Akeena Solar

Books

November 19, 2009

A New Bible Translation, But Only the Fun Parts

Poet and translator David Rosenberg is best known for “The Book of J,” a best-seller that features the commentary of literary scholar Harold Bloom and Rosenberg’s fresh and felicitous translation of the portions of the biblical text attributed to the author who is known to Bible scholars by the letter-code “J.” I fear, however, that Rosenberg’s achievement as a Bible translator may have been unfairly overshadowed by Bloom’s intentionally provocative argument that J was, in fact, a woman.

Featured

Monday, November 16, 2009

Angella Nazarian Seeks Her Place in the World

Angella M. Nazarian’s “Life as a Visitor” (Assouline Publishing) is a memoir/travelogue/compilation of touching poems plus beautiful photographs captured during the author’s travels to more than 50 countries. Nazarian is an honest and candid writer who raises hope that dreams can be achieved even if one is uprooted from one’s homeland and even if the glass souvenirs she so desired in her childhood in Iran were out of reach in a cabinet, “locked and the key put away.” But not for long. An avid photographer and traveler, Nazarian managed to discover her own key while visiting foreign lands, where she collected her own souvenirs and came to believe that, “a similar theme or experience has a way of collapsing the distance between past and present, here and there.”

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Prose Rescues Anne Frank From Sainthood

Anne Frank is a unique figure in the iconography of Judaism. Of the 6 million victims of the Holocaust, her face is the only one we all know intimately and even subliminally. It has been said, and it’s perfectly true, that she has become the Jewish equivalent of a saint — cherished and revered. How else to explain the thrill and terror that I felt when a long-lost film clip showing Anne Frank recently surfaced on the Internet?

Latest

Monday, November 9, 2009

Rabbi’s book says Jews can kill gentiles

A West Bank rabbi has written a book that says Jews can kill non-Jews who threaten Israel.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

When good people do not believe in God

Among the more surprising things that I discovered in “Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe” by Greg M. Epstein (William Morrow: $25.99, 250 pps.) is the fact that Harvard University offers its students the services of a humanist chaplain, a job held by the author himself. “Humanism,” which the author spells with a capital “h,” has been elevated into the equivalent of a religious affiliation at one of the world’s greatest universities.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Goldhagen, Hirsi Ali and Fenton Bring New Works to L.A.

November is a splendid month for Angelenos who like to keep up with new books and meet the people who write them.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

R. Crumb Brings Signature Style to ‘Genesis’

If you put a copy of R. Crumb’s “The Book of Genesis Illustrated” (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., $24.95) on your coffee table during the upcoming holiday season, I promise you that it will catch and hold the attention of your guests and provoke some lively conversation. Where else, after all, will they find a version of the Bible that includes male frontal nudity, bare breasts in abundance, and men and women in a variety of imaginative sexual postures?

David SaxTuesday, October 20, 2009

The Heretic: Q & A With David Sax

Rob Eshman interviews David Sax, author of the book, "Save the Deli."

Read Rob Eshman's interview with David Sax here.

Find out why L.A.'s Langer's Deli has the best pastrami sandwich in the world.Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Move Over, New York

Brace yourselves, New York, because what I am about to write is definitely going to piss a lot of you off, but it needs to be said: Los Angeles has become America’s premier deli city.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Israel pulls history textbook from shelves

Israel's Education Ministry is pulling a history textbook from school and stores.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Looking Inward in the New Year

The caretaker of the only shul in Rangoon, Burma, posted this notice just outside the sanctuary before Rosh Hashanah, 2007:

Rabbi Zoë KleinWednesday, August 26, 2009

Rabbi-Novelist Mines Ancient Treasure

Of all the prophets, Jeremiah has always been the personal favorite of Rabbi Zoë Klein. So in a series of two fictional works, the prolific pulpit rabbi and fiction writer did him a favor: She gave him a lover.

Frank Gehry and Barbara Isenberg. Photo courtesy J. Paul Getty TrustWednesday, July 1, 2009

Get to Know Gehry in ‘Conversations’

When architect Frank Gehry turned 75 some five years ago, he was hugely famous, much in demand and aware that even beyond his prolific output, his legacy needed some explanation. So he started thinking about how to go about preserving his thoughts.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Spies, Celebs, Classics and More —  Good Reads

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

One Rabbi’s Climb Out of Despair

Can you identify with an emotion never having experienced it personally? Can you learn from someone who shares his life story of survival from a life-threatening illness, never having been unwell yourself?

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Miscommunication Marks Early History of Sephardic-Ashkenazic Relations in U.S.

A hundred years ago, if you walked the streets of the Lower East Side, you would expect to hear Yiddish spoken all around you and to see storefronts covered in Hebrew letters spelling Yiddish words.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Immigrant’s Magic Touch Brought ‘Gold’ to Southland

Through Frances Dinkelspiel’s literary blog, Ghost Word (francesdinkelspiel.blogspot.com), I kept up with the progress of her biography of Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant who arrived in California in 1859 from Bavaria. As with many immigrants, Hellman had very little money; however, by the end of his life, he had transformed Los Angeles into a modern city and helped California become an economic power.

Shulamit LapidWednesday, April 15, 2009

Scarlett O’Hara on the Galilee — A Yishuv Pioneer

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Civil War Jews Who Weren’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie

At the Passover seder next Wednesday evening, our children will recite the traditional question, “How is this night different from all other nights?” But the adults at the table are the ones who appreciate how this night really is different — not only from the rest of the year, but from the Passover seders of the past. As I started writing my third novel about Jewish spies during the Civil War, I began to wonder if American Jews had ever sat down at a seder where every part of the meal was served by slaves. As I discovered in my research, they did.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

20th Century Zionist Asks: ‘Has Jacob Become Esau?’

Frieda KorobkinWednesday, February 25, 2009

After Kindertransport —A Life Fully Lived, Recalled

Frieda Korobkin was orphaned by the Holocaust, but because she spent the war years living protected in the English countryside, she didn’t really consider herself a survivor — and she never thought about writing her memoirs.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

‘A Restless Spirit’ Soars, Q&A With Richard Gunther

‘A Restless Spirit’ Soars, Q&A With Richard Gunther

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

How Torah Revolutionized Political Theory

Why do we read the Bible? For religion to be sure, but also for politics. After all, unlike the New Testament, which was written in the era of Roman rules and did not have to offer prescriptions for governance (the Romans handled all that), the Bible was a manual not only for individual piety, but also for setting up a society. What does it teach that the surrounding worlds did not know?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Stormin’ da castle: Tony Curtis in Hollywood

Curtis doesn't fully appreciate how much his on-screen allure owed to his being Jewish

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Disraeli: The curious case of England’s Jewish prime minister

Benjamin Disraeli was born Jewish, baptized as a boy but (mostly) considered himself to be Jewish. He famously proclaimed to Queen Victoria -- who began by hating him and ended adoring him -- that he was the "blank page" separating the Old and New Testaments.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Jamie Sneider’s ‘Jewish Woman’ ain’t your bubbe’s 2009 calendar [VIDEO]

Racy, tongue-in-cheek calendars are also an inspiration for Jamie Sneider, whose photos appear on every page of the "Jamie Sneider: Year of the Jewish Woman" calendar for 2009

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Genetic research can open book on Jewish identity—for good and bad

Critics fear that Jewish genetic research also opens a Pandora's box. The discovery of a shared genetic marker among men who claim to be descended from Kohanim grew into wild, exaggerated claims in the media that geneticists had confirmed the story of Aaron

Blogs

Opinion Section

11/18
Rob Eshman: The Prophet
11/17
David Suissa: Peace in Arabic

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11/21/09 8:00 am
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Candlelighting

11/20 4:30pm