nextbook Press — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 19:00:46 +0000

"These stories paint a more complex, nuanced and ultimately humane image of life and travel in this nook of the Middle East." Continue reading →

Tony Hausner on the Eichmann trial, fifty years later

Nextbook Press — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:06:32 +0000

"The Eichmann trial was one of the first times the world heard that many Jews actively fought German tyranny." Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial: Fifty Years Later

Nextbook Press — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:39:12 +0000

Fifty years ago one of the world's most notorious war criminals sat in a courtroom for a trial that would be among the first in history to be completely televised. Listen to the story on All Things Considered. Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial “Highly recommended for students, scholars, and researchers”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:10:09 +0000

"Aimed at an academic audience, the book is replete with references to primary-source material and thus constitutes an authoritative analysis of the historical and legal issues involved in a trial of international significance. Highly recommended for students, scholars, and researchers analyzing actions and motives of war crimes perpetrators and their victims as well as for history buffs." Continue reading →

Revisiting Eichmann at NYC’s Center for Jewish History

Nextbook Press — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:35:53 +0000

The Jewish Week and Nextbook Press Present:

Adolf Eichmann, SS Lieutenant Colonel and facilitator of the plan to exterminate the Jews during the Holocaust, was captured by the Israeli Mossad in Argentina in 1960, 15 years after the end of World War II. His 1961 trial in Jerusalem was televised around the world, providing an opportunity for survivor testimonies to be heard by international audiences for the first time.

Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and author of the new book, The Eichmann Trial will discuss these extraordinary events in conversation with Gary Rosenblatt, Editor of The Jewish Week. A reception will follow the program.

Special Screening: WITNESS TO THE HOLOCAUST: THE TRIAL OF ADOLPH EICHMANN, a 90-minute film produced by The Jewish Museum from the original trial footage, will be screened at 4:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., immediately before and after the discussion.

Ticket Info: Program, reception and screenings are free and open to the public, but reservations are necessary.

The Eichmann Trial “a valuable contribution to an ever-increasing library of Eichmann books”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:53:22 +0000

"Lipstadt’s book is not primarily a lawyer’s firsthand, play-by-play account of the dynamics of a “trial of the century.” Telford Taylor’s Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials (1992) is that kind of book. By contrast, Lipstadt seems more absorbed in taking on the historical debates about whether Eichmann was really just a “cog” in the Nazi machine, not even a committed anti-Semite but rather a minion who followed orders from above." Continue reading →

“With her new book, The Eichmann Trial, historian Deborah Lipstadt attempts to refute Arendt’s main arguments”

Nextbook Press — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:00:42 +0000

"With her new book, “The Eichmann Trial,” historian Deborah Lipstadt attempts to refute Arendt’s main arguments. On the cover is an iconic image of Arendt—pearl-bedecked and pensive, a cigarette dangling from her fingers—and an entire chapter of the book discusses her arguments. Although other scholars have re-examined the Eichmann trial — most notably the Israeli historian Hannah Yablonka, in a book published in English in 2004 as “The State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann” — Lipstadt aims to reach a wider audience." Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial is “Anything but Banal,” says WSJ

Nextbook Press — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:02:06 +0000

"In "The Eichmann Trial," Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish history at Emory University, presents a thoughtfully researched and clearly written account of the courtroom proceedings and of the debates spurred by the trial." Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt Presents “Justice and Accountability: Confronting Adolf Eichmann after the Holocaust”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 20:05:43 +0000

Free and open to the public
RSVP by March 28 to Lynda Ilomaki in the Museum’s Southeast Regional Office at 561.995.6773 or southeast@ushmm.org

The Eichmann Trial, “an Important Book”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 19:32:10 +0000

"When I first opened this book, I thought: what can there possibly be to add to the story of the Eichmann Trial that has not been said already in these last 50 years? But from the first page on, I was mesmerized by the way in which Deborah Lipstadt describes and evaluates the event and its repercussions." Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial on Spotlight: Revealing the voice of the victim

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:11:30 +0000

"In the years after the trial, we’ve seen how survivors became the driving force in the creation of Holocaust memorials and memory. Although it would be simplistic to say that the trial alone was responsible, Lipstadt argued the message is to understand that the voice of the victim is tremendously crucial." Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt to speak at Viterbo in Wisconsin

Nextbook Press — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:46:47 +0000

Deborah Lipstadt of Emory University will speak at 10:15 a.m. Thursday, March 17.
She will speak to teachers attending our fifth Holocaust Educators’ Workshop, and due to the importance of her topic, we are opening it to the public for a free talk. Her book “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier,” is the story of her libel trial against David Irving, who sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier.
Her legal battle, at the cost of $1.5 million, lasted five years, and the judge found Irving to be a Holocaust denier, a falsifier of history, a racist and a liar.
She will speak again at 7 p.m. March 17, also at no charge, about her new book “The Eichmann Trial,” being released March 15.
As the “Jewish specialist” of the SS, Adolf Eichmann efficiently organized the arrest and transportation of millions of Jews to death and concentration camps.
After the war, he hid in Argentina, where he was seized by Israeli agents in 1960 and brought to trial in Israel. Not only did the trial establish his guilt, but it brought details of the Holocaust to the forefront, which encouraged survivors to speak about their experiences and schools to begin to teach about it.
Do not miss the opportunity to hear Deborah Lipstadt speak.

Burnt Books Reviewed: “Thoroughly Secular, Deeply Religious, Seriously Joking:

Nextbook Press — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:36:39 +0000

"Like Kafka’s parables and the enigmatic, humane tales of Rabbi Nachman, Rodger Kamenetz’s Burnt Books has an economical generosity that is thoroughly secular, deeply religious, and seriously joking." Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial Reviewed: “Highly Recommended”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:33:10 +0000

"Highly recommended for students, scholars, and researchers analyzing actions and motives of war crimes perpetrators and their victims during periods of political conflict and courtroom confrontation." Continue reading →

Reading of Sacred Trash in Cambridge

Nextbook Press — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:43:10 +0000

Join Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Cambridge’s Porter Square Books where they will read from Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza.

Sacred Trash reading in Forest Hills

Nextbook Press — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:22:14 +0000

Join Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Havesi Jewish Heritage Library at the YM & YWHA in Forest Hills, NY.

Sacred Trash Reading at DC’s Politics & Prose

Nextbook Press — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:56:20 +0000

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole will be reading at the bookstore. Check store website for details.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole in Conversation in Jersey

Nextbook Press — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:00:49 +0000

Join the authors at Labyrinth Books in Princeton for a conversation about their collaborative title, Sacred Trash.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Baruch College

Nextbook Press — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:41:07 +0000

The Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College presents Peter Cole, poet and MacArthur Fellow; and Adina Hoffman, author of House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood will discuss the significance of the 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in Cairo.

Sacred Trash Reading and Talk at Yale

Nextbook Press — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:54:57 +0000

Join Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at Yale University’s Whitney Humanities Center, Room 208

An Evening with Deborah Lipstadt and Peter Alexander: Justice and Accountability: Confronting Adolf Eichmann After the Holocaust

Nextbook Press — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:07:20 +0000

On the occasion of the launch of her new book, The Eichmann Trial, which marks the 50th anniversary of that “trial of the century,” the Museum welcomes award-winning historian Deborah E. Lipstadt for an evening event in New York. NBC News Correspondent Peter Alexander will interview Dr. Lipstadt to explore her many findings and insights.

Tickets are $175 per person, $200 after March 22. Event sponsorships are available. Register by March 28 at www.ushmm.org/events/nynextgen.

Eichmann, a midlevel SS officer central to the planning and implementation of the “Final Solution,” was captured by Israeli agents while hiding in Argentina in 1960 and brought to Israel to be tried in a court of law. Televised around the world, the Eichmann trial refocused attention on the murder of the Jews of Europe. It featured eyewitness testimony by Holocaust survivors speaking out in an unprecedented way, putting a face not only on the perpetrators, such as Eichmann, but also on the millions of victims and survivors.

Deborah E. Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. She is the author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving (a National Jewish Book Award winner); Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory; and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945. She is a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council’s Academic Committee and served on the Council in 2001-2005. She lives in Atlanta.

NBC News Correspondent Peter Alexander will interview Dr. Lipstadt to explore her many findings and insights.

Event Chairs
Blake and Joseph Breslow
Deborah and Eric Edell
Julie and Reuben Kopel

New York Next Generation Board
Julie Kopel, Chair
Ryan Abramow
Daniel Bellehsen
Joseph Breslow
Deborah Edell
Jesse Izak
Barry L. Levine
Nicole P. Lieberman
Lauren Posner
Stacey Saiontz

2011 Committee (in formation)
Ryan Abramow, Jennifer and Daniel Agus, Danielle and Jonathan Auerbach, Daniel Bellehsen, Sarah Brown, Mark P. Covitt, Lawrence Elbaum, Jeremy Elias, Dorit Feith, Allyson and Adam Fishman, Adam D. Friedland, Yonina and Eric Gomberg, Alexandra Rose Gootkin, Alana and Josh Hackel, Abbi and Jeremy Halpern, Alene and Jonathan Herman, Jesse Izak, Stephanie Katz, Barry L. Levine, Nicole and Avi Lieberman, David Pantirer, Ashish D. Patel, Lauren Posner, Melissa and Bradford Rand, Samantha and Jonathan Rubenstein, Stacey and Marc Saiontz, Julie and Jonathan Schwartz, Dana Septimus and Joseph Feldman, Jeff Silberman, Sybilla Slavin, Avi Spielman, Jenna L. Statfeld, Liora Tarlowe, Brandon Weinstein, Jennifer A. Zuckerman

Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served and dietary laws observed.

The New York Next Generation, a dedicated community of emerging philanthropists and leaders, supports the Museum by honoring the victims of the Holocaust and transforming their memory into meaningful action today. Through events and educational programming, the Next Generation provides friends of the Museum in their 20s, 30s, and 40s with the opportunity to network with like-minded people while helping to combat hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity around the world.

For more information, contact Jana Neil at 212.983.0825 or jneil@ushmm.org.

Sacred Trash features “The Living Sea Scrolls: Inside a ‘battlefield of books,’ a rich mosaic of Egyptian Jewish life”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:43:52 +0000

"This April, the Schocken / Nextbook Jewish Encounters series will publish “Sacred Trash: The Lost and Found World of the Cairo Geniza” by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole, which tells in dynamic fashion the story of the retrieval of what has often been called the greatest discovery of Jewish manuscripts ever made." Continue reading →

The Atlantic shares our excitement in the new typeface

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:39:23 +0000

"What I love about it is the narrator of the piece is great evidence that craft and dedication don't have to go away in a digital world. We can connect new possibilities with our oldest traditions." Continue reading →

Matthew Carter Helps Revive a Masterpiece of 16th-Century Type Design” in The Selected Poems of Yehuda Halevi

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:28:57 +0000

"It’s worth noting that Le Bé’s resurrection was commissioned explicitly for an e-book, a medium that let Kosovsky experiment in ways not possible with a physical book. For instance, he was able vary page lengths, depending on the size of each poem. A longer poem got a longer page, a shorter poem a shorter one." Continue reading →

The Jewish Book Week keeps an eye out for upcoming Nextbook Press publications The Eichmann Trial and Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:31:34 +0000

"The next two titles in Nextbook’s Jewish Encounters series are not biographies like most of the previous volumes, but books sharply focused on events." Continue reading →

Yehuda Halevi reviewed in Jewish Quarterly Review’s Winter issue

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 17:07:33 +0000

"Halkin’s biography, a very wide-ranging and ambitious work, is popular in the best sense of the term. Written in a lively and informal style, the book captures the drama and color of Halevi’s life, of the Mediterranean societies in which he lived, and of his reputation’s vicissitudes throughout the ages. And though it dispenses with footnotes and relegates all technical discussions to a series of appendices, it is based on solid scholarship, displaying a deep familiarity with the relevant primary sources and secondary literature. In a recent interview Halkin commented, ‘‘Yehudah Halevi is one of the perhaps few great writers that the more you know him as a person, the more you love him as a person.’’ That love, without dulling Halkin’s critical sensibilities, comes through in the biography." Continue reading →

E-Poetry, Hebrew Style: The Selected Poems of Yehuda Halevi featured in Print Magazine’s Blog

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:46:15 +0000

"This e-book marks the debut of the new Hebrew types Kosofsky made with Matthew Carter, after originals by Guillaume Le Bé." Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz to Speak at the Menorah-Cheshire Reform Synagogue in Manchester

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:26:20 +0000

Elliot Cohen has invited the best-selling American author (Professor) Rodger Kamenetz to speak at the Menorah Synagogue at 6.00pm about his new book ‘Burnt Books’. Elliot will also be bringing his guitar for some Hassidic Niggunim to introduce the talk. … Continue reading →

A Salon with Scott-Martin Kosofsky at the Type Directors Club

Nextbook Press — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:52:11 +0000

Tales From the Borderlands of Typographic Experience
A typographic perfectionist talks about the architecture of complex books for complex times

Hypertexts are nothing new; the desire to keep multiple strands of related text together on a page goes far back into the era of manuscripts. In print, there are already examples by the 1480s. If you’ve ever seen a page of the Talmud, with its interlocking blocks of type on every page, you may have wondered why it was made that way and how it was constructed. More to the point: What do these books have tell us about the possibilities for today’s books, both in print and, especially, new forms of e-books, or even the design and typography of business and sci-tech manuals? Quite a lot, says Scott-Martin Kosofsky, who will talk about some of his recent breakthroughs and experiments, reviving and reinterpreting old ideas and working out new ones.

Best known for his Judaic work, Scott lives near Boston, where he designs, edits, produces, packages (and sometimes writes) books in a number of areas, including some excellent photography books, and also makes many of his own types, including some new Hebrews that deploy new technology for the automated placement of the notoriously complicated diacritical marks used in Bible and liturgy. His first variable-page-size e-book was recently published by Nextbook; it also marks the debut of a new Hebrew type he made with Matthew Carter, based on 16th-century originals. Scott is immediate past president of Boston’s Society of Printers and Hebrew type consultant for Adobe Systems.

TDC members: free
Non-members: $20
Students: $15

The Selected Poems of Yehuda Halevi

Nextbook Press — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 21:56:18 +0000

translated and annotated BY hillel halkin

Please enter your email to receive a free e-book of The Selected Poems of Yehuda Halevi.

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Yehuda Halevi was one of the greatest Jewish poets of all time, a romantic figure who, though he lived 900 years ago, continues to compel interest today. Nextbook Press is pleased to make available here, in its first original e-book, this collection of 35 poems by Yehuda Halevi in their original Hebrew, alongside masterful translations by renowned essayist, critic, and translator Hillel Halkin, who is the author of a biography of Halevi for Nextbook Press. Each poem has been annotated by Halkin to offer brief commentary and context for a poet who could be intensely erotic, confessional, spiritual, and liturgical, often at the same time.

Designed by Scott Martin-Kosofsky, using a new Hebrew font revived from centuries ago, this digital poetry chapbook is available for free.

Book Preview: Click on the images below for a preview of the e-book.

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Conversion and Hillel: Torahmusings.com joins the conversation sparked by Joseph Telushkin

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:10:32 +0000

"We need more people like Hillel. This is the central theme of R. Joseph Telushkin’s eloquent and thoughtful Hillel: If Not Now, When? and I cannot imagine anyone disagreeing with it. " Continue reading →

An interview with Rebecca Goldstein, “an unlikely candidate for popular novelist”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:03:02 +0000

"My last book was a nonfiction about Spinoza. It was [subtitled] “The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity." Through that book I got drawn, in a peripheral kind of way, into the debate between the so-called "new atheists" and others. I started being invited to speak at various of the conferences of the new atheists, and I was just struck by the lack of communication between [atheists and believers]. I was struck by the lack of charity and the failure – on both sides – to understand what the other was getting at. And the amount of emotion that was involved." Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz Hits the Distinguished Speaker Series in Los Gatos, CA

Nextbook Press — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:33:02 +0000

Rodger Kamenetz is an award winning poet and author and has been called “the most formidable of the Jewish poets.” Kamenetz has long been engaged in the study and practice of Jewish spirituality. Come hear him speak at the APJCC. … Continue reading →

Sacred Trash, a “charming and unobtrusively erudite new book”

Nextbook Press — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 15:50:11 +0000

“Charming and unobtrusively erudite.... Hoffman and Cole have produced colorful portraits of the Geniza scholars, their intellectual passions, their scholarly agendas and controversies, and in some cases, their personal egos and jealousies...Fascinating...a very human story.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash, “[a] vivid portrayal of the discovery of the ancient Cairo Geniza”

Nextbook Press — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:26:11 +0000

"...equal parts treasure hunt for the sacred and historical and Herculean rescue of important texts.... Sacred Trash is a wonderfully accessible and exciting account of ‘numerous heroes, medieval and modern’ and their discoveries of artifacts that have transformed our understanding of the interplay between history and religion.” Continue reading →

Sacred Trash Talk and Reading in New York

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:23:45 +0000

Join Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole at the Jewish Theological Seminary in the Women’s League Seminary Synagogue.

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole in New Haven to discuss Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 22:12:00 +0000

Join the authors for a talk and reading at the Westville Synagogue.

Sacred Trash, “absorbing”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 21:07:28 +0000

"Absorbing … Hoffman and Cole are adroit in their exegesis … [Sacred Trash is] an accessible, neatly narrated story of hallowed detritus and the resurrection of nearly 1,000 years of culture and learning." Continue reading →

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole read from Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:58:33 +0000

Join Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole for a talk and reading for the Center for Sephardic Heritage.

Deborah Lipstadt on Fox’s Lexical Choices

Nextbook Press — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:05:47 +0000

"Rupert Murdoch recently made a stirring pro-Israel speech to the ADL but, as his attempt to purchase BSkyB is being adjudicated in the UK, it is incidents like these that should carefully be kept in mind." Continue reading →

Sacred Trash

Nextbook Press — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 15:03:41 +0000

Acclaimed essayist Adina Hoffman and MacArthur-winning poet and translator Peter Cole tell the story of the recovery from a Cairo geniza (a repository for worn-out texts) of the most vital cache of Hebrew manuscripts ever discovered. Part biography and part meditation on the supreme value the Jewish people has long placed on the written word, Sacred Trash is above all a gripping tale of adventure and redemption.

Meredith Patrick’s essay from What We Brought Back appears online

Nextbook Press — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:38:47 +0000

"The 10 days I spent in Israel were 10 of the best days of my life. I became close to several of my fellow students, who were all very welcoming and made me feel a part of the Jewish community." Continue reading →

What We Brought Back celebrates first decade of Birthright

Nextbook Press — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 19:26:39 +0000

"As a whole, the reflections in this compilation are insightful, tender, thought-provoking, clever and funny." Continue reading →

A Fine Romance: David Lehman’s quirky romp through 20th-century American popular song

Nextbook Press — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 18:42:51 +0000

"It is one of the pleasures of A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, poet and critic David Lehman’s quirky romp through 20th-century American popular song — a book combining history, anecdote, memoir, poetry, and biography — that we can read stories like this about an enduring part of American culture." Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz: “Mining the surprisingly parallel strains, yet stunning incongruities, of the most intriguing Jews of the past 200 years”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:04:58 +0000

Mining the surprisingly parallel strains, yet stunning incongruities, of the most intriguing Jews of the past 200 years is a bold venture. Welcome to the cross-section of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the early 19th-century spiritualist guru of radical religious meaning, and Franz Kafka, the early 20th-century existentialist extraordinaire. Continue reading →

The Eichmann Trial

Nextbook Press — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:16:17 +0000

Award-winning historian Deborah Lipstadt gives us an overview of the trial and analyzes the dramatic effect that the testimony of survivors in a court of law— which was itself not without controversy— had on a world that had until then regularly commemorated the Holocaust but never fully understood the millions who died and the hundreds of thousands who managed to survive.

Hillel Halkin’s Yehuda Halevi Forward Fives: 2010 in Non-Fiction

Nextbook Press — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:36:08 +0000

Hillel Halkin’s biography of the philosopher, doctor, communal leader and, arguably, the greatest Jewish poet of medieval Spain is almost a love letter. A man who also chose life in Israel, Halkin empathizes with Halevi’s extreme longing for Zion. Continue reading →

Hillel: One of Emunah Magazine’s Editor’s Choices

Nextbook Press — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:19:16 +0000

"Telushkin's reader-friendly style acquaints us with the different approaches of Hillel and Shammai which continue to resonate today...This book should provoke many interesting discussions." Continue reading →

Deborah Lipstadt writes “Why Murdoch’s BSkyB Bid Really is Worrying”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 16:46:31 +0000

"I know many Jews who, in European terminology, would be classified as "centre left." They believe that the domestic and foreign policies of the Republican Party bode poorly for America. They abhor Sarah Palin and fear the Tea Party and what they consider to be its rather simplistic world view. Irrespective of where they live, their daily paper is The New York Times..." Continue reading →

What We Brought Back reveals “moving transformations”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:01:20 +0000

“Birthright’s alumni reveal the high and low points of their sojourns abroad, and examine their religio-Zionist identities before and after. Men and women, straight and gay: Most came home reinvigorated as Jews…there are moving transformations.” Continue reading →

London’s Jewish Book Week presents Rodger Kamenetz

Nextbook Press — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:46:49 +0000

Rodger Kamenetz will jetset to London’s Jewish Book Week to present his Burnt Books along with Susannah Heschel of Dartmouth College.

The Dylan Sessions: Save the Date

Nextbook Press — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:24:23 +0000

If you’re in the New York City area and are hankering for a night of edifying entertainment, then head over to the 14th Street Y, on Wednesday, January 19th, by 7 p.m. Why? Novelist/Musician Rick Moody and Poet/Musical Historian David Lehman will be talkin’ bout Bob Dylan.

You may recall how these two recently improvised some great things about an amazing photo of Dylan, The Band, and Cher. If not, read this post from the Forward‘s Arty Semite.

So if this free literary, musical, Dylan-Moody-Lehman-Cher-themed event, sounds like your kind of thing–and we hope it does–RSVP at the event’s Facebook page.

NBP is keeping Christmas music alive with author David Lehman

Nextbook Press — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 16:09:55 +0000

"And as Lehman ably explains in A Fine Romance (Nextbook, 222 pp.), his perceptive history of the influence of Jewish songwriters on the American musical catalog, “the Jewish element in American popular song is a property not only of the notes and chords but of the words as well, or, more exactly, the union between words and music.” Jewish songwriters absorbed and displayed a discerning understanding of American culture." Continue reading →

Hillel Halkin’s Yehuda Halevi named Best Book of the Year

Nextbook Press — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:10:11 +0000

"Easily the year's best, however, is Hillel Halkin's Yehuda Halevi, which packs enough learning into one small volume for three or four scholarly studies but does so with an unrivaled lightness of touch and an unembarrassed partisan love for Jews, Jewish books, and the Jewish state." Continue reading →

Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle Exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Nextbook Press — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:57:36 +0000

As a symbol of culture, freedom, and modernity, the city of Paris held a magnetic attraction for artists from Eastern Europe during the early decades of the twentieth century. Most painters and sculptors settled in a vibrant area of Paris known as Montparnasse, which was sprinkled with artists’ residences, cafes, and art galleries; it was here that Alexander Archipenko, Marc Chagall, Moïse Kisling, Jacques Lipchitz, Louis Marcoussis, Amedeo Modigliani, Chana Orloff, Jules Pascin, Margit Pogany, Chaim Soutine, and Ossip Zadkine established studios and discovered each other’s work. This exhibition will include around 40 paintings and sculptures by these emigré artists, all of which were created in a unique atmosphere of mutual encouragement and support in Paris before the Second World War. The exhibition will focus in particular on the paintings that Chagall made between 1910 and 1920, including the artist’s early masterpiece Half Past Three (The Poet), of 1911, which has long been considered one of the great treasures of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

This exhibition was organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is presented in conjunction with the first annual Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA), inspired by the Kimmel Center, on the theme of “Paris: 1910-1920.

Rodger Kamenetz to speak at Allegheny College’s Schick Lecture

Nextbook Press — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 16:29:22 +0000

Rodger Kamenetz, author of the international bestseller “The Jew in the Lotus,” will present the annual Samuel Schick Lecture at Allegheny College at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the Tippie Alumni Center. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled “What I Learned About Judaism from the Dalai Lama: Spiritual Ecology and the Endangered Species of Religion.”

“The Jew in the Lotus” describes the historic dialogue that occurred when the Dalai Lama asked Jews to give him the secret of spiritual survival in exile. Kamenetz’s lecture at Allegheny will explore the sense of threat that is common to spiritual traditions today in the world of global competition and the exchange of survival secrets that occurred between rabbis and Buddhist monks as each came to discover the power of true dialogue.

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish Thought, Kamenetz is the author of nine other books, including five books of poetry. His most recent book is a dual biography, “Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka.” Kamenetz is Distinguished Professor of English and Religious Studies Emeritus at Louisiana State University.

The Samuel Schick Lecture Series is made possible by a gift from the Barry and Florence Friedberg Family Philanthropic Fund. For more information about the lecture, contact the college’s Office of Spiritual and Religious Life at 814-332-2800 or rellife@allegheny.edu.

The lecture is also part of Allegheny’s Year of Global Citizenship, a series of events and activities aimed at enhancing the campus and community’s understanding of what it means to be a citizen in an increasingly globalized world. For more information on the Year of Global Citizenship, visit www.allegheny.edu/yearof.

Rodger Kamenetz’s Burnt Books “the best of places to start” with Kafka and Nachman

Nextbook Press — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:14:41 +0000

"In every practical consideration, they were both total losers right through to their deaths. They only became posthumous winners because those closest to them refused to carry out their dearest and most important wishes. Our obsessions about them reveal our own inner emptiness and cravings for guidance. Mr. Kamenetz's wonderful, sympathetic book is the best of places to start." Continue reading →

Jewish Book World reviews Burnt Books and interviews author Rodger Kamenetz: “I can’t talk about Rabbi Nachman without talking about Kafka”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:33:14 +0000

"Burnt Books is a fascinating and intellectually challenging journey of heart and mind." Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz at the AWP Conference in DC

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:05:57 +0000

Memoir, Spirituality and the Self in the Narcissistic Culture of Our Time.

Elizabeth Kadetsky, Rodger Kamenetz, Farideh Goldin, Julia Spciher Kasdorf) If one believes the detractors, memoir bears responsibility second only to reality TV for fomenting this “narcissistic” age, in Christopher Lasch’s term—an era of therapeutic jargon that celebrates not so much individualism as solipsism, justifying self-absorption as “authenticity” and “awareness.” Here, we consider quests for self-knowledge as linked, rather, to a spiritual project. How can memoir point to places beyond the self—to transcendence, insight or affiliation with human community?

Rodger Kamenetz at the 16th Street JCC in Washington DC

Nextbook Press — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:43:33 +0000

Join Rodger Kamenetz for his discussion on Burnt Books at the DC JCC on Tuesday, December 14 at 7:30.

Rodger Kamenetz paints a “dramatic and revelatory double portrait” in Burnt Books

Nextbook Press — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:18:32 +0000

Kamenetz's dramatic and revelatory double portrait is built on a solid foundation of elegantly explicated Jewish thought deepened by the story of his journey to Ukraine to visit Rabbi Nachman's grave. Here is a whole new slant on Kafka, a unique and affecting portrait of a creative holy man, and a radiant inquiry in celebration of how both sacred texts and great literature are open to "infinite interpretation." Continue reading →

What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright Reading at Brooklyn’s Pete’s Candy Store

Nextbook Press — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:32:56 +0000

Join us for a reading by several contributors to What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright. Published in December, this anthology – a project of Nextbook Inc. and Birthright Israel NEXT, published by Toby Press, and edited by Wayne Hoffman – includes essays, poems, photos, graphics, and more by alumni of Birthright Israel Trips. Read more about the book here: http://nextbookpress.com/books/487/

This event is sponsored by Tablet Magazine (tabletmag.com), a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.

Readers include Ruvym Gilman, MK Hall, Paul Siegell

What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright Reading at The Strand

Nextbook Press — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:34:21 +0000

Join us for a reading by several contributors to What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright. Published in December, this anthology – a project of Nextbook Inc. and Birthright Israel NEXT, published by Toby Press, and edited by Wayne Hoffman – includes essays, poems, photos, graphics, and more by alumni of Birthright Israel Trips. Read more about the book here.

This event is sponsored by Tablet Magazine (tabletmag.com), a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.

Readers at this event include: Eric Leven, Shoshana Rubin, Mordechai Shinefield, Jake Marmer

What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright Reading at New York’s KGB Bar

Nextbook Press — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:43:22 +0000

This event is sponsored by Tablet Magazine (tabletmag.com), a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.

Readers at this event include: Ilya Khodosh, Nathaniel Popper, Elissa Strauss

What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright Reading at San Francisco’s Dog Eared Books

Nextbook Press — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:39:38 +0000

This event is sponsored by Tablet Magazine (tabletmag.com), a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.

Readers at this event include: Eva Tuschman, Joy Prendergast, Aaron Pribble, Kali Eichen

What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright Reading at Chicago’s Uncommon Ground

Nextbook Press — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:34:53 +0000

This event is sponsored by Tablet Magazine (tabletmag.com), a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture.

Readers at this event include: Rebecca Plotnick, Jordan Fliegel, Jessica Young, Alli Wade, Ilana Schonfeld-Hicks

“Hillel’s teachings still resonate, rabbi says”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:51:05 +0000

Telushkin offered this piece of wisdom as a frequently ignored aphorism from Hillel: An ill-tempered person can’t be a teacher. “We don’t learn well when we’re afraid,” Telushkin said, his voice rising as he punched the air for emphasis. “You want to make people love the material. When you teach with love, the love suffuses the people who are learning it. So he lived 2,000 years ago? What he taught is still relevant. These aren’t clichés; these are life lessons that can still affect the way we live.” Continue reading →

Clare Burson in Brooklyn

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:54:11 +0000

Clare Burson’s lush string arrangements and rich vocals – at times wistful, at times full of desperation, but at all times direct – come together to fill her songs with nostalgia and longing. According to NPR Burson “brings together old and new folk music, with an indie rock undercurrent in any number of the songs that conveys a resilience, a determination.”

Sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in New York

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:53:32 +0000

Sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Philadelphia

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:53:01 +0000

Sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Arlington

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:46:23 +0000

Sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Pittsburgh

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:46:10 +0000

Her family’s Holocaust-haunted past informs the new album from singer-songwriter Clare Burson.
Listen to the VOX Tablet podcast featuring Clare Burson.

Event sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Birmingham

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:45:19 +0000

Her family’s Holocaust-haunted past informs the new album from singer-songwriter Clare Burson.
Listen to the VOX Tablet podcast featuring Clare Burson.

Event sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Nashville

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:41:51 +0000

Her family’s Holocaust-haunted past informs the new album from singer-songwriter Clare Burson.
Listen to the VOX Tablet podcast featuring Clare Burson.

Event sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in St. Louis

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:39:18 +0000

Her family’s Holocaust-haunted past informs the new album from singer-songwriter Clare Burson.
Listen to the VOX Tablet podcast featuring Clare Burson.

Event sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Chicago

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:36:00 +0000

Her family’s Holocaust-haunted past informs the new album from singer-songwriter Clare Burson.
Listen to the VOX Tablet podcast featuring Clare Burson.

Event sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Bloomington

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:33:41 +0000

Sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Clare Burson in Cleveland

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:30:47 +0000

Her family’s Holocaust-haunted past informs the new album from singer-songwriter Clare Burson.
Listen to the VOX Tablet podcast featuring Clare Burson.

Event sponsored by Tablet Magazine

Festival of Strikes

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:13:10 +0000

Tablet Magazine is a proud co-sponsor of Festival of Strikes a Hanukkah party and concert to benefit JDub.

Join comedian Eugene Mirman and kick off the holiday season one night early!
Featuring live performances by The Sway Machinery, DeLeon and Tel Aviv’s Soulico.

Tuesday, November 30th, from 7-11 PM
Brooklyn Bowl
Doors at 6 PM, Show 7-11 PM, 21+
Tickets: $15 Advance / $18 Door

The Festival of Strikes is made possible with support from the UJA-Federation of New York and is sponsored by Tablet Magazine. Co-sponsors include the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, HIAS, Birthright Israel NEXT, and Joshua Venture Group.

Those interested in a VIP experience in support of JDub are encouraged to purchase a donor bowling packages; details at jdubrecords.org/vip or 212.930.3671.

About the artists:

Russian-born comedian Eugene Mirman was recently named the “Best New York Comedian” by The Village Voice and one of the 10 best comedians of the last decade by Paste Magazine.

The Sway Machinery‘s sound stems from Lockwood’s rich musical relationships with his grandfather Cantor Jacob Konigsberg and his mentor Carolina Slim, the renowned blues player who fondly guided Lockwood’s musical development. The band will perform songs off of their debut album, Hidden Melodies, Revealed, as well as from the forthcoming album, The House of Friendly Ghosts Vol. 1, the inspired result of a trip to the Festival of the Desert in Timbuktu.

“Lockwood sings, chants, and growls in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Aramaic. But there is something familiar in his arrangements, rich with wailing horns, testifying guitar, and rhythms and cadences borne out of Africa, forced across an ocean and deposited in the New World where they became the blues and jazz.” – Tablet (link tohttp://www.tabletmag.com/arts-and-culture/music/1147/swinging-in-the-new-year/)
“Deep and funky at times, bluesy and hypnotic at others…exhilarating, incomparable moments.” – Jambase

Reimagining 500 year old Ladino folk songs as modern indie rock, DeLeon’s debut album was described as “a dizzying ride that answers the question, what if the Os Mutantes were Jewish?” (Heeb) and “seamless swirls of low-rent loft rock and Spanish-crooned sunset laments.” – CMJ

Israeli DJs Soulico create “an exuberant synthesis of traditional Israeli folk melodies and familiar hip-hop sensibilities.” – Pitchfork.

About the event:

Festival of Strikes is the holiday party to kick off the season on the night before Hanukkah. While at the concert, capture that perfect holiday picture to send to friends and family and create last-minute gifts. Plus, the first 150 people in the door will receive a free drink!

Jews & Politics

jdub — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:12:12 +0000

Susan Sher, Michelle Obama’s chief of staff and the White House’s liaison to the Jewish community, will join New York Times writer Jodi Kantor as a Midwestern voice in one of a series of discussions to explore how Jews around the country engage with politics and influence the national conversation.

Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 the day of the event.

“With All Thine Heart: Love and the Bible” Author Talks with Ilan Stavans and Barry Moser

Nextbook Press — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:12:21 +0000

The author and artist discuss depictions of the Bible and their recent collaboration.

“Examining Hillel’s sage wisdom — beyond the jargon”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:44:11 +0000

"...the paper trail in the Talmud and Midrash gives many clues as to the kind of man he was, and that’s what Telushkin focused on during his five years of research and writing." Continue reading →

Burnt Books aptly relates two unlikely Jewish personalities

Nextbook Press — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 19:39:51 +0000

It's hard to imagine two more disparate characters: the Hasidic rabbi rooted in the life of the 18th-century shtetl and the secular novelist of early 20th-century Prague. And yet in linking the biographies of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav and Franz Kafka in this profound study, poet and scholar Rodger Kamenetz weaves a web of connection so intricate it seems plausible that one of his subjects might have stared into a mirror and seen the other's face. Continue reading →

“That Obnoxious Order”: Ulysses S. Grant and the Jews” : A Lecture by Dr. Jonathan Sarna

Nextbook Press — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:34:25 +0000

During the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant issued an order to expel all Jews from his war zone. Dr. Jonathan Sarna, the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and chief historian of the new National Museum of American Jewish History, will explore how the repercussions of this order influenced Grant’s subsequent presidency and the American Jews of his day.

Dr. Sarna is the author of The American Jewish Experience and American Judaism: A History, among many other books. He was Chief Historian for the 350th commemoration of the American Jewish community and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This lecture is made possible by a grant from the Celebrate 350: Jewish Life in America Foundation, which commemorates the 1654 establishment in New Amsterdam of the first Jewish community in North America.

Discover Hillel

Nextbook Press — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:10:17 +0000

Thank you for your interest in Hillel. This special offer you have requested is no longer available but if you would like to stay informed of future special offers from Nextbook Press please fill out the form below.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin’s new book Hillel: If Not Now, When? Telushkin, a renowned author and ethicist, examines the life of the great sage Hillel, and puts his most important teachings into modern context. He also delves into the 2,000-year-old theological debates that made Hillel such an important figure, explores the possible influence that Hillel had on Jesus, and examines the enduring significance of Hillel’s concept of tikkun olam – repairing the world – as a basis for modifying Jewish law.

Hillel: If Not Now When? has received incredible critical response: It has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and is one of Publishers Weekly’s best books of the year. I hope this book will generate passionate discussion and debate within your Jewish community.

Our website contains additional information on the book, including a reader’s guide and a video interview with the author, here.

Joseph Telushkin’s tour of campus Hillels a hit

Nextbook Press — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:28:46 +0000

“We had a pretty full house, and I think people are looking for different ways of thinking about the world — a Jewish lens that was remarkably universal,” David Cohen said. Continue reading →

Joseph Telushkin’s Hillel highly recommended

Nextbook Press — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:54:29 +0000

If you’re a Jewish scholar, a recent convert...pick this book up. You won’t be disappointed. Continue reading →

Kamenetz pens a new chapter in his long journey of discovery

Nextbook Press — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:56:36 +0000

"Burnt Books" deftly blends a travel narrative with literary criticism, a double biography, and speculations about the parallel spiritual lessons of Nachman and Kafka. At one point, Kamenetz quotes an observation, by philosopher Gershom Sholem, that Kafka leads readers to "those mystical theses that lie on the narrow boundary between religion and nihilism." That's a pretty good description of "Burnt Books," too -- although Kamenetz insists, with a hearty laugh, that "this book is very much an autobiography." Continue reading →

Author David Lehman wins a 2010 Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP for A Fine Romance

Nextbook Press — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:32:16 +0000

Fresh news is out that Nextbook Press Author David Lehman has won this prestigious award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. Said Lehman in his announcement to the media, “I’ve got a feeling you’re fooling,” I said when the guy from ASCAP called. I was sure he was mouthing little white lies. But True Blue Lou was on the level. My heart stood still, and now I’m sitting on top of the world, which I’ve got on a string." Continue reading →

Burnt Books by Rodger Kamenetz reviewed: “If you are going to descend to Kafka’s circle of hell, then it helps to have a trustworthy guide”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:08:54 +0000

"If you are going to descend to Kafka’s circle of hell, then it helps to have a trustworthy guide, both learned and hopeful, such as Rodger Kamenetz, who in a brilliant and fascinating new book illuminates Kafka by comparing and contrasting him with a Hasidic mystic, Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav." Continue reading →

On Hillel: “This is a book that the Jewish community has waited for for a long time.”

Nextbook Press — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:16:56 +0000

"It is not a convention biography of the Talmudic Sage, Hillel. Instead, what Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has done in this book is raise the question: What would Hillel say if he could speak to us today? His answer, according to Rabbi Telushkin, would be two-fold. He would say that ethics has priority over ritual in the Jewish system. And he would say that Judaism should be an open and a welcoming religion to those who wish to join us." Continue reading →

Award-Winning New Orleans Writer Rodger Kamenetz’ New Volume “Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav and Franz Kafka”

Nextbook Press — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:41:14 +0000

Today - on "The Sound of Books" - with Fred Kasten - the new book from award-winning New Orleans writer Rodger Kamenetz - "Burnt Books: Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav and Franz Kafka" Continue reading →

William Jefferson Clinton Praises Shimon Peres’ Ben-Gurion

Nextbook Press — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:38:08 +0000

“In revisiting the career of his mentor, Shimon Peres presents a uniquely human portrait of David Ben-Gurion—a master strategist with a long view of history and an abiding vision for Israel’s future. Peres brings his nation’s founding father to life with the energy, candor, and wisdom he’s become known for in his six decades of public service.” Continue reading →

Burnt Books Released

Nextbook Press — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:15:56 +0000

Rodger Kamenetz’s Burnt Books is released today on Amazon. Franz Kafka and Rabbi Nachman fans can now pick up a copy.

Judah Maccabee

Nextbook Press — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:59:30 +0000

Award winning journalist Jeffrey Goldberg goes looking for Judah Maccabee, the warrior priest and Hanukkah hero who, together with his brothers, defeated the Assyrian Greeks in the 2nd Century BCE.

Jeffrey Goldberg

Nextbook Press — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:10:28 +0000

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, writes Tablet’s “Searching for Judah” column, which is based on his upcoming book for Nextbook Press’s Jewish Encounters series. Before joining The Atlantic in 2007, he was a correspondent for The New … Continue reading →

The Book of Job

Nextbook Press — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:35:29 +0000

The Jewish Encounter series will be complemented with Rabbi Kushner’s popular introduction to the Book of Job.

Harold Kushner helps celebrate the Global Day of Jewish Learning at the 92nd St. Y

Nextbook Press — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:51:31 +0000

On Sun, November 7, 2010, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, renowned Jewish teacher, philosopher, social critic and prolific author, will complete his 45 year long project of translation of and commentary on the Talmud. On this day, Jews and non-Jews from around the world will join in a Global Day of Jewish Learning and celebrate their shared identity, history and heritage—dozens and dozens of events at locations around the world, many connected to one another via satellite broadcast and webcast.

The 92nd Street Y is the flagship location for this once in a lifetime day. We will present a full day of panel discussions, broadcast via satellite throughout the United States and Canada, focusing on the themes of Leadership, Prayer, God and Love, with participants such as Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Rabbi Harold Kushner, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Rabbi Leon Morris, Rabbi Jennifer Krause, David Ellenson, Richard Joel, Arnie Eisen and many more.

Delving deeply into the themes that unite us all and showing how Jewish values can enrich and clarify our everyday lives, The Global Day of Jewish Learning will inform and inspire you. Please save the date.

Please see ticket website for exact times and details.

Harold Kushner

Nextbook Press — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:22:15 +0000

HAROLD KUSHNER is Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in the Boston suburb of Natick. He is best known as the author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, and ten other books, many of them best-sellers. He has been honored by the Christophers, a Roman Catholic organization, as one of fifty people who made the world a better place in the 20th Century.

The Jewish Encounter series will be complemented with Rabbi Kushner’s forthcoming popular introduction to the Book of Job. Rabbi Kushner has spent years brooding over Job—as a young doctoral student in Bible, rattled by recent revelations of the Holocaust, he contemplated a dissertation on the biblical character, only to find himself deferring the challenge. The book continued to haunt him, as a congregational rabbi counseling the bereaved, and as the father of a child taken young by terminal illness. He has finally returned to the subject with which he had planned to begin his scholarship, and has produced a book that understands the biblical world that produced “Job” as well as the modern world that continues to cry out for answers to life’s deepest mysteries. The book explores the biblical answer to the question of why God permits good people to suffer, as understood by people through the centuries and in our post-Holocaust age.

Deborah Lipstadt for the Guardian: “Even a ‘remake’ of Jud Süss can never be neutral”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:30:04 +0000

"Irrespective of how one feels about the film, there is a stunning irony inherent in this "remake". German law censors anything that promotes ideologies ruled to be dangerous to youth or anti-constitutional. One cannot, legally, buy a copy of Mein Kampf in Germany. Nor can one publicly display a swastika, deny that Auschwitz was a killing factory, or screen the original Jud Süss except in highly circumscribed settings. Any screening must be part of an educational or academic event and introduced by a historian. However, because this new film tells the story of the making of Jud Süss it can be shown, even though it re-enacts much of the original. Is censorship, even in the name of preventing the resurrection of nefarious ideologies, ever desirable?" Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz at Buffalo Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:30:26 +0000

David Lehman at Ohio Wesleyan University

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:24:04 +0000

David Lehman will be presenting a lecture and poetry reading at OWU. Please check back to the college website for updated details.

David Lehman, reading as the Milton Kessler Distinguished Poetry Reader.

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:18:21 +0000

Lehman will read Oct. 26 as this year’s Milton Kessler Distinguished Poetry Reader. A book signing and reception will follow.

KGB Poetry: Catherine Barnett & David Lehman

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:09:31 +0000

David Lehman is one of the founders of the Monday Night Poetry Series at KGB Bar. Join him and Catherine Barnett for a reading.

SB Southampton’s Writers Speak Series: David Lehman & Bill Henderson

Nextbook Press — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:05:12 +0000

Best American Poetry series editor David Lehman and Pushcart Prize anthology editor Bill Henderson expound on superlatives, the zeitgeist, literary magazines, and the writing life from the perspective of their geniuses and readings of their creative work. Reading, Reception & … Continue reading →

Yehuda Halevi: A fitting tribute to a great Jewish poet

Nextbook Press — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:08:36 +0000

"This is a tour de force. Hillel Halkin's Yehuda Halevi is a complex, daring, and consistently fascinating biography of a complex and daring man, one of the great heroes of Hebrew literature and Jewish history. Halevi comes second only to King David in his fame and influence as a Hebrew poet. He was also a renowned theologian who, in his last years, abandoned life in the fast lane of medieval Spain to make the perilous journey to settle in the land of Israel...a biography to last many generations." Continue reading →

Lunch and Learn with Rabbi Joseph Telushkin at Rochester University

Nextbook Press — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:48:28 +0000

Dr. Sherwin Nuland to speak at Yale’s Humanities in Medicine Conference: “Medicine, Technology, and Ethics: Past, Present and Future”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:50:31 +0000

Discover Yehuda Halevi

Nextbook Press — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 01:19:30 +0000

Thank you for your interest in Nextbook Press’s Jewish Encounters book series.

It is our pleasure to offer a free copy of Nextbook Press’s new book Yehuda Halevi by Hillel Halkin to you as a respected educator in the Jewish community. This is a book we are very proud of, and one that lends itself wonderfully to a class or group discussion. Yehuda Halevi tells the story of the most famous Spanish Jew of the Golden Age who, 1,000 years ago, turned his back on fame and family and sailed to Palestine, a decision that still reverberates inside Jewish cultural and political life today. Halkin’s Halevi is in some ways the first Zionist, in others the last romantic. His book is sure to stir discussion and debate.

Our website contains additional information on the book, including a reader’s guide and a video interview with author Hillel Halkin. You can also read one of Halevi’s poems, translated by Hillel Halkin, here.

David Lehman’s points on songwriters’ “determination to escape from their Jewish origins and join the American adventure” echoed in Adam Kirsch’s piece on Tablet Magazine

Nextbook Press — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:56:41 +0000

"This Midwestern epic, which seemed to capture the country’s most idealized image of itself—this story about cowboys and farmers, with names like Curly and Laurey and Jud—was being created in New York City by two Jews, with names like Hammerstein and Rogazinsky (Anglicized to Rodgers by the composer’s grandfather)." Continue reading →

Melissa Block and Joseph Telushkin discuss Hillel on NPR’s All Things Considered

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:37:04 +0000

"If you have something worth teaching, and it's principles of how to behave, then presumably, those principles will be helpful to people from any group." Continue reading →

Ruth Wisse’s upcoming book, The Glatstein Chronicles to be released November 1

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 17:16:56 +0000

“Hillel book puts rabbi’s teachings in perspective”

Nextbook Press — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:36:35 +0000

"Joseph Telushkin, a scholar and Orthodox rabbi who has made Jewish literacy his mission in earlier books, has composed a compact, thoughtful biography of the sage." Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz to speak at Austin Jewish Book Fair

Nextbook Press — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:46:14 +0000

Rodger Kamenetz, who gathered international fame for The Jew in the Lotus, will take us on a philosophical and historical journey with his latest work, Burnt Books.

For more information, visit the Austin Jewish Book Fair website.

Rodger Kamenetz to appear at New Orleans JCC 10/25

Nextbook Press — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:53:00 +0000

Join Rodger Kamenetz as he reads from his book, Burnt Books at the New Orleans JCC.

The Jewish Body author Melvin Konner newest addition to the Psychology Today blogosphere

Nextbook Press — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:06:43 +0000

Doctor Konner's "The Tangled Wing" blog on Psychology Today deconstructs various relevant topics in Anthropology, Biology, and Human Nature regularly. Continue reading →

Sherwin Nuland at the Chicago Humanities Festival

Nextbook Press — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:52:52 +0000

In his talk, Dr. Nuland will seek to illuminate the extraordinary ethical pressures exerted on today’s doctors by technology, economics, and end-of-life issues.

Maimonides author Sherwin Nuland to speak at TED-MED

Nextbook Press — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 16:44:25 +0000

Sherwin B. Nuland will present on the topic, “Has Technology Changed a Physician’s Values?” at Hotel Coronado in San Diego at this acclaimed Medical conference offshoot of TED Conferences.

Created by Marc Hodosh and Richard Saul Wurman, TEDMED celebrates conversations that demonstrate the intersection and connections between all things medical and healthcare related: from personal health to public health, devices to design and Hollywood to the hospital. Together, this encompasses more than twenty percent of our GNP in America while touching everyone’s life around the globe.

Best-selling author David Lehman in concert with Boston Musical Theater, under the direction of Charlotte Kaufman

Nextbook Press — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:58:19 +0000

Join David Lehman at Boston’s Paramount Theatre for a musical tour of the works of Irving Berlin, the Gershwin brothers, Harold Arlen and other Jewish songwriters who transformed American music.

Hillel opens the world of a great sage unknown to many Jews and members of other faiths

Nextbook Press — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:49:45 +0000

"Though he's one of the great sages of the Jewish people, save for an often misquoted aphorism or two, Hillel's true significance is a mystery to many Jews and members of other faiths. In this brief but rich intellectual biography addressed to a non-scholarly audience, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin attempts to fill that gap, offering a thoughtful exploration of this remarkable rabbi's teachings." Continue reading →

Yehuda Halevi a ‘remarkable achievement’

Nextbook Press — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:48:02 +0000

“A marvelous, gripping book…on a profound and deep subject. It is a remarkable achievement and I highly recommend it.” Continue reading →

Hillel Halkin admired for scholarly innovation

Nextbook Press — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:47:42 +0000

“A masterpiece….represents a a revolution in scholarship, a new way of doing an old task, and the innovative quality of the presentation works a wonder.” Continue reading →

Joseph Telushkin’s Hillel: Hillel at his most optimistic, succinct, and radical

Nextbook Press — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:47:28 +0000

“The venerable and much-quoted Rabbi Hillel has a lot to teach us twenty-first-century Jews. Thanks to Joseph Telushkin’s book, we experience Hillel at his most optimistic, succinct, and radical, insisting on the primacy of righteous behavior, an arms-wide welcome for converts, the challenge and blessing of lifelong Jewish learning, and the importance of Jewish educators who love their students and studies in equal measure.” Continue reading →

David Gregory on Hillel: Jumps off the page

Nextbook Press — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:00:59 +0000

“Joseph Telushkin’s portrait of the ancient Jewish leader Hillel jumps off the page with its contemporary resonances. Hillel’s lessons and sayings as a Talmud scholar have universal application for anyone interested in bringing dignity and peace to the world. In Hillel we find a master educator and a person of profound learning, spiritual depth, humility, and tolerance.” Continue reading →

Hillel: Not a conventional biography

Nextbook Press — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:52:21 +0000

Rabbi, lecturer, ethicist, novelist, playwright, and author, Telushkin demonstrates his unusual versatility in this 15th entry in the Jewish Encounters series. This new book about Hillel, “perhaps the greatest rabbi of the Talmud,” is not a conventional biography, since little is known about Hillel’s life. What is known comes as maxims and teachings based on stories in the Talmud and the Midrash; speculation places the period of Hillel’s religious leadership from about 30 B.C.E. to 10 C.E. During that time, he and his followers, the School of Hillel, frequently had disputes with the School of Shammai, led by Hillel’s adversary. One argument they had dealt with was the attitude to be taken toward a potential convert. Hillel offered this instruction: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the entire Torah! All the rest is commentary. Now, go and study.” Telushkin points out that this response is about ethics, not about rituals nor even about God, thereby underlining Judaism’s ethical essence. Telushkin’s lucid explanations are a model of clarity, enabling readers to better understand and appreciate the significant contributions of Hillel and their contemporary applications. Continue reading →

Rodger Kamenetz at the Jewish Public Library, Montreal

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:43:16 +0000

Rodger Kamenetz is an award-winning poet and author, teacher and dream therapist. He wrote the landmark international bestseller The Jew in the Lotus and the National Jewish Book Award-winning Stalking Elijah. His five books of poetry include The Lowercase Jew –he has been called “the most formidable of the Jewish-American poets”. His memoir, Terra Infirma, has been described as “the most beautiful book ever written about a mother and son.”

In 2007,The History of Last Night’s Dream, was published and featured on Oprah Winfrey’s Soul Series. In this book, Kamenetz takes us on an historical tour of dreaming from Genesis to now, and shows how dreams have been misinterpreted. He then shows how dreams can be used today to reveal the truth of the soul. In October 2010, Burnt Books will be published in the Nextbook Jewish Encounters series, by Schocken Books/Nextbook Press.

Rodger Kamenetz retired from Louisiana State University in 2010 as the Erich and Lea Sternberg Honors Professor and as an LSU Distinguished Professor. He held a dual appointment as a Professor in the Department of English and in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He was the founding director of LSU’s highly successful MFA program in Creative Writing, and the founding director of the Jewish Studies Program. His students have gone on to successful writing careers, among them poets Martha Serpas, Virgil Suarez, Mark Yakich and Anthony Kelman and fiction writers Olympia Vernon, Ronlyn Domingue, Laurie Lynn Drummond,and Connie Porter. He holds a B.A. from Yale College and graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins and Stanford Universities.

Joseph Telushkin at Rutgers

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:57:53 +0000

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin will be speaking at Rutgers University Hillel to promote his new book, Hillel: If Not Now, When? A dessert reception will follow.

Joseph Telushkin in Miami

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:49:10 +0000

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin will speak at the Jewish Book Festival in Miami on October 19, to promote his new book Hillel: If Not Now, When? Sponsored by the Dave and Mary Alper JCC.

A Life in the Theatre: David Mamet on Broadway

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:38:08 +0000

Playwright and Nextbook Press author David Mamet (The Wicked Son) returns to Broadway this month when A Life at the Theatre starts previews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Patrick Stewart stars in this backstage comedy as an older actor sharing his experiences with a young up-and-comer, played by T.R. Knight. Opening night is set for October 12. Continue reading →

Early word on What We Brought Back

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:55:39 +0000

"Whether you're looking for the complex, living Israel behind the headlines, or an antidote to facile stories about kabbalah and JDate, here's the volume for you." Continue reading →

Burnt Books: ‘Deeply imagined and fastidiously researched’

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:52:50 +0000

“Two yearning souls face each other and touch in this remarkable encounter, both deeply imagined and fastidiously researched. And when, forever questing, Rodger Kamenetz adds his own journey to the mix, what he gives us is so fascinating I read it hungrily. Kamenetz makes a case for the kinship of these brother storytellers that is more than irresistible: it feels inevitable.” Continue reading →

Praise for a Poet: Yehuda Halevi

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:57:54 +0000

“a thoroughly researched, carefully rendered biography that evokes the vanished world of golden age Spanish Jewry” Continue reading →

Raves for Joseph Telushkin’s Hillel

Nextbook Press — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:53:35 +0000

“Telushkin not only describes Hillel, but joins him, beckoning to a new generation of Jews to discover the magnificence of the tradition that Hillel helped both to shape and to bequeath to all.” --Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel Continue reading →

Jonathan Rosen

Nextbook Press — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:52:44 +0000

Jonathan Rosen is editorial director of the Nextbook/Schocken Publishing Series. He is also the author of the novel Eve’s Apple; The Talmud and the Internet: A Journey Between Worlds; and Joy Comes in the Morning (September 2004). In 1990, Jonathan created the Arts & Letters section of the Forward, which he oversaw for ten years. Jonathan studied English literature as an undergraduate at Yale and as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. His essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, the American Scholar, and several anthologies.

What We Brought Back

Nextbook Press — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:35:32 +0000

Dozens of contributors share personal essays, poems, and photographs from their unique Jewish journeys. Some tales are eye-opening, others are heart-breaking. Couples fall in love, friendships fall apart. Profound adventures enlighten; hilarious misadventures do, too. Welcome to the liner notes … Continue reading →

Wayne Hoffman

Nextbook Press — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:29:35 +0000

WAYNE HOFFMAN is deputy editor of Nextbook Press. He edited What We Brought Back: Jewish Life After Birthright, as well as Taglit-Birthright Israel’s Traveling Companion and Birthright Israel NEXT’s Literary Companion to Shabbat. He has written two novels—Hard and Sweet Like Sugar —and his essays and short fiction have appeared in such anthologies as Mama’s Boy, I Like it Like That, and Generation Q. His cultural reporting has appeared in the Washington Post, Village Voice, Billboard, the Forward, and elsewhere. He has a B.A. in social politics from Tufts University, and an M.A. in American Studies from NYU.

Barney Ross applauded

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:39:20 +0000

“It is not often that a modern biography ennobles not only its subject but the genre itself, but this is exactly what Mr. Century has accomplished, crafting a narrative as unsparing and inspiring as its subject.” Continue reading →

Douglas Century does good by Barney Ross, says NYTBR

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:36:58 +0000

“This is an excellent story of a man and his times. And proof positive that time does not relinquish its hold over men or monuments. In a sport devoted to fashioning halos for its superstars, Ross wore a special nimbus, and this book properly fits him for that.” Continue reading →

Barney Ross reviewed as an important read

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:32:19 +0000

“If I were the education president every White House inhabitant claims to be, the reforms would begin with putting Douglas Century’s new biography, Barney Ross on the required-reading list.” Continue reading →

Harold Bloom praises Emma Lazarus

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:29:09 +0000

“Esther Schor, herself a poet of authentic distinction, has composed a very moving and highly useful biographical critique of Emma Lazarus, a permanent poet in American and in Jewish tradition.” Continue reading →

NY Times on Emma Lazarus: “Never mind Emerson; Whitman would have loved it.”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:25:11 +0000

“…a sympathetic and balanced life of Lazarus.” Continue reading →

Schor’s efforts celebrated

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:21:55 +0000

“Esther Schor elaborates with fierce, protective pride in Emma Lazarus.” Continue reading →

Maimonides: “a man for all seasons”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:18:45 +0000

“Nuland suggests that Maimonides’ clinical thoroughness, alongside his focus on the emotional and spiritual dimension of illness, should be a model for medicine today, as embodied in the many Maimonides hospitals and medical societies that exist around the country…. In today’s religiously and politically polarized world, when crassness and fundamentalisms of all kinds are in ascendance, Maimonides’ literate, humane judgments—even across the barriers of language, belief, and time—make him more than ever a man for all seasons.” Continue reading →

Sherwin Nuland writes an engaging biography in Maimonides

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:10:33 +0000

“Sherwin Nuland’s new biography is concise, thoughtful, informed, and altogether as fine an introduction to this monumental personality as the modern reader could wish. He writes engagingly, willing both to challenge Maimonides’ judgment and to confess to his own limitations of understanding, which are natural when evaluating the life and work of a multifaceted medieval sage.” Continue reading →

New York Times Book Review regards Maimonides as “deeply satisfying”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:08:48 +0000

"Nuland writes sympathetically, one Jewish doctor considering this most extraordinary of Jewish doctors . . . His book is a guide for those perplexed by Maimonides, as well as those ignorant of him. [It is] a deeply satisfying and humane introduction to the greatest of Jewish thinkers." Continue reading →

“Goldstein’s Betraying Spinoza offers a convenient way to start exploring his thought more fully”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:02:23 +0000

“Rebecca Goldstein aims to show how much his heritage nonetheless pervades his later thought. To do this, she offers both a precis of Spinoza’s life and work and a history of her fascination with both.” Continue reading →

Goldstein’s autobiographical spin in Betraying Spinoza a strength

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:52:39 +0000

“Rebecca Goldstein…manages to write both a popular biography that explains Spinoza’s thought with considerable seriousness and a philosophic biography that is a remarkably good read. That her account becomes partly autobiographical is ultimately a strength of the book, since her experience with Spinoza stands in for that of many of her readers.” Continue reading →

Spinoza reviewed: Even Einstein, when asked if he believed in God, replied, “I believe in Spinoza’s God.”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:40:59 +0000

“Elegant…splendid… Goldstein (whose book belongs to a series of short volumes on Jewish thought) wants to reclaim Spinoza’s famously dismissive attitude toward notions like ethnic identity as a paradoxically Jewish position.” Continue reading →

In David, “Robert Pinsky has stirringly portrayed the man”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:57:13 +0000

“One would think that what would most interest a poet is David the poet (most of the biblical Psalms are ascribed to David). But that is to assume poetry is about language instead of about the world. What engages Pinsky is this character who leaps off the page: the rake who schemes until his literal dying breath, but who is also a man of exquisitely sensitive understanding and eloquent emotion.” Continue reading →

Pinsky provides critical analysis of the myth that is David

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:54:38 +0000

“Episode by episode, Pinsky braids narrative together with literary interpretation and psychological conjecture, drawing out patterns of correspondence, filling gaps in the record with acutely engaged speculation. Bypassing the accretions of 30 centuries of piety and veneration, peering behind the Bible’s spare record of action and speech, Pinsky seeks to discern the feelings and intentions of the living person from whom the myth of David sprang.” Continue reading →

The Life of David: “Pinsky’s language and insights are gorgeous”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:52:48 +0000

“Pinsky’s language and insights are gorgeous, as we have come to expect from his poetry and his prose about poetry, and one finishes “The Life of David” with a sense of King David as a Shakespearean figur—the Bard himself, along with Hamlet, King Lear and Henry IV, all wrapped into one.” Continue reading →

A Fine Romance read reviewed as an opportunity to flirt with music (again)

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:35:57 +0000

While at times confusing, A Fine Romance is thoroughly enjoyable, right down to the short, witty, and informative chronology at the end of the book. Whether one is familiar with this music and wants to rekindle its romance, or unfamiliar and wants to ignite such a passion, this book is just the ticket. Continue reading →

“Wiesel took on this project with much enthusiasm and curiosity”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:33:54 +0000

“One comes away from Rashi with a clear sense – despite reading the book in translation – that Wiesel took on this project with much enthusiasm and curiosity. For an octogenarian author of more than 50 books of fiction and nonfiction, such undimmed literary passion is admirable indeed.” Continue reading →

Elie Wiesel brings Rashi to contemporary times

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:31:54 +0000

“A playful but poetic style…It is as if Rashi lived in the last century, not the last millenium…The book demonstrates the value of seeking a better understanding of this religious figure.” Continue reading →

Rashi inspires critics

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:28:37 +0000

“Wiesel’s contribution to the Jewish Encounters series is an informative gem.” Continue reading →

A Fine Romance recalls unforgettable icons of Americana

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:27:13 +0000

“Laced with anecdotes about the composers and the singers who made the songs famous, and the unforgettable, brilliant lyrics of the masters, the book can’t help but get you humming, let alone singing out loud your own version of the songs.” Continue reading →

“A Fine Romance wittily explores…”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:25:31 +0000

“David Lehman’s A Fine Romance wittily explores the enormous contribution of Jewish writers and composers to the American musical scene. Lehman finds Jewish influence, or what he calls ‘a plaintive undertow,’ even in such unlikely upbeat anthems as Gershwin’s ‘Love Walked In.’ His love-struck history is itself a major entertainment.” Continue reading →

New York Times looks at David Lehman’s book

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:22:25 +0000

“… an appreciative, scholarly study of traditional popular song that goes into considerable and enlightening detail about the intermingling of black and Jewish popular music, primarily from the first half of the 20th century.” Continue reading →

Maimonides

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:48:19 +0000

From one of our leading medical men of letters, a portrait of the great 12th-century philosopher and medical sage.

Sherwin B. Nuland

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:38:54 +0000

SHERWIN B. NULAND is also the author of Lost in America, How We Live, and Doctors. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Times, Time, The New York Review of Books, and The American Scholar. He is a clinical professor of surgery at Yale, where he also teaches bioethics and medical history. He lives with his family in Connecticut.

The Jewish Body awarded the Sophie Brody Award for Excellence in Jewish Literature by ALA

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:22:31 +0000

The Jewish Body” was the 2010 Honor Book for the Sophie Brody Medal, which recognizes outstanding achievement in literature that highlights the Jewish experience.The Sophie Brody Award for Excellence in Jewish Literature, Honor Book Honor Book Continue reading →

Praise for The Jewish Body

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:21:15 +0000

“Helps shed light on a complicated subject.” Continue reading →

“The Jewish Body is a tour de force”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:20:03 +0000

“The Jewish Body. . .is a tour de force. . .a solid and readable compilation of the existing critical and scholarly literature on the Jewish body. . .[the] book is a valuable addition to the popular literature on the question “Who are the Jews?” and on why they look and act the way they do.” Continue reading →

Elie Wiesel reviews Resurrecting Hebrew: Exciting and penetrating

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:10:30 +0000

“Resurrecting Hebrew is exciting and penetrating. This story will be read with deep interest by all those who are fascinated by the renaissance of an ancient language.” Continue reading →

Kirsch’s work an “inquiring biography”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:06:42 +0000

“This is a lively, inquiring biography that reveals the prideful, exceptional man behind the famous politician.” Continue reading →

Kirsch writes an “engaging biography” in Benjamin Disraeli

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:03:46 +0000

“Kirsch has written an important and compelling book about Benjamin Disraeli, the first Jewish prime minister of England, who famously replied, ‘Yes, I am a Jew, and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.’ This engaging biography gives nuance and meaning to one of the most enigmatic men of the Victorian era.” Continue reading →

Praise for Benjamin Disraeli

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:54:58 +0000

“Adam Kirsch has produced a charming and absorbing aperçu into one of the most fascinating statesmen of modern history. A delightful read.” Continue reading →

A veteran Marc Chagall critic praises Jonathan Wilson’s work

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:36:01 +0000

“…a wonderfully easy read…it is altogether the best since Sidney Alexander’s monumental biography I reviewed back in 1978.” Continue reading →

Jews and Power a hit in Washington

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:24:40 +0000

“Wisse is a brilliant scholar of enviable narrative gifts, and there is much to admire in this essay.” Continue reading →

Wisse fearless in Jews and Power

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:21:43 +0000

"Challenging, erudite and penetrating...Wisse shows no fear in these pages in saying exactly what she thinks, and you can’t help but be impressed with her chutzpah, even if you totally disagree with her...Jews and Power makes no claim for objectivity, but it is an elucidating book. It will cause liberals to question their self-consciousness about Israel, since Wisse’s argument about Jewish apologism challenges liberal ideas of victimhood. For conservatives, the book offers an intellectual understanding of what otherwise might seem to be only tribalistic loyalties." Continue reading →

Jews and Power “celebrates the Jewish return to sovereign power”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:14:06 +0000

“A book . . . that celebrates the Jewish return to sovereign power, in all its promise and complexity, is as unusual as it is welcome. Wisse has written such a book . . . [Jews and Power is] a good, fighting book that contains much information in few pages.” Continue reading →

The Wicked Son, an intense experience

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:08:39 +0000

“The Wicked Son is an intense experience, but it’s well worth the effort.” Continue reading →

Adina Hoffman & Peter Cole

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:00:58 +0000

ADINA HOFFMAN is the author of House of Windows: Portraits from a Jerusalem Neighborhood and My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century, which was named one of the best twenty books of 2009 by the Barnes & Noble Review and one of the top ten biographies of the year by Booklist. My Happiness also received the UK’s 2010 Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize. Hoffman’s essays and criticism have appeared in the Nation, the Washington Post, the TLS, Raritan, the Boston Globe, New York Newsday, Tin House, and on the World Service of the BBC. The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, she is formerly a film critic for the American Prospect and the Jerusalem Post, and-with Peter Cole-is one of the founders and editors of Ibis Editions.

PETER COLE’s most recent book of poetry is Things on Which I’ve Stumbled—whose title poem revolves around the Cairo Geniza. Cole’s translations from Hebrew and Arabic include War & Love, Love & War: New and Selected Poems by Aharon Shabtai; So What: New & Selected Poems by Taha Muhammad Ali; and The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, which received the National Jewish Book Award in Poetry and the American Association of Publishers’ 2008 Hawkins Award for the university press book of the year. Cole has received numerous other honors for his work, including an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the PEN Translation Prize for Poetry, and fellowships from the NEA, the NEH, and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 2007 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Hoffman and Cole live together in Jerusalem and New Haven.

The Jewish Body

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:54:32 +0000

Melvin Konner, a renowned doctor and anthropologist, takes the measure of the “Jewish body,” considering sex, circumcision, menstruation, and even those most elusive and controversial of microscopic markers—Jewish genes. With deep insight and great originality, Melvin Konner gives us nothing … Continue reading →

Kamenetz for Huffington Post: “Why Holy Books Can’t Really Be Burnt”

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:49:22 +0000

"Moral idiots can be useful irritants, so maybe the Florida pastor who wants to burn Korans isn't all bad. He got me thinking about the great shift to e-books. " Continue reading →

Melvin Konner

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:42:24 +0000

MELVIN KONNER, Ph.D., M.D., is the author of nine books and is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Emory University in Atlanta, where he teaches in the anthropology, human biology, and Jewish studies programs. He has written for the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Science, and the New England Journal of Medicine. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Resurrecting Hebrew

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:35:52 +0000

Here is the stirring story of how Hebrew was rescued from the fate of a dead language to become the living tongue of a modern nation. Stavans sets out in search of his own forgotten Hebrew as well as the man who helped to revive the language at the end of the nineteenth century, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. All the tensions between the Diaspora and the idea of a promised land pulse beneath the surface of Stavans’s story, which is a fascinating biography as well as a moving personal journey.

Ilan Stavans

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:30:29 +0000

ILAN STAVANS is the author of two collections of short stories and fifteen works of nonfiction, including On Borrowed Words and Dictionary Days. His many awards and honors include an Emmy nomination, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Pablo Neruda Medal, and the National Jewish Book Award (for his anthology The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature). He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor at Amherst College.

Through the hyperreal characters of Wicked Son, Mamet conveys much about contemporary Jews

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:25:54 +0000

“Like everything [Mamet] does, [The Wicked Son] is blunt and bracing, honest and provocative, original and gutsy.” Continue reading →

Mamet writes valuable perspectives on Jewish passivity

Nextbook Press — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:18:56 +0000

“…by turns bold, courageous, and outrageous – it is a book that calls Diaspora Jews to the table and asks: ‘In or Out?’” Continue reading →

Shimon Peres

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:32:21 +0000

Shimon Peres has held several diplomatic and military positions in Israel. Currently the president of Israel, he has also served twice as prime minister, been a member of 12 cabinets, and represented five political parties. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 for the peace talks he participated in as Israeli foreign minister. He is also the author of numerous books, including the memoir Battling for Peace and The New Middle East.

Rashi

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:57:37 +0000

From Elie Wiesel, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, comes a magical book that introduces us to the towering figure of Rashi—Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki—the great biblical and Talmudic commentator of the Middle Ages. Selected as one of the Best Books … Continue reading →

Elie Wiesel

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:46:36 +0000

Elie Wiesel is the author of more than fifty books, including his unforgettable international best sellers Night and A Beggar in Jerusalem, winner of the Prix Médicis. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, and the French Legion of Honor with the rank of Grand Cross. In 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. He is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and University Professor at Boston University.

A Fine Romance

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:40:19 +0000

An acclaimed poet, anthologist, and cultural critic, David Lehman guides us through America in the golden age of song, when “Embraceable You”; “White Christmas”; “Easter Parade”; and countless others became nothing less than the American sound track. The stories behind these songs and the composers and lyricists who wrote them give voice (one that has a discernible Yiddish accent) to a specifically American saga of love, longing, assimilation, and transformation.

David Lehman

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:28:03 +0000

DAVID LEHMAN is the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry; and the author of seven books of poems, most recently When a Woman Loves a Man. He lives in New York City.

Hillel

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:05:02 +0000

This bold new look at an iconic religious leader—the first to cite the ethical concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) as a basis for making modifications to Jewish law—is certain to generate passionate discussion and debate.

Joseph Telushkin

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:54:06 +0000

JOSEPH TELUSHKIN is the author of sixteen books, including Jewish Literacy, The Book of Jewish Values, and A Code of Jewish Ethics, the first volume of which received a National Jewish Book Award in 2006. He is the rabbi of the Synagogue for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles and a senior associate of Clal, The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. He lives in New York City.

Burnt Books

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:21:18 +0000

A dual biography of the venerated Hasidic storyteller and the iconic modern literary master that uncovers surprising parallels between two tragically abbreviated lives spent in search of spiritual meaning.

Rodger Kamenetz

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:15:11 +0000

RODGER KAMENETZ is the author of The Jew in the Lotus and The History of Last Night’s Dream, and of seven other books of poetry and prose. A winner of the National Jewish Book Award, he is LSU Distinguished Professor at Louisiana State University and founding director of its Jewish Studies Program. He lives in New Orleans.

Jonathan Sarna

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:32:36 +0000

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University. He also chairs the Academic Advisory and Editorial Board of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati and is chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Author or editor of more than twenty books on American Jewish history and life, his American Judaism: A History won six awards including the 2004 “Everett Jewish Book of the Year Award” from the Jewish Book Council. Sarna is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Academy of Jewish Research.

Jewish Soldiers in Blue & Gray, which features Jonathan Sarna, explores the hidden stories of American Jews during the Civil War. Presented by the Shapell Manuscript Foundation, it is available for purchase on DVD at www.shapell.org.

Betraying Spinoza

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:52:30 +0000

A breathtaking biography of the philosopher who became Judaism’s most famous heretic.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Nextbook Press — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:46:17 +0000

REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN is the author of Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel and of five novels and a book of short stories. She is a professor of philosophy and a Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute. She lives … Continue reading →

Benjamin Disraeli

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:05:49 +0000

A dazzling examination of the life of one of the most powerful and enigmatic figures of the nineteenth century.

A dandy, a best-selling novelist, and a man of political and sexual intrigue, Benjamin Disraeli was one of the most captivating figures of the nineteenth century. His flirtation with proto-Zionism, his ideas about power and empire, and his fantasies about the Middle East remain prophetically relevant today. How a man who was born a Jew—and who remained in the eyes of his countrymen a member of a despised minority—managed to become prime minister of England seems even today nothing short of miraculous. In this compelling biography, renowned poet and critic Adam Kirsch looks at Disraeli as a novelist as well as a statesman, recognizing that the outsider Jew who became one of the world’s most powerful men was his own greatest character. Though baptized by his father at the age of twelve, Disraeli was seen—and saw himself—as a Jew. But he created an idea of Jewishness to rival the British notion of aristocracy. Disraeli was a figure of fascinating contradictions: an archconservative who benefited from England’s liberal attitudes, a baptized Christian who saw Jewishness as a matter of racial superiority, a perennial outsider who dreamed of glory for England, which, in the words of one contemporary, became for Disraeli “the Israel of his imagination.

Adam Kirsch

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:59:48 +0000

ADAM KIRSCH, a book critic for the New York Sun, is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and the New Republic. He is the author of two poetry collections, The Thousand Wells and Invasions, and two works of nonfiction … Continue reading →

Chagall: ‘Artfully Written’

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:53:37 +0000

“An artfully written art biography that captures its subject in the same kaleidoscopic palette as Chagall painted.” Continue reading →

Yehuda Halevi

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:51:05 +0000

A masterful biography of Yehuda Halevi, poet laureate of the Jewish people.

‘Elegantly written and bluntly honest’

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:50:26 +0000

“Though compact – one can read it in an afternoon – Wilson’s book is a full biography in terms of illuminating the major chapters in the artist’s life and career. It’s elegantly written and bluntly honest about some aspects of that life that other biographers have ignored or glossed over.” Continue reading →

Hillel Halkin

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:48:19 +0000

HILLEL HALKIN’s work includes Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel, Letters to an American Jewish Friend, A Strange Death, and a translation of Sholem Aleichem’ s Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories. His essays and columns have appeared regularly in Commentary, as well as in The New Republic, The Jerusalem Post, The New York Sun, and other publications. He lives in Israel.

Marc Chagall

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:34:30 +0000

A brilliant new perspective on one of the most beloved—and most misunderstood—artists of the twentieth century.

Jonathan Wilson

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:32:14 +0000

JONATHAN WILSON is the author of A Palestine Affair, The Hiding Room, Schoom, and An Ambulance Is on the Way: Stories of Men in Trouble, and of two critical studies of the fiction of Saul Bellow. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Best American Short Stories, among other publications. A professor of English at Tufts University, he lives with his family in Newton, Massachusetts.

Deborah E. Lipstadt

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:14:57 +0000

DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. She is the author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving (a National Jewish Book Award winner); Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory; and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945. She lives in Atlanta.

Jews and Power

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:12:10 +0000

Taking in everything from the kingdom of David to the Oslo accords, Ruth Wisse offers a radical new way to think about the Jewish relationship to power.

Ruth Wisse

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:11:11 +0000

RUTH R. WISSE is Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Born in Czernowitz and raised in Montreal, she was the first professor to introduce courses in Yiddish literature at McGill University, where … Continue reading →

The Wicked Son

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:20:25 +0000

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, filmmaker, essayist, and novelist, here is a scathing look at one of the most destructive and tenacious forces in contemporary life.

David Mamet

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:18:51 +0000

DAVID MAMET is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. He is the author of Glengarry Glen Ross, The Cryptogram, and Boston Marriage, among other plays. He has also published three novels and many screenplays, children’s books, and essay collections.

Barney Ross

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:12:40 +0000

A powerful storyteller brings to life one of the most colorful boxers of the 20th century, both an extraordinary athlete and a remarkable man.

Douglas Century

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:11:18 +0000

DOUGLAS CENTURY is the author of Street Kingdom and, with Rick Cowan, of the New York Times best-seller Takedown. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, among many other publications. Born and raised in Canada, he lives … Continue reading →

Emma Lazarus

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:03:26 +0000

A pioneering biography of the iconoclastic nineteenth-century poet and activist whose verse gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but whose extraordinary life has remained a mystery until now.

Esther Schor

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:02:00 +0000

ESTHER SCHOR, a poet and professor of English at Princeton University, is the author of The Hills of Holland: Poems and Bearing the Dead: The British Culture of Mourning from the Enlightenment to Victoria. She is also the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Times Book Review, and the Forward. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

The Life of David

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:16:46 +0000

From one of our most admired poets, a brilliant retelling of the life of one of the most complex figures in the Bible.

Poet, warrior, and king, David has loomed large in myth and legend through the centuries, and he continues to haunt our collective imagination, his flaws and inconsistencies making him the most approachable of biblical heroes. Robert Pinsky, former poet laureate of the United States, plumbs the depths of David’s life: his triumphs and his failures, his charm and his cruelty, his divine destiny and his human humiliations. Drawing on the biblical chronicle of David’s life as well as on the later commentaries and the Psalms—traditionally considered to be David’s own words—Pinsky teases apart the many strands of David’s story and reweaves them into a glorious narrative. Under the clarifying and captivating light of Pinsky’s erudition and imagination, and his mastery of image and expression, King David—both the man and the idea of the man—is brought brilliantly to life.

Robert Pinsky

Nextbook Press — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:59:21 +0000

ROBERT PINSKY is the author of many books of poetry, including Jersey Rain and The Figured Wheel, and of the award-winning translation The Inferno of Dante. His prose works include The Situation of Poetry and The Sounds of Poetry. He teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Boston University and lives in Massachusetts.

Some News

Nextbook Press — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 01:18:40 +0000

This is the Excerpt Continue reading →

This book is HOTTT

Nextbook Press — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:40:17 +0000

Check out this book! Continue reading →

First

Nextbook Press — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:35:34 +0000