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Jewish Journal

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Books

Man of the Book

Mike Levy November 15, 2001

Steve Wasserman is the literary editor of the Los Angeles Times. A former Berkeley political activist, Wasserman became deputy editor of the Times\’ Op-Ed page in 1978, at the age of 26. He went on to become editorial director of Times Books, a Random House imprint in New York. In 1996, Wasserman returned to California to take over the Los Angeles Times Book Review. The Journal spoke with Wasserman before his speech this week at the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles on the topic \”People of the Book: Jewish Citizenship in the Republic of Letters.\”

Something to Laugh About

Mark Schiff November 15, 2001

\”The Haunted Smile: The Story of Jewish Comedians in America\” by Lawrence J. Epstein (Public Affairs, $27.50).

\”I\’ll tell you. I don\’t get no respect. My mother stopped breast-feeding me as a kid. She told me she liked me like a friend.\” (Rodney Dangerfield)

For as long as I\’ve been a comedian, I\’ve been asked two questions over and over:

Why are there so many Jewish comedians? And why do you think Jews are so funny?

In

Locals on the Shelves

Dennis Gura November 15, 2001

A roundup of some of the latest books by L.A. Jewish authors.

A Working Girl Can Win

Michael Aushenker November 15, 2001

\”She was thinking about how, growing up, she\’d force herself to look at the sun. Just because you weren\’t supposed to. Just to prove she could. Except she couldn\’t.\” — Lucinda Rosenfeld, describing Phoebe Fine, protagonist of \”What She Saw\”\n\nForgive Lucinda Rosenfeld if 2001 seems a bit anti-climactic. For the young author, it was the previous two years that provided the most action-packed odyssey of her life.

Wayward Son

Naomi Pfefferman November 8, 2001

\”Shadows of Sin\” began when Orthodox mystery author Rochelle Krich was chilled by a verse in Deuteronomy after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999.\n\nThe passage described the \”wayward and rebellious\” son, who is condemned to death for crimes of theft, drunkenness and gluttony.

Anxiety about Jewish Literature

Ruth Wisse November 8, 2001

As long as the Jewish people lives, it will generate a living culture, and as long as that culture values the written word, Jews will write books.

The Vatican and the Shoah

Aaron Leibel November 8, 2001

Kertzer, author of \”The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,\” the story of the 1858 shocking kidnapping of a 6-year-old Italian Jewish boy from his family by police acting under orders from the Vatican, says he was moved to write this book after the 1998 publication of \”We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah,\” a report on the Roman Catholic Church and the Holocaust.

Jews in U. S. Politics

Sharon Samber November 1, 2001

A woman who was the trusted adviser to the governor of New York in the 1920s. The ambassador to Turkey in 1889. The attorney general in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. Belle Moskowitz, Solomon Hirsch and Edward Levi were all Jews involved in U.S. political life in different periods. Previously confined to the footnotes of political science textbooks or familiar only to political junkies, these figures and others are part of a new book charting Jews\’ impact on American political life.

The book, \”Jews in American Politics,\” (Rowman & Littlefield, $39.95) is not simply a \”locate the landsman\” exercise but an attempt to address a number of issues — such as Jewish political behavior, Jewish advocacy and the relationship between politics and Jewish identity — along with important demographic information and more than 400 biographical profiles.

Preaching Tolerance

Ronald J. Nessim November 1, 2001

Can religious leaders be devout but not fanatic? Can fervent belief and tolerance coexist? Such questions are hardly academic these days: the results of religious fanaticism now consume headlines, and lives. One set of reassuring answers can be found in the life of Rabbi Benzion Uziel. Uziel served as the Sephardic chief rabbi of Palestine and then the State of Israel from 1939 until his death in 1953.

In \”Loving Truth and Peace: The Grand Religious Worldview of Rabbi Benzion Uziel\” (Jason Aronson, Inc., $30) author and rabbi Marc Angel tells the story of this remarkable man.

The Failed Intellectuals

Dennis Gura October 11, 2001

Fouad Ajami\’s \”Dream Palace of the Arabs\” lacks Benda\’s harshness and polemics, but illustrates how fragile and tenuous are the intellectuals\’ claims on political life.

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