“Sacred Housekeeping - a spiritual memoir” by Harriet Rossetto – Book Recommendation

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on April 3, 2013

If I Lean In, Will I Still Get Checked Out?

By Tamara Shayne Kagel
Published on April 2, 2013

“How To Be A Friend To A Friend Who’s Sick” – Book Recommendation

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on March 27, 2013

Q&A: Many Suicide Terrorists are Suicidal in the Clinical Sense

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on March 27, 2013

Involuntary Participant Observation in the ultra-Orthodox World

By Pini Herman
Published on February 25, 2013

The power of maps, in history and politics

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on January 30, 2013

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.

Revolution 2020: Does Life Imitate Art?

By Lisa Niver Rajna
Published on January 30, 2013

Shining a new light on the Jewish response to Christmas

Published on November 30, 2012

From Kung Pao kosher comedy to a swinging Mardi Gras version of the “Dreidel” song, two new Chanukah season releases explore the intriguing, delightful and sometimes perplexing ways in which American Jews have responded to Christmas.

The illusion of a solution

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on September 5, 2012

Of all the incendiary books that have been written about Israel over the last year or so, none is quite as fiery as "Israel: The Will to Prevail" by Danny Danon (Palgrave Macmillan: $26).

Re-examining Twain’s work, Clemens’ life

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on July 25, 2012

Ira Fistell is a familiar and even beloved figure in the Los Angeles radio market, where he long served as an exceptionally amiable, thoughtful and well-informed talk-show host on subjects ranging from politics and religion to vintage trains and Mississippi steamboats. Along with Dennis Prager, he was a host of "Religion on the Line," a Sunday evening colloquy that brought clergy of various faiths together and proved that theological shoptalk could be compelling to a general audience.

Dennis Prager: Man of hard truths

By David Suissa
Published on June 20, 2012

As I was reading Dennis Prager’s new book, “Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph,” I found myself increasingly frustrated. The words themselves didn’t bother me; rather, it was that silly contraption I was holding in my hands, what’s known as a Kindle.

Bookmark These for Summer Reading

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on June 13, 2012

Summer is here, and the time is right for touring authors. Here are the highlights of the season for poolside and airplane reading, including some local appearances by the authors themselves.

Himmler’s Brain

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on June 6, 2012

Sari Nusseibeh – Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life – A Must Read

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on March 1, 2012

Leaving the an insular, Hasidic world

Published on February 10, 2012

“Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots” by 25-year-old Deborah Feldman (Simon & Schuster: $23.00) is painfully good. Through a narrative voice that is almost hypnotic, she puts you immediately in the center of her chaotic world. Flashes of adult wisdom seem almost to compete with her childlike sense of bafflement, and we watch this young author struggle fearlessly to find herself on the page. She is unlike so many other authors who have left Orthodoxy and written about it; her heart is not hardened by hatred, and her spirit is wounded but intact. She is in search of a better life, and this fine book chronicles her departure from the Satmar Hasidic sect in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

A Jesus even Jews can love?

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on February 9, 2012

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach has been accused of nothing less than apostasy by at least one of his fellow rabbis, all thanks to his newly published book, “Kosher Jesus” (Gefen Publishing House: $26). And I am confident some Evangelical Christians will reach the same conclusion if only because Boteach insists that Jesus was not “holier than any other human being and certainly not divine.”

“The Hare with Amber Eyes” by Edmund DeWaal – Book Recommendation

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on February 8, 2012

In the beginning, there was Monterey

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on December 21, 2011

One way to mark the chronology of the counterculture, a pastime that is beloved by the baby boomers, is by reference to rock festivals. Woodstock and Altamont, for example, are now fully transformed into transcendent symbols of life and death, good and evil, the beginning and end of something. But the real starting point, the uber-festival, was Monterey.

One advocate’s argument for Israel’s longevity

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on August 23, 2011

When Hirsh Goodman speaks about the destiny of Israel, people listen.

Moroccan murder mystery weaves web of deception

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on August 2, 2011

From the opening passage of “The Honored Dead: A Story of Friendship, Murder, and the Search for Truth in the Arab World” by Joseph Braude (Spiegel & Grau: $26), we suddenly find ourselves in an atmospheric scene right out of “Casablanca” — an empty alleyway in the storied Moroccan city, a morning mist, a warehouse where the deep silence is suddenly broken by a squad of soldiers and detectives, and the sight of a mutilated corpse.

Expert Mystery-Making by Worthy Heir to Famous Family Name

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on April 6, 2010

Four years ago, Jesse Kellerman famously entered the family business when he published his first novel, “Sunstroke.” His father is Jonathan Kellerman and his
mother is Faye Kellerman, both of whom are name-brand mystery novelists in their own rights.

Edward Hirsch’s Living Poetry, Ripe for Passover Readings

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on March 23, 2010

The Kirsch family and the Solomon family have long shared a set of haggadot that include a selection of additional texts that we read aloud at our Passover
seders. One of my favorite readings is an article by Yehuda Lev that first appeared in The Jewish Journal, an account of his trek across war-ravaged Europe in the company of Holocaust survivors heading toward Palestine in 1946. Another is a poem by Karl Shapiro titled, “The Alphabet” — “The letters of the Jews are dancing knives/That carve the heart of darkness seven ways.”

Books: Pot-smoking antihero proves cathartic for her creator

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on March 13, 2008

Twenty-nine-year-old Dahlia Finger, the antihero of Elisa Albert's debut novel, "The Book of Dahlia," has an inoperable brain tumor and an attitude.

Firsthand accounts bring WWII London ‘Blitz’ to life

By Amanda Susskind
Published on December 13, 2007

There is no shortage of books, historical and fictional, on the bombing of London during World War II. Peter Stansky's new book, "The First Day of the Blitz," combines history, political commentary and firsthand testimony in a compelling account.

Books: A stranger on a journey

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on September 27, 2007

In Amy Bloom's novel "Away," Lillian Leyb makes her way from the Lower East Side to Seattle and then Alaska, hoping to get to Siberia to find her daughter.

Chart a new course with these spiritual guides for the New Year

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on September 13, 2007

As we think about rewriting our personal narratives in the New Year, adding new pages and chapters, several new books inspire new visions, renewed creativity and new relationships between the calendar and a sense of holiness.

Conning a con man

By Jay Firestone
Published on August 23, 2007

Rich Siegel's day typically consisted of waking up, going to work, coming home and checking his e-mail. This routine probably would have continued had Siegel not become a bit curious about an e-mail he received from a Nigerian businessman offering him 25 percent of $45.5 million in exchange for his bank account information.

Author’s advice on sex and intimacy makes her hot stuff

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on August 23, 2007

I open Esther Perel's new book on the bus, and I know that my seatmate is staring at the cover photo of a man and woman in bed not touching beneath the red sheets. "Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic & the Domestic" (HarperCollins) has caught the man's attention, but he maintains the bus rider's code and doesn't ask about it. Perel's book has also captured the attention of large numbers of readers, journalists and producers.

Books to remember this summer by

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on August 16, 2007

Our summers have markers, memories that trigger a specific time: The summer of the walk on the moon, Hurricane Bob or the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles; personal events like a high school prom, a kitchen renovation or a houseguest who long overstays.

Books: Does a Jew pray in the woods?

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on August 9, 2007

Yet Rabbi Mike Comins, author of "A Wild Faith," wants us to know that Judaism and nature have long been entwined, and that there is nothing paganistic about a Jew, let alone a rabbi, talking to trees.

God gets a rewrite:
In the latest literary trend, authors fictionalize Jewish heroes

By Amy Klein
Published on August 9, 2007

Kirk Douglas packs 90 years of living into latest book

By Tom Tugend
Published on August 2, 2007

Kirk Douglas is not done yet, not by a long shot. Just out is his ninth book, "Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving and Learning." It is a mix of reminiscences, anecdotes, tributes to Hollywood luminaries now faded or gone, a critique of America's present leadership and somber thoughts on the drug-induced suicide of Eric, the youngest of his four sons.

Books: Seeds of peace revealed in early coexistence of Jews, Christians and Muslims

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on June 28, 2007

Zachary Karabell offers a different perspective on the question of Islamic rule in his history, "Peace Be Upon You: Fourteen Centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence in the Middle East" (Knopf, 2007).

Who was Moses? Oh wait, I think I know that one…

By Alexis Gewertz
Published on May 24, 2007

Stephen Prothero, author of the new book "Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-And Doesn't" and chair of the religion department at Boston University showed up on "The Daily Show" recently, hawking the fact that his book contains a quiz to test the reader's "religious literacy." Which raises the questions: Can a 15-question quiz test religious literacy?

Chabon novel spins dizzying tale of alternative history, and Alaska

By Rabbi David Wolpe
Published on May 17, 2007

Shysters chase ambulances; critics chase influences. How to characterize this Chandler-Babel stew? Let's try the Hollywood idiom. "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" is Woody Allen meets Cornel Woolrich. No, better, deeper: S.J. Perelman meets Y.L. Peretz meets Harry Turtledove. Martin Amis meets Stanley Elkin who is chatting with Sholom Aleichem about Jorge Luis Borges.

Oy vey! You should read what they’re writing about them—in books yet

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on May 10, 2007

So I read this season's selection of books with perhaps a different eye and an increased curiosity. There are serious books about Jewish mothers, lighthearted books, how-to volumes and memoirs and some manage to cross categories. Some offer knowing advice, others observations and jokes. The best are those that are open, honest and wise, not preachy or sentimental.

Books: Englander taps Kafkaesque isolation in ‘Special Cases’

By Mark Oppenheimer
Published on May 10, 2007

Nathan Englander's new novel, "The Ministry of Special Cases" (Alfred A. Knopf), begins on a dark night in a dangerous time: "Jews bury themselves the way they live, crowded together, encroaching on one another's space. The headstones were packed tight, the bodies underneath elbow to elbow and head to toe.

Books: Yehoshua’s latest explores boundaries of responsibility

By Paula Margulies
Published on April 26, 2007

The U.S publishers hated the title of A.B. Yehoshua's latest book "The Mission of the Human Resources Manager." It was, they argued, better suited to a personnel manual than the work of one of Israel's most venerated authors. Ignoring Yehoshua's pleas, they christened the novel's English translation "A Woman in Jerusalem," and the book became a nominee for this year's prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Prize, to be announced at the Times' Festival of Books this weekend (see story page 36).

Books: Creative minds at work— business, science and the arts

By Robert David Jaffee
Published on April 26, 2007

With meteoric technological advances presenting many businesses with crises verging on the existential, there is a growing need for nimble minds able to adapt to changes in the marketplace. Given this environment, it is fitting that Jonathan Feinstein, a professor at the Yale School of Management, should come out with "The Nature of Creative Development," a book that attempts to model the trajectory of creativity within individuals.

Books: Witness to horrors

By Rob Eshman
Published on April 26, 2007

At first glance, "Testimony" (Aperture, $40) looks like an innocent-enough coffee table book of Israel-themed photographs. Thumb through the first few pages and you'll see examples of photographer Gillian Laub's excellent portraiture. Each color image is accompanied by a simple enough quote from the subject, an Arab or Jew sharing the same bit of the Holy Land.

‘Rebel With a Cause’

By Tom Teicholz
Published on April 12, 2007

The ostensible reason for this column is the recently published "Brothers for Resistance and Rescue: The Underground Zionist Youth Movement in Hungary During World War II," by David Gur (Gefen Publishing House), in which Stevens appears.

Call to ‘write and record’ brings new books on Shoah

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on April 12, 2007

"Write and record," historian Simon Dubnow urged his fellow Jews, as he was taken to his death in Riga. Over the decades since Dubnow's murder in 1941, many have taken his words to heart, and scholars, survivors, novelists, poets, members of the second and third generations continue to publish new work on the Holocaust. This season, in time for the commemoration of Yom HaShoah, there are impressive historical works, memoirs of lost childhoods, personal testimonies and artful works of fiction; many written by those who feel an obligation to those whose voices were stilled.

Books: Part history, part mystery—the passengers of the S. S. St. Louis

By Michael Berenbaum
Published on April 12, 2007

Sarah Ogilvie and Scott Miller set a difficult task for themselves. Writing their book was easy. So, too, was researching what happened on the voyage of the St. Louis, the Hamburg-American line ship that traveled from Germany to Cuba in May 1939, carrying 937 passengers who were escaping Nazi Germany. The authors' greater challenge was to uncover the fate of the passengers after the ship had been turned away from numerous ports. Their dogged pursuit of all leads yielded some surprising results.

Letters to the Editor

Published on November 18, 2004

Letters to the Editor

For the Kids

By Abby Gilad
Published on July 8, 2004

For The Kids

A Jew from Nogales

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on September 2, 1999

Fred Rochlin can't understand all the fuss over his monologue, "Old Man in a Baseball Cap," about his adventures during World War II.
"I'm not an actor," he insists. "I'm an old guy."