Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat will be joined by Virginia Beach City Councilman Joash Schulman for a conversation* Monday, November 18, 7:30 pm, Sandler Family Campus In my 56 years, I have been fortunate to meet many people who were a part of history. Sometimes I...
Book Reviews
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The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust
Elizabeth White and Joanna Sliwa will be joined by Carol Jason for a conversation* Thursday, November 7, 12 pm Sandler Family Campus The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage, resilience, and humanity in the face of unspeakable cruelty....
Sacks Book Club discusses The Great Partnership
Next meeting: Sunday, June 16, 10 am, Temple Israel The Rabbi Sacks Tidewater Community Book Club continued its journey of Jewish conversation by reviewing The Great Partnership in collaboration with Temple Israel and the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United...
Israelis living in America…not unusual
Don’t Tell Your Brother Meir Shalev Am Oved Publishers, 2022 263 pages Close to one million Israelis live in the United States and Canada. I happen to be one of them. Thus, Don’t Tell Your Brother by veteran and master Israeli author Meir Shalev (born in Nahalal,...
From Belarussian “Balaboosta” to Broadway Madam
Madam—The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age Debby Applegate 553 pp Doubleday, 2021 Frank Sinatra, Walter Winchell, Lucky Luciano, Dorothy Parker, Duke Ellington, Dutch Schultz, Robert Benchley, Desi Arnaz—and likely FDR. This is just a partial list...
Linda Cohen Loigman’s novel tells intergenerational story of matchmaking
Tuesday, December 6, 12 pm Watch from Home–Register for the link to join The Matchmaker’s Gift: A Novel Linda Cohen Loigman St. Martin’s Press 320 pages, 2022 Do you believe in love at first sight? Do you believe in soulmates? The Matchmaker’s Gift is a...
Exploration of family roots leads local author to book on klezmer
Klezmer for the Joyful Soul Debbie Burke Queen Esther Publishing LLC 206 pages; 2021 Debbie Burke, a local author who has written several books on jazz and two novels, published a book last year on klezmer music. In Klezmer for the Joyful Soul, she interviews 30...
Insightful reflections by Pittsburgh writers
Bound In The Bond Of Life (Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy) Edited by Beth Kissileff and Eric Lidji University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020 242 pages The utterly shocking and deeply unsettling 83-minute attack on Shabbat morning, October 27,...
The Jews Should Keep Quiet (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust)
Rafael Medoff Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2019. 387 pages. Professor Rafael Medoff is an orthodox ordained rabbi and prolific author who is the founding director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies as well as the co-editor of its...
Close to home
The Serpent Papers Jeff Schnader The Permanent Press, March 2022 ISBN: 978-1-57962-648-8 302 pages, $29.95 I recently finished reading The Serpent Papers, a new novel about the Vietnam era by Jeff Schnader, a local retired physician and EVMS professor turned author....
Untold Story
X Troop— The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II Leah Garrett Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021 351 pages Ask most American Jews about Jewish warriors and they will promptly mention the Maccabees and contemporary Israeli soldiers. In X Troop—The Secret Jewish...
Difficult Decisions – Shadow Strike
Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power Yaakov Katz May 2019 St. Martin’s, 320 pages ISBN: 978-1-250-19127-4 Shadow Strike is a must read for followers of Israel’s military history, as well as for those that follow serious world...
He met Bob Dylan at a Jewish camp, and they stayed good friends for 50 years
Jewish summer camp is such a crucial part of the American Jewish experience that many Jewish adults, even in their older age, likely remember the names of many of the kids in their cabins from when they were 11 years old. One of those cabins more than 60 years ago...
More than pain, this book is also about lifestyle
Outsmart Your Pain! The Essential Guide to Overcoming Pain and Transforming Your Life Lisa Barr, MD Illustrations by Tim Sovine Synergy Health Quest, LLC, 2018 ISBN 13: 978-1-7320011-0-7 In the opening pages of Outsmart Your Pain!, Lisa Barr, MD, says, “The science of...
From Amos Oz’s final book: It’s never boring in Israel
Dear Zealots(Letters from a Divided Land) Amos Oz Translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018 140 pages The late (What a loss!) Amos Oz’s last literary gem, Dear Zealots (Letters from a Divided Land), relies on his previously...
If You Could See Me: Life,Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Sanity
Richmond author shares personal and universal stories in new book Erin Mahone Motivational Press, 2017 Reviewed by Amy Zelenka Did you ever feel like you were living in that famous idiom: the inmates are running the asylum? Well, Erin Mahone, in her new book, If You...
The Lost Family: A Novel
Tragedy impacts generations Jenna Blum Harper Collins Publishing | New York, New York Reviewed by Lynn Woods In The Lost Family, author Jenna Blum explores how tragic grief and loss can impact a family for generations. Years have passed since Peter Rashkin, chef and...
The Spy Who Played Baseball
Perfect for baseball and history fans Carrie Jones Kar-Ben Publishing | Minneapolis, MN Reviewed by Sam Levin I had the opportunity to read a great book called, The Spy Who Played Baseball. It is about how Moe Berg played baseball and was a spy. Nobody expected Moe to...
Jenna Blum | The Lost Family: A Novel
Tragedy Impacts Generations Jenna Blum | The Lost Family: A Novel Harper Collins Publishing New York, New York In The Lost Family, author Jenna Blum explores how tragic grief and loss can impact a family for generations. Years have passed since Peter Rashkin, chef and...
Unconditional Love: A Guide for Navigating the Joys and Challenges of Being a Grandparent Today.
This one’s for every grandparent Unconditional Love: A Guide for Navigating the Joys and Challenges of Being a Grandparent Today. Jane Isay Harper, March 6, 2018 Reviewed by Alene Jo Kaufman It’s hard to read a book when one’s head is continually nodding up and down,...
The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity
An unfortunate topic The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity Sally Kohn Workman Publishing, 2018 Wendy Juren Auerbach To be honest, the copy of The Opposite of Hate: A Field Guide to Repairing Our Humanity by Sally Kohn languished on my pile of...
This Is The Year I Put My Financial Life In Order
Memoir meets financial guide This Is The Year I Put My Financial Life In Order John Schwartz Penguin Random House LLC, 2018 Money is often an overwhelming and stressful topic. While some people love discussing financial matters, others cringe at the thought of...
Sadie’s Snowy Tu B’Shevat
Can be read alone Sadie’s Snowy Tu B’Shevat Jamie Korngold Kar-Ben Publishing I like this book very much because although I could read it by myself, I read it with my mom. Like Sadie, I love Tu B’Shevat, and while I know that it’s winter here, in Israel for...
Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World.
Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World. Avi Jorisch Gefen Publishing House LTD In the summer of 2014, along with the rest of the world, I was watching closely as Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to protect her citizens from Hamas-led...
Gone To Dust
Gone To Dust, A Novel Matt Goldman Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC If the litmus test for a compelling murder mystery is not being able to put a book down, Matt Goldman’s first novel, Gone To Dust, is quite the success and already a New York Times Best Seller. Aided...
The Attachment Effect
Peter Lovenheim explains, “It began wonderfully, as romances do, but later devolved into a turbulent on again, off again affair. She was looking for a commitment I couldn’t make and I was looking for emotional intimacy she couldn’t give.” Years of breakups and makeups. The relationship became polarized—he was an anxious partner demanding more intimacy and she was an avoidant partner who shut down and withdrew. His Anxious Attachment style and her Avoidant Attachment style led to the Anxious-Avoidant Trap.
Escape to Virginia. From Nazi Germany to Thalhimer’s Farm
Robert H. Gillette Charleston: History Press, 2015 252 pages Robert H. Gillette is a retired educator living in Lynchburg, Va., who researched this intriguing story and retraced it within its larger historical context through the experiences of Werner (Töpper) Angress...
An epic and relevant tale
Politics, Faith, and the Making of American Judaism Peter Adams Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2014, 230 pages ISBN: 978-0-472-07205-7 Peter Adams is a former journalist who teaches English at Old Dominion University. His study recounts the story of...
How two Israeli psychologists taught the world how to re-think…thinking
The Undoing Project Michael Lewis 362 pp. W.W Norton & Co, 2017 ISBN 978-03932544594 362 pages, $28.95 In the early 1940s, young Danny Kahneman was walking the streets of Paris after curfew. He had gone to school early so he could take off his sweater before his...
An ardent peace activist’s’ latest novel
Judas Amos Oz Translated by Nicholas de Lange Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016 305 pages, $25 Amos Oz, Israel’s premier author, is the very embodiment of Eretz Yisrael Hayafa, that beautifully inspiring Israel—particularly in its early pioneering phase—a reborn nation...
Researched and emotional
Violins of Hope (Violins of the Holocaust-Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour) James A. Grymes Harper Perennial, 2014 319 page, $15.99 Author James A. Grymes is a noted professor of musicology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte who...
The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
The Devil’s Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich Robert K. Wittman and David Kinney Harper,513 pages, $35 The Devil’s Diary of interconnected significant dramas is an invaluable addition to the continued growth of Holocaust literature and...