Adopting a new view of faith and family
Jonathan Kirsch
June 9, 2016
Let’s get one thing out of the way — yes, Susan Silverman is the sister of actors and comedians Sarah Silverman and Laura Silverman.
Category
jonathan kirsch
Dust off your summer reading glasses
Jonathan Kirsch
June 2, 2016
Politics is dominating not only headlines, but bookstores, as well, and some of the most intriguing author events in early summer will provide yet more opportunity to agonize over Trump, Sanders and Clinton.
A look at the fragmented history of Zionism
Jonathan Kirsch
May 25, 2016
\”Zionism” is a word that has come to mean many different things to different people, which is why veteran foreign correspondent Milton Viorst decided to take a fresh look at the origins and the destiny of the Zionist project in “Zionism: The Birth and Transformation of an Ideal” (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press).
A true Jewish star is born in Gabler’s ‘Streisand’
Jonathan Kirsch
May 11, 2016
It is telling that the chapter titles in Neal Gabler’s “Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power,” the latest book in the Jewish Lives series from Yale University Press, are given in transliterated Yiddish (and sometimes Yinglish) — “Shaynkeit,” “Mieskeit,” “Chutzpah,” “Tsezingen Zikh,” and so on.
Culturally rich history of Jerusalem is literally in the woodwork
Jonathan Kirsch
April 13, 2016
When it comes to the Middle East, and especially the city of Jerusalem, everything in the built environment has a significant historical subtext, as we are eloquently reminded in “Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architects of a New City” by Adina Hoffman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), a superb and sharp-eyed account of “burials, erasures, and attempts to mark political turf by means of culturally symbolic architecture and hastily rewritten maps,” as Hoffman puts it.
Festival of Books ready to add another jam-packed chapter
Jonathan Kirsch
April 7, 2016
The largest book festival in the United States will reprise on the USC campus this weekend, April 9 and 10, when the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books has its 21st edition.
Sex in the Talmud uncovered in different ‘Shades’
Jonathan Kirsch
March 16, 2016
According to a pious tradition, the unmarried men in a yeshivah were asked to leave the study hall whenever the rabbi began to teach one of the passages of the Talmud that frankly address the subject of sex, an act known in talmudic usage as “the mitzvah act.”
‘The Yid’ embarks on a hero’s journey
Jonathan Kirsch
March 9, 2016
Moscow-born author and journalist Paul Goldberg first learned about the so-called blood libel — the hateful lie alleging Jews use Christian blood in their rituals — in a place where slander against the Jews is deeply rooted.
Marvin Kalb discusses the U.S.-Russian game of chicken
Jonathan Kirsch
February 25, 2016
The voice of Marvin Kalb, deeply familiar to any baby boomer, is calm, measured and authoritative.
Brandeis: The first Jewish jurist named to the Supreme Court
Jonathan Kirsch
January 27, 2016
Exactly 100 years have passed since the first Jewish jurist was named to the Supreme Court.
New Articles
Why Are Presidential Statements About Jews So Weak?
Rafael Medoff
April 26, 2024
UCLA Hillel on Pro-Palestinian Encampment: Jewish Students “Feeling the Intensity of the Situation”
Aaron Bandler
April 26, 2024
USC Cancels Main Commencement Ceremony
Aaron Bandler
April 26, 2024
Chosen Links – Colleges and Passover Edition – April 25, 2024
Boaz Hepner
April 26, 2024
Nova Festival Exhibit in Manhattan Harrowing and Inspiring
Alan Zeitlin
April 26, 2024
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.