Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Funny music, sad life

By Jonathan Kirsch

On an otherwise unremarkable day in 1938, a chubby but charming student at John Burroughs Junior High in Los Angeles “cracked the code of his comic. . .

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Hank Greenberg's Jewishness

By Jonathan Kirsch

The big question in Detroit in the fall of 1934 had nothing to do with the troubled state of the world. Rather, the fans of the Detroit Tigers wanted. . .

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

What it really feels like to be alive today

by Elaine Margolin

David Shields, author of the hotly debated “Reality Hunger: A Manifesto,” has bewitched us once again with his innovative genre-bending. . .

Friday, May 3, 2013

On Jewish writing

by Erika Dreifus

I’m noticing a trend among my coreligionists-who-write: arguing against being “labeled” as Jewish writers — especially when they are. . .

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Ghosts of Communism

By Jonathan Kirsch

Two weeks ago, my wife, Ann, and I completed our first trip to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Everywhere we went, our local guides proudly. . .

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

‘My Mother’s Wars’: Witness From Afar

By Jonathan Kirsch

I met Lillian Faderman last Saturday when we both appeared on a panel titled “Holocaust Lives” at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. To be. . .

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Bikur cholim manners

By Rabbi David Wolpe

Every disease is a social disease. When a person is diagnosed, his or her family, friends and community are involved as well. The shock moves through. . .

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The comfort of lies

by Dora Levy Mossanen

The ups and downs of everyday life, the many dramatic struggles woven into the fabric of life, provide writers—this group of shameless voyeurs and. . .

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Boy Avenger

By Michael Berenbaum

I began reading Jonathan Kirsch’s “The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris”. . .

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Resistance and rescuers: Holocaust books for kids

by Lisa Silverman

When children approach their parents with inevitable questions about death, divorce, homosexuality or how babies are made, adults often turn to books. . .

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Jay Neugeboren gets reel with latest novel

By Jonathan Kirsch

"For far too long, Jay Neugeboren has been known as a writer’s writer and as the nurturing teacher of future writers,” Sanford Pinsker wrote in. . .

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Children’s books make Passover come alive

by Penny Schwartz, JTA

Years ago, Nancy Steiner set out to make her family seder a bit more entertaining for her young kids. She wrote a poem that became very popular among. . .

Friday, March 15, 2013

The splendor and distinction of Iranian-Jewish art

By Jonathan Kirsch

For visitors to the Fowler Museum’s recent exhibition, the show’s catalog, “Light and Shadows: The Story of Iranian Jews” edited by David. . .

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Michael Chabon’s search for authentic expression

By Tom Teicholz

A writer walks into a room full of rabbis. This sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it’s not. In the words of Woody Allen’s “Broadway. . .

Thursday, March 7, 2013

The clout of Judge Stanley Mosk

By Jonathan Kirsch

A new biography of California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk opens with an apt quote from the late and much-loved Jewish Journal columnist. . .

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Hard boiled in Boyle Heights

by Sharon Rosen Leib, Contributing Writer

As soon as I finished Janice Steinberg’s new novel “The Tin Horse” (Random House, $26), I gave a copy to my 100-year-old Grandma Bea.. . .

Friday, March 1, 2013

Yiddish: The enduring language

By Jonathan Kirsch

Among the many ways the Jewish people have sought to honor the Six Million, perhaps none is so life-affirming as the revival of interest in Yiddish,. . .

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Five authors named finalist for Sami Rohr Prize

JTA

Five authors from three countries were named the finalists for the 2013 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

The wrath of history

By Jonathan Kirsch

Much has been written about anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, but “anti-Judaism” is something else again.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Elie Wiesel and questions of God and duty

by Elaine Margolin

The madness always calls him back. You only have to glance at Elie Wiesel’s tortured face to know that he is always at risk. Even after the. . .

Thursday, February 7, 2013

‘Brandeis-Bardin,’ on paper

By Jonathan Kirsch

From generation to generation, starting in 1950 and continuing today, one of the most important sites on the map of the Jewish community in Southern. . .

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Rabbi shares her love of chocolate

by Kylie Jane Wakefield, Contributing Writer

To say that Rabbi Deborah R. Prinz likes chocolate would be a gross — or rather, delicious — understatement. For seven years, she’s traveled. . .

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The power of maps, in history and politics

By Jonathan Kirsch

On display in my office is a globe that captures a perilous moment in time — the world as it existed on very eve of World War II.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Perspectives on occupation: Lessons from Israeli society

By Jonathan Kirsch

The argument over Israel’s presence in the territories beyond the Green Line has recently come to focus almost exclusively on security issues, but. . .