Ken Brecher: From Amazon jungle to Library Foundation

Published on March 28, 2013

If Ken Brecher were a book, he’d be a hard one to set down. The 67-year-old president of the Library Foundation of Los Angeles is a treasure-trove of exotic stories and insightful anecdotes. One need only step into his office inside downtown’s Central Library to find out.

Amazon.com drops jigsaw puzzle of Nazi camp Dachau

Published on October 2, 2012

The American online retailer Amazon.com has stopped selling a jigsaw puzzle featuring the Dachau Nazi concentration camp following complaints.

Ellen Levy’s unlikely quest to find herself in the Amazon

Published on July 27, 2012

“Amazons: A Love Story” (University of Missouri Press: $24.95) is a highly unusual, poignant coming-of-age saga by a half-Jewish writer nearly off the scale in candor and braininess. Her name is E.J. (Ellen) Levy. My bet is that any lover of words who takes the time to read her prose will never forget that name.

BARGAIN HUNTING

By Annie Korzen
Published on July 13, 2011

Top ten lists: Time, Barnes & Noble and Amazon

By Book Buzz
Published on December 14, 2008

The Amazon’s magical mystery rabbi

Published on November 2, 2006

Details of Rabbi Shalom Emmanuel Muyal's mission and death in the Amazon remain obscure, but that's nothing compared to the mystery of his afterlife.

Goldberg’s List

By Rob Eshman
Published on July 28, 2005

Jewish Americans are only 2 percent of the nation's population, but they are 25 percent of its problem. That's according to Bernard Goldberg, whose new, bestselling nonfiction book is called, "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is No. 37)."

Memoirs From the Orthodox ‘Minefield’

By Ami Eden
Published on October 14, 2004

Unfortunately, at least from the perspective of an editor at a Jewish newspaper, our communal leaders traditionally don't do memoirs. The result is an incomplete record of a community that operates a multibillion-dollar charity network, has helped frame the debate on domestic issues from civil rights to church-state separation and wields increasing power on the international stage.

Shalom, Amazon

By Robin Cembalest
Published on June 14, 2001

A few weeks ago I welcomed Shabbat in Iquitos, Peru, one of the most isolated cities in the world. Located four degrees south of the Equator and surrounded by nearly impenetrable jungle, Iquitos is accessible only by air or by river -- that is, the Amazon.

Dining With Cannibals

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on April 12, 2001

The documentary, "Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale," began when artist David Shapiro found a box of old books jutting out of a pile of garbage on Avenue B in Manhattan's East Village.