Product Description
The Jewish Moral Virtues is a book of "musar,"practical ethical wisdom applied to contemporary life. In form andpurpose, it is parallel to William Bennett's popular Book ofVirtues. The authors synthesize traditional scholarship from a widerange of Jewish sources with personal insights into modern ethicaldilemmas.Traditionally, Jewish ethical teachers have been concernedwith law or general guidance for a good life, i.e. virtue, rather thenphilosophical meditations upon specific issues. This collection isstructured upon the twenty-four virtues selected by athirteenth-century Roman Jew, Yehiel ben Yekutiel, and expands toinclude wisdom from the ancient rabbis, medieval philosophers, andYehiel's successors over the past seven centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

nicely done
A nice general guide to Jewish values, though sometimes a little too general to hold my interest (which is why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5).I recommend reading this along with (and preferably before) Telushkin's Book of Jewish Values- this book gives you the forest of general concepts, Telushkin gives you the trees (by applying these concepts to the specific details of every day life).

A good book to read on Jewish ethics
A friend of mine was reading this book as part of a Jewish adult education group and suggested it; it's pretty good, especially with ethics being all the talk these days.

Beautifully written, wonderfully researched, a MUST READ!
For all of the popular talk about "virtues" and character, the Jewish community has essentially gone without a modern, scholarly, accessible and thorough treatment about the content of the"Jewish" character . . . until now.World-renowned professorEugene Borowitz and his co-author (and former student) Frances WeinmanSchwartz have brought us an updated and refreshing take on a little-known13th century ethical text, "Sefer Maalot Hamidot."The authorshave taken the original list of "Jewish virtues" and reconfiguredit for the 21st century Jew.Bringing together sources -- primarily, butnot exclusively Jewish sources -- the authors create a rich tapestry thatwill long adorn the walls of Jewish ethical literature. The book containsthousands of quotes, verses, stories, and insights -- gleaned from the timeof the Torah until today -- to explain how Jewish tradition treats variouspersonal virtues, such as generosity, loving-kindness, pure-heartedness,and love of God, to name a few.This is partly a how-to guide for dailyimprovement of our lives, but it is much more.It is also a beatifullywritten, wonderfully researched anthology that synthesizes an entirepeople's ethical tradition and makes it relevant and compelling for themodern reader. "The Jewish Moral Virtues" is an essential partof everyone's library; a must read. 5 Star + rating.Available now throughAmazon.com.

One of the Best modern Jewish books out there
This is an unbelievably comprehensive book of jewish morals and virtues taken from an exremely wide range of Jewish sources. What is most amazing is the way it is written -- conversational, modern and applicable to lifetoday while still being true to ancient sources and texts. This is a mustread and a must have for every Jewish home. It is one of Borowitz's bestand a nice maiden voyage for new author Frances Weinman Schwartz, whom wehope to hear more from. ... Read more

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In this memoir Morris Wyszogrod recounts his experiences from the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland to the liberation of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1945. He describes in detail the time he spent in the Warsaw Ghetto; his work as an artist for various Luftwaffe personnel at the Warsaw military airport; his experiences at the Budzyn concentration camp, where he was assigned to decorate the living quarters of the SS and to produce drawings at an orgiastic Oktoberfest; his removal to Plaszow, where he was put to work digging up mass graves and burning the bodies to eliminate the evidence of Nazi war crimes; his witnessing of the firebombing of Dresden in February 1945; and his subsequent liberation at Theresienstadt by the Red Army in May 1945. Just as an artist may register what she or he sees against a sensitive visual and moral template, so Wyszogrod doubly registered what he saw and felt, both in his drawings and in his memories. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A triumph for humanity
I became aware of this book through a casual conversation with a colleague, the author's son Barry. The discussion was spawned from our conversation on family origins and the degree to which they influence individuals and how we perceive and react to our environments.
Mr. Wyszogrod's detailed and descriptive memoir provides a chilling account of the horrors that so many suffered at the hands of unconscionable inhumanity. Most inspiring is the author's inherent ability to maintain touch with his own family values in the face of such brutality and hopelessness, and his ability to, a the very least, imagine that there may be some small crumb of good remaining in the souls of his captures.
I am honored to have had the opportunity to share in Mr. Wyszogrod's story. The horrors of the Holocaust are no longer just a piece of history to me. I will reflect on his strength and personal fortitude, as well as his love and commitment to family. Shalom

Sensitivity and Brutality Combine For a Stunning Remembrance
This review is hardly unbiased.The author, Morris Wysogrod, a commerical artist by trade, is my cousin and quite truly, a hero of mine.Whenever I visit my Cousin Morris' apartment, I am greeted as soon as I step off theelevator with genuine warmth and enthusiasm. His smile,unbreaking and hisconversation,always scintillating, I am amazed at his sincerity and goodnature despite what he has witnessed and experienced as a Holocaustsurvivor.

His warmth and love for his fellow man is evident throughouthis memoir.Morris provides a vivid look at pre-war Poland and the livesthat were stolen from our families.And, much as he greets his guests withgenuine warmth and affection today, he treats each character in his bookwith similar respect and reverence.

His memory is outstanding as heremembers the many personalities and every day people of his Warsaw youth,and later in the death camps.His descriptions are detailed and he suceedsin bringing out the special qualitiesof each character.This is soimportant because more often than not, the people he describes with suchaffection will soon be dead at the hands of the Nazis.Much of Holocaustliterature refers to the millions who were massacred.Morris didn't knowthe millions but he pays beautiful homage to the hundreds who crossed hispath.

From homage to carnage, Morris's story takes us into the Nazioccupation and his incarceration in several death camps.Similar to hisskills in painting a picture of his pre-war youth, he is equally andshockingly vivid in his memories of the camps.The brutality, anguish, andsheer inhumanity he witnessed is brought to life as only a man of hisartistic talents can do.

And in the midst of the brutality, there is thefriendships, the shared moments, and the appreciation for his fellowprisoners that is necessary for the reader to grasp onto so that he or shemay continue with the chilling chronicle of Morris' survival.

A BrushWith Death has warmth, beauty and brutality.It is one of the many storiesof the Holocaust experience, and one which I am confident will provide aunique perspective to the most horrific period in recorded history.

Graphic, Stirring Depiction of Holocaust
As a fellow survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Budzyn concentration camp, I can attest the accuracy of the author's harrowing descriptions of his experiences.

I am amazed at the author's ability to recall somany details.He writes from the heart, without artifice.His sparedrawings provide haunting illustrations of what words can't always describeon their own.

Read this book.You will be moved. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Illuminating
Too frequently in this day and age, when the word "mysticism" is used, what comes to mind is either New Age razzamatazz or Christian unitive experiences such as those described by John of the Cross or Theresa of Avila.The first trivializes mysticism, the second reduces it to but one kind of experience.In either case, a long, hallowed, and cross-cultural relationship with God is distorted.

Joseph Dan's new anthology on Jewish mysticism is a gem.In its 50-page Introduction--which by itself is worth the price of the book--he carefully points out that there's more to mysticism than merely unitive experiences, carefully distinguishes the mystical from the religious (without implying that one is "better" than the other), and explores the relationship between mysticism and language.

More specifically, in regards to the Jewish mystical tradition, Dan points out that it's as foolish to identity Kabbalah with Jewish mysticism (a near-ubiquitous confusion) as it is to identify Sufism with Islamic mystical experience.Different historical periods and different temperaments have given rise to a variety of Jewish mystical approaches.The virtue of this excellent anthology is to allow these different voices to speak.Dan offers selections in chronological order, ranging from the earliest Temple writings through the medieval Zohar to modern Hasidism to contemporary Israeli poetry-mysticism.A beautiful, revelatory book, both for those who know nothing about the Jewish mystical tradition and for those looking for a convenient compendium.Enthusiastically recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
In a style richly accessible to the general reader, this book presents Roth's secular Jewishness, with its own mysteries and humor, as most representative of the American Jewish experience. Thirty years into his career as a writer, Philip Roth remains known to most readers as a self-hating Jew or a flawed would-be comic. Philip Roth and the Jews shows Roth the ironist, the master of absurdity, for whom twentieth-century America and modern Jewish history resonate with each other's signal accomplishments and anxieties. Roth's "egoism" is a persona, an abashed moralist discomfited by the world. Cooper shows that in the "Jewish" works Roth has taken the pulse of America and read the pressures of the world. Modernism, the universal tug for individual sovereignty and against tribal definition, is an issue everywhere. Roth's own odyssey of betrayal, loss, and return-the pattern of the Jewish writer in the last 200 years-is so shaped by his origins that Roth has carried his home and neighborhood into the corners of the earth and thus never left them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Phil Roth and his relationship with the Jews
I have to say that I was skeptical of this book. I was doing research on Phil Roth for my students. I found the book to be an interesting tool in understanding and clarifying Roth as an author. He was born at Newark's Beth Israel Medical Center and raised in the Jewish enclave of Newark also known as Weequahic section. Every culture or ethnic group had their sections in Newark just like they did in New York City. His relationship with Judaism is not an easy one. He is not a religious Jew nor a practicing one. I don't know if he believes in God at all and I don't expect them too. We, writers and authors are quite a strange bunch. Anyway, Roth's Jewishness is examined but it's not quite clear to the reader. I believe that Roth like others thought that his neighborhood would have stayed the same since he left but it didn't. The Jewish community has become quite assimilated into American culture. Driving past the Weequahic section last week on a snowy day only by accident, I saw his Newark as once a section where it was a community. That's the problem, we have all lost our sense of community by moving away for a little more property and nicer homes and better schools. We now have longer commutes and expenses but we miss our families and friend and the familiarity of our neighborhoods. Maybe that's why some towns have generations of families like mine in the same community, at least, we know of each other. Anyway, Roth's relationship with his religion, culture, and ethnicity is often the subject of his many novels especially about the conflict regarding assimilating or becoming mainstream once they were seen as outsiders before. Remember in their time, it seemed that there were only two religious groups, Christians and Jews. Now you have Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, etc. among our mix. Life certainly has changed for the Jews who were once seen as unwelcome outsiders but tolerable. Now they are a part of American culture, they are no longer outsiders and are welcome into our families, communities, and society.
... Read more

Product Description
This study is an innovative and controversial study of how the best-known Jews writing in Russian in early Soviet period attempted to resolve the conflict between their cultural identity and their place in Revolutionary Russia. Babel, Mandelstam, Pasternak and Ehrenburg struggled to form creative selves out of the contradictions of origins, outlook and social or ideological pressures. Comparison of literary texts and the visual arts reveals unexpected correspondences in the response to political and cultural change. Sicher provides a fascinating view of intercultural and intertextual connections and contrasts. ... Read more

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This book an EXACT reproduction of the original book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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After redrawing the map of modern Jewish memory, David G. Roskies takes the reader on a grand tour of major memory sites, each of which is built upon foundations of rebellion, rupture, and loss. Among them: chronicles of catastrophe from the Warsaw ghetto; a gallery of rabbis and zaddikim who are really rebels in disguise; a failed revolution recast into an Honor Row of magnificent tombstones; and a Holy Land where the search for a sacred space is led by those least likely ever to find it. The creativity with which Jews have coped with loss and catastrophe in modern times is richly revealed in this lively account. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A profound work
This is a profound exploration of the work of three of the most influential Jewish thinkers of modernity. ... Read more

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Drawing upon their rich religious and cultural heritage--a heritage that stretches back to Biblical times and passes through many varied epochs and environments--Jewish sages, artists, writers, and storytellers have continually created imaginative and evocative formulations of Jewish philosophy, literature, art, law, liturgy, ritual, and especially new forms of folklore.

Miriam's Tambourine presents fifty classic Jewish folktales that come from virtually every corner of the globe and every historical period.Readers of all ages will delight in the Jewish versions of the Snow White, Rapunsel, and Sinbad stories, which in some cases were the original sources of these popular folktales.Howard Schwartz has also selected and retold those tales which have retained their uniquely Jewish character and have become part of the heritage of the Jewish people, including the Golem, the tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav and of the Ba'al Shem Tov, tales of Elijah the Prophet, Miriam and her mystical well, Rabbi Adam, and even of the Sambotyon, the legendary river that raged six days of the week and rested on the Sabbath.

Recast in a form accessible to readers both young and old, yet true to their provenances, these tales continue to enthrall and capture the imagination as they illustrate the power of man to overcome evil; the longing of the Jewish people to return to their homeland; and the universal prayer for a world at peace.Providing careful annotation of sources and a brilliant analysis of meanings and symbolisms, Miriam's Tambourine represents a landmark in Jewish folk literature and in American-Jewish culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

disappointingly wishy-washy
I must reluctantly agree with "A Customer" that this collection does not exactly shine against the rest of Schwartz's work. I should point out that I have quite the library of Judaica, including just about everything penned by Schwartz, Ginzberg, Patai, Frankel, Noy, and whomever else. This book feels like Schwartz is starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel and is resultantly coming up with tales that are--how shall I put it--dull? vapid? lackluster? trivial? Granted, one cannot always "discover" yet another several hundred breathtaking tales (one is reminded of the clever Zipes playing impresario to the dubiously prolific Gonzenbach), but I really get the impression that Schwartz just permitted his discard pile to grow until there were enough snips and snails to whip up a "book." No, feel quite free to pass on this minor entry: you won't miss it.

WONDROUS WORLDWIDE JEWISH FOLKTALES: A REVIEW OF MIRIAM'S TAMBOURINE
WONDROUS WORLDWIDE JEWISH FOLKTALES: A REVIEW OF MIRIAM'S TAMBOURINE
by Cherie Karo Schwartz
Storyteller, Author, and Educator

MIRIAM'S TAMBOURINE, in its several printings thus far, provides an excellent, entertaining, enlightening foray into Jewish folklore. These retellings of worldwide Jewish folktales by master storyteller and honored author Howard Schwartz (who recently won the National Jewish Book Award for TREE OF SOULS), are imaginatively spun, carefully annotated, and thoughtfully sourced. They are a treasure trove for storytellers, educators, clergy, families, and are for story readers and storytellers of all ages. The fifty tales in this stellar collection of Jewish folk tales from around the world exhibit the range and depth of the Jewish experience.There are tales from such disparate Jewish communities as Kurdistan, Eastern Europe of two hundred years ago, Afghanistan, India, France, Palestine of five hundred to a thousand years ago, Egypt, Italy, and ancient Babylon.Each story embodies a facet of Jewish life: traditions, aspirations, and challenges.
The forward by Dr. Dov Noy (founder fo the Israel Folktale Archives) and the introduction by Schwartz provide a rich and enlightening overview of the world of Jewish folk tales. Each of the tales in MIRIAM'S TAMBOURINE brings a particular culture, time period, and series of events brilliantly alive for the reader. There are tales of fantasy ("Daniel and the Dragon"), destined love ("The Maiden andthe Tree"), animals ("The Donkey Girl", "The Stork Princess"),and miracles ("Miraculous Dust"). And, there are tales of compensation and justice, such as "The Wise Old Woman of the Forest", a Moroccan prototype of The Wizard of Oz theme!
One of my favorite tales in this noteworthy collectionis "The Staff of Elijah", from the oral tradition of Rumania. It employs the symbols of seeker, Elijah the Prophet, a magical staff, and the Holy Land to create a beautiful tale of return. The story stands powerfully on its own as an enchantingly told tale. For those seeking the story beyond the story, Howard Schwartz' masterful endnote sourcing and commentary brings the interwoven history, characters, and theme of reunification into clarity
The stories in MIRIAM'S TAMBOURINE are treasured resources for storytellers, educators, and parents. And, they are great stories for young and old to enjoy for years of reading pleasure. Howard Schwartz's vast knowledge, his imaginative creativity, his expansive in-depth endnotes, and his storyteller's keen eye for retelling tales make MIRIAM'S TAMBOURINE a delight-filled journey of discovery of the worldwide tapestry of Jewish folk tales.

Deadly dull
I couldn't stay awake through a single one of these brief folktales.The writing is absolutely leaden.The book claims that Schwartz has done a little bit of research -- though most of the stories are retold in much livelier fashion by other writers.I was looking for a book to use in a course on world folktales.It certainly won't be this brick.It would be enough to make a student drop a course. ... Read more

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"... the most incisive study to date of the lesser-known but equally talented Singer: Israel Joshua... " -- Choice

"... exceedingly well researched and written... " -- Shofar

"This critical examination of the fiction of I.J. Singer is deft in its placement of the novels and short stories in historical context, but with new perspectives on that historical context." -- AJL Newsletter

Although Israel Joshua Singer has existed, for English readers, in the shadow of his famous brother, Isaac Bashevis Singer, this book reasserts his rightful place at the center of Yiddish culture in Eastern Europe and America. A comprehensive bibliography of Singer's fiction, essays, and journalism is included.

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Much has changed for Jewish women since the first edition of Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality appeared in 1992.Associations of Jewish women--academic, religious, secular--have proliferated, making the women's voices heard. In collecting material for this completely revised edition, the editors drew upon sources that express the diversity of Jewish women, mainly from 1560 to the present. They sought material by Jewish women of different ages, sexual orientations, educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and nationalities. Reflecting a wide variety of literary genres, sources include spiritual works (sermons, addresses, ritual blessing, prayers) as well as letters, sisterhood minutes, and committee reports that also express the spiritual concerns of their authors. Writings by women rabbis and contemporary Orthodox women, along with documents from Latin America, bring the volume up to date. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Awesome
A great anthology of sermons, prayers, stories, personal testimonies to delve in and return to. ... Read more

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In the first extended work tracing the Jewish influences of fifteen major American artists, this landmark book chronicles the enormous contribution of Jewish artists to twentieth-century American art.

Born over a fifty-year period, the artists in this volume represent several generations of twentieth-century artists. Examining the work of such influential artists as Mark Rothko, Max Weber, and Ruth Weisberg, Baigell directly confronts their Jewish identity—as a religious, cultural, and psychological component of their lives—and explores the way in which this influence is reflected in their art.

Drawing upon their common heritage, Baigell reveals the different ways these artists responded to the Great Immigration, the Depression, the Holocaust, the founding of the state of Israel, and the rise of feminism. Each artist’s varied Jewish experiences have contributed to the creation of a visual language and subject matter that reflect both Jewish assimilation and Jewish continuity in ways that inform modern Jewish history and changes in present-day America.

Offering a fresh examination of well-known artists as well as long overdue attention to lesser-known artists, Baigell’s incisive observations are indispensable to our understanding of the Jewish themes in these artists' work. Written in a lively and spirited prose, this book is compulsory reading for those interested in modern American art and Jewish studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Involving reading.
Fifteen major American artists are detailed in a survey of the contribution of Jewish artists to modern American art in American Artists, Jewish Images. All were born over a fifty-year period, so they represent different generations: Baigell makes important points linking their Jewish heritage to their creations, injecting a cultural, religious and social note to his artistic criticisms. His survey of their shared roots issues as reflected in their arts makes for involving reading.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

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The works of the Jewish writer Flavius Josephus represent one of the most important records of Judaism and the Jews that survive from the ancient world. The Jewish Antiquities, his largest historical enterprise, is an account in twenty books of Jewish history from the creation to the outbreak of the Jewish revolt against Rome in AD 66. Here is all the drama of the Old Testament transformed into a historical narrative of Greco-Roman character; and more important, our only continuous account of Middle Eastern affairs in the two hundred years that led up to the revolt. William Whiston, successor to Isaac Newton as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, published his famous translation of Josephus' works in 1737. The modern system of chapter divisions has been added. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

What you always wanted to know about God and the way He wanted it.
Offers deeper insights into the Old Testament Books of the Bible. Explores motivations, reveals the thinking of early Jews.

Jewish Antiquities
Jewish Antiquities is a fine book that is becoming a vital tool of research for me in my graduate class.It is very well written and gives a forceful voice to Josephus Flavious on his epic story of the Jewish people.It is a must for anybody for anyone who wants to understand Judea and Rome during the First Century A.D. ... Read more

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Michael Andr Bernstein's passionate denunciation of apocalyptic thinking provides a moral, philosophical, and literary challenge to the way most of us make sense of our worlds. In our search for coherence, Bernstein argues, we tend to see our lives as moving toward a predetermined fate. This "foreshadowing" demeans the variety, the richness, and especially the unpredictability of everyday life. Apocalyptic history denies the openness and choice available to its actors.Bernstein chooses the Holocaust as the prime example of our tendency toward foregone conclusions. He argues eloquently against politicians and theologians who depict the Holocaust as foreordained and its victims as somehow implicated in a fate they should have been able to foresee. But his argument ranges wider. From recent biographies of Kafka to the Israeli-P.L.O. peace accords, from campus cultural diversity debates to the Crown Heights riots, Bernstein warns against our passive acceptance of historical or personal victimization.An essential contribution to Holocaust studies, this book is also a lucid call to transform the way we read and write history and the way we make sense of our lives. ... Read more

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Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi's sweeping study of modern Jewish writing is in many ways a long meditation on the thematics of geography in Jewish culture, what she calls the "poetics of exile and return."Until the late nineteenth century, Jews were identified in their own religious and poetic imagination as wanderers and exiles, their sacred centerJerusalem, Zionfatefully out of reach. Opening the book with "Jewish Journeys," Ezrahi begins by examining the work of medieval Hebrew poet Yehuda Halevi to chart a journey whose end was envisioned as the sublime realignment of the people with their original center. When the Holy Land became the site of a political drama of return in the nineteenth century, Jewish writing reflected the shift, traced here in the travel fictions of S.Y. Abramovitsh, S.Y. Agnon, and Sholem Aleichem.In "Jewish Geographies" Ezrahi explores aspects of reterritorialization through memory in the post-Holocaust writing of Paul Celan, Dan Pagis, Aharon Appelfeld, I.B. Singer and Philip Roth. Europe, where Jews had dreamed of return, has become the new ruined shrine: The literary pilgrimages of these writers recall familiar patterns of grieving and representation and a tentative reinvention of the diasporic imaginationin America, of course, but, paradoxically, even in Zion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wandering Jews
In recent years, a seemingly endless variety of poetic and political signifiers have been invoked in attempts to describe the experiences of dispossession, minorities, and regions: border, creolization, transculturation, transnationalism, hybridity. These spatial/historical paradigms are often at the crux of cultural debates in much the way that W. E. B. Du Bois's concept of double consciousness would have once occupied center stage. At the top of the list ranks diaspora (and frequently the somewhat elusive diasporic) which is the focus of journals such as Diaspora and Transition as well as a wide range of academic periodicals that have devoted special issues to the theme. But in one way or another, these permutations and mutations of diaspora can be traced to a late nineteenth-century movement among Jewish historiographers, who sought ways to account for the Jews' persistence over the long span of centuries in a variety of lands that were not their homeland. Unfortunately, the rapidly increasing ways that "diaspora" has been appropriated, has led to an unfortunate increase in intellectual fuzziness and rhetorical imprecision to which even the rigorous field of Jewish Studies is far from immune. Fortunately for the latter, Sidra Dekoven Ezrahi's ambitious new study offers both theoretical rigor and innovation, taking the critique of literary Homecoming to a more sophisticated discursive space that will raise essential questions for future investigations of many of the poets and writers considered here. Although Jewish diasporism has often been a focus of Jewish literary analysis, nothing like this book has ever been attempted. Offering a wealth of original translations of abundant prooftexts, rich biographical and literary detail, Ezrahi has produced a consistently lively and erudite work. Divided into two major sections, "Jewish Journeys" and "Jewish Geographies" this book examines the tension between "Jewish story and territory" (139). Ezrahi's touchstone, Yehuda Halevi's "Songs of Zion" provides the essential metaphors of displacement, desire, voyage, and Return that guide her provocative readings. For Ezrahi, the essential terms that haunt the Jewish literary imagination to our own age were embedded in the Kabbalistic texts of Halevi's medieval contemporaries where the theosophical orientation shifts "from a geographical locus to the mobile body of the Jew, leading to later Kabbalistic and eventually Hassidic notions of individual salvation and symbolic rather than concrete connections with a sacred center" (49). In her shrewd analysis of the "diasporic journey" encoded here, Ezrahi is keenly attentive to the creative polarizations that continually reverberate between the metaphorizing and concretizing forms of narrative. For Ezrahi, the diasporic Jew imaginatively transforms the theological dynamic of deferral into profoundly skeptical visions of incomplete pilgrimages and mimetic culture. Ezrahi sees in the Jewish writer's faithful occupation of mimetic, rather than original space, a profound struggle against "contemporary complacencies" as well as "utopian desires" (53) that pose the true dangers to the Jewish spirit: "Herzl's 'if you will it, it is not a dream,' the emblem of the Zionist emergence from the 'dream-state' of the aggadically minded, reflects a cultural challenge of the highest order... 'will,' the fuel that empowers the imagination, is meant eventually to supersede it" (91). In contrast, Ezrahi makes a compelling case for a surprising continuum in the Jewish narrative journey and her study constitutes an ingathering of a highly disparate group of writers whose works (modernist and postmodern alike) nonetheless share a certain primordial trajectory: the literary "decoding of Jewish fate" invariably culminates in a "basic, primordial exilic pattern" in which "the topos of the journey to the Holy Land [is] a tale of the endlessly deferred end" (194). Ezrahi's readings of the spiritual and intellectual struggles encoded in Pagis and Celan's post-Shoah responses to the disenchanted universe are particularly stirring. For instance, in the latter's doomed search for a redemptive encounter with "an Other who has not come" Ezrahi notices the exile's mimicry of the "Zionist intoxication with a return to the primordial self" but finds that such recovery invariably reverts to "the legendary geography of the aimless and endlessly proliferating Jewish journey" (151). Also of note is Ezrahi's analysis of the Israeli poet and medieval scholar Dan Pagis's late works. In the latter's deeply wounded poetics of fragments she discovers "unfathomable depths poised at the borders of language...enigmatic signals sent directly to the reader" (176). Zion remains unattainable destiny rather than the place of arrival. There are also impressive readings of a number of novels by the Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld, some of which are still unavailable in English translation. Of particular note is the author's fascinating "Epilogue," an iconoclastic and evocative meditation on the competing claims of nationalism and what the author regards as the truly sacred. No future study of canonical Jewish literature will be sufficient without reference to this luminous study.-Ranen Omer-Sherman, author of Diaspora and Zionism in Jewish-American Literature ... Read more

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Excellent introduction to Yiddish culture in New York
The play is fascinating in its depiction of the way of life of the early Jewish family.In using the device of the King Lear story, Gordin reveals all his thoughts and ambitions for the evolving culture.The essays provide extremely interesting and beautifully written background about the Yiddish language, the Yiddish theater, and commentary on the play.This is a gem of a book and I will be sure to provide copies for my friends. ... Read more

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A gloriously illustrated anthology of Jewish stories featuring some of the most beloved writers and artists of all time. Selections range from traditional Midrash, Hasidic tales, and Sephardic folklore to ancient and modern stories from the Middle East, Africa, India, Eastern Europe, and North America. Illustrating this vast and remarkable anthology is a dazzling array of art relating to the Jewish experience. Over 120 full-color illus.Amazon.com Review
To quote the editor of this noteworthy collection, "a peoples' talesare its memory, its conscience--its imaginative channel to its place in theworld." Accordingly, this clothbound, 240-page volume includes ancientstories as well as more contemporary literary narratives by such renownedwriters as Grace Paley, Bernard Malamud, and Franz Kafka. Ranging fromtraditional Hasidic tales to Sephardic folklore, the stories reveal theunique heritage and customs of the Jewish community: they are passionate,inspirational, and often humorous tales that speak of origins, ethicaldilemmas, exile, and the passing down of cherished beliefs. Illustrating thisvast, remarkable anthology is a brilliant selection of art, featuring morethan 120 color plates relating to the Jewish experience by such masters asMarc Chagall, Ben Shahn, Max Weber, and Louise Nevelson. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Beautiful Book~Inspiring stories for Jew and Gentile Alike.
This is a beautiful book and the stories are very unique and inspiring. Being Gentile they are new sotries to me but I am sure to those of the Jewish faith a treasury of long know and loved stories. The illustration are fantastic and I cannot say enough about having this book in my home. Not a book you sit and read strait thru but savor over tiem.

A must have for a wel rounded library.

Gift for a friend.
I ordered this book here, because it was sold out at another shop when I went to pick it up. It will be a Hannukah gift.

I don't know all that much about Judaism, as I'm not Jewish. But it looks to be a very good story and should make my friend smile, and perhaps learn something he maybe didn't know.

Alot of times, I am very pleased with Amazon. They often have products that are discontinued or unavailable elsewhere. It's a great alternative to sitting there, hoping something comes back on a shelf.

Great work!

Table-book pleasure
This is a very pleasant and well- done work. The combination of art work and literary selections provides interest and entertainment. This is not however a scholarly work, and does not explore any of its themes in real depth. It is the kind of book which can be dipped in, and tasted usually with delight. Of the various table- book anthologies on Jewish culture that have appeared in the past ten years or so, this is certainly one of the best.

The Jewish Spirit
This book is an amazing work.I can read it again and again for hours!
If you are interested in folktales, this book is for you.
If you are interested in art, this book is for you.
If you are interested in great literature, this book is for you.

A Wuonderful Book!
A great book with beatuful art and incredable stories. From folk tales to modren setings, this book has lots of stories to warm your heart. I loved it and highly recommand it. ... Read more