Back in 1991, David Brenner was king of the comedy mountain.\nThe comic had appeared well over 100 times on the \”Tonight Show,\” which he often guest-hosted in the 1970\’s and \’80\’s. He enjoyed lucrative Las Vegas appearances and was a perennial guest on TV shows like \”Letterman.\”
Just Revenge
By Alan Dershowitz
Warner, $24.95.
Where does he find the time? A typical day in his life, so it seems, includes several hours put in as defense counsel in a headline-making trial; a class or two taught at Harvard Law School, a few appearances on nationally televised talk shows, three or four lectures in Jewish communities around the United States, another chapter written in his latest book about the future of American or world Jewry, a couple of quickly tossed-off book reviews and newspaper columns, and, if there is any time left, a quick trip to Israel. Most people, you would think, would tumble into bed at that point. Alan Dershowitz sits down and writes a novel.
I am watching my wife with Matt Lauer. She is on \”The Today Show,\” sitting across from the handsome host, both of them locked on each other\’s eyes the way beautiful people lock eyes on, well, television.\nIt\’s a strange thing, sitting on our couch alone watching Matt Lauer with my wife. I am rooting for him to become visibly awestruck by her. I want him to express his awe on air, to tell the world how wonderful she is.\n\nWhy? Mostly because it\’s true. And also because it sells books.
Onkelos, with just one insightful translation, let all subsequent generations know that deeds, not miracles, must be our guide.
As if we don\’t have enough problems, it seems there\’s an unlimited supply of horrific hereditary diseases just waiting to ensnare Jews and their children. Tay-Sachs cripples infants before their first birthday and eventually kills them, Gaucher disease erodes healthy bones and organs, Niemann-Pick, cystic fibrosis, Crohn\’s, Canavan and dozens of others. And that\’s just among Eastern-European Ashkenazi Jews. A host of other hereditary diseases affect Sephardic, Iraqi and Persian Jews. Does somebody up there hate us?
On July 18, 1947, Dr. Ruth Gruber stood on a wharf in Haifa and watched the battered ship Exodus inch into the harbor. The ship had been rammed by British warships determined to keep the 4,554 Holocaust survivors aboard from reaching Palestine.
The leaders of the Jewish community worry about the high intermarriage rate, whether the children of such marriages are to be accepted as Jews, and about the separation of church and state.
White Oleander\nBy Janet Fitch\n\nLittle, Brown, $24..\n\nWhen author Janet Fitch was 9, her longtime friend disappeared into the netherworld of the Los Angeles foster care system.
Israel is the ultimate survivor, having transcended centuries of Roman conquest, Arab rule, and British occupation to blossom into an advanced civilization and a formidable global power.
The loss of goodwill between ethnic groups based on this one lapse is incalculable.
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