2017 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in Jewish Literature and Linguistics Honorable Mention, 2016 Baron Book Prize presented by AAJR A monster tour of the Golem narrative across various cultural and historical landscapes In the 1910s and 1920s, a "golem cult" swept across Europe and the U.S., later surfacing in Israel. Why did this story of a ......
Murder, Antisemitism, and Democratic Politics in Interwar Poland
In 1922, voters in the newly created Republic of Poland democratically elected their first president, Gabriel Narutowicz. Because his supporters included a Jewish political party, an opposing faction of antisemites demanded his resignation. Within hours, bloody riots erupted in Warsaw, and within a week the president was assassinated. In the wake ......
In 1756, Jacob Frank, an Ottoman Jew who had returned to the Poland of his birth, was discovered leading a group of fellow travelers in a suspect religious service. At the request of the local rabbis, Polish authorities arrested the participants. Jewish authorities contacted the bishop in whose diocese the service had taken place and argued that ......
Jewish identity is a perennial concern, as Jews seek to define the major features and status of those who "belong," while at the same time draw distinctions between individuals and groups on the "inside" and those on the "outside." From a variety of perspectives, scholarly as well as confessional, there is intense interest among non-Jewish and ......
The "Zohar" is the medieval compendium of Jewish esoteric and mystical teaching and the basis of the Kabbalistic faith. It is, however, a notoriously difficult text, full of hidden codes, concealed meanings, obscure symbols and ecstatic expression. This study, based upon several decades of modern "Zohar" scholarship, unravels the historical and ......
Things We Couldn't Say is the true story of Diet Eman, a young Dutch woman, who, with her fiance, Hein Sietsma, risked everything to rescue imperiled Jews in Nazi-occupied Holland during World War II. Throughout the years that Diet and Hein aided the Resistance--work that would cost Diet her freedom and Hein his life--their courageous effort ......
Hermann Budzislawski and the Making of Twentieth-Century Socialism
In Writing Against Hitler, Daniel Siemens reconstructs the history of the struggles of socialist intellectuals in Germany from the 1920s through the post-World War II era by focusing on the life of one influential member of that group, Hermann Budzislawski (1901-78). In the 1930s, Budzislawski served as the editor in chief of the prominent ......
Sabor Judio celebrates the delicious fusion of two culinary traditions: Jewish and Mexican. Written with joy and verve, Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle's lavishly illustrated cookbook demonstrates how cooking and eating connect the Jewish-Mexicans across places and generations. Featuring one hundred deeply personal recipes enjoyed by Mexican Jews ......
A surprising history of how the pig has influenced Jewish identity
Jews do not eat pig. This (not always true) observation has been made by both Jews and non-Jews for more than three thousand years and is rooted in biblical law. Though the Torah prohibits eating pig meat, it is not singled out more than other ......
