Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Intro to Israel considers what ‘Matters’
By Jonathan Kirsch
Much heated conversation is conducted in these pages and elsewhere in the media about Israel. We debate every aspect of Israel’s present and future. . .
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Love letter to Naples, warts and all
By Jonathan Kirsch
For me, no genre of literature is quite as enchanting or enriching as the travel memoir. Indeed, two of the titles on my own shortlist of favorite. . .
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Probing the mysterious fate of the Romanovs
By Jonathan Kirsch
Over the many years I've spent bumping around the book business, I have introduced my wife, Ann, to a great many literary lions and lionesses, but. . .
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Daughter’s journey to the other side of the mechitzah
By Jonathan Kirsch
Investigative journalists do not tend to make good storytellers. After all, they are trained to write in the taut prose of a daily newspaper, and. . .
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
How Hollywood’s biggest politicos leaned right, not left
By Jonathan Kirsch
Ronald Reagan, Shirley Temple, Sony Bono, George Murphy and Arnold Schwarzenegger are all entertainers who launched their political careers in. . .
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Psychotherapy and philosophy intersect in ‘Spinoza problem’
By Jonathan Kirsch
Around our house, Irvin D. Yalom is a familiar name, and for more than one reason.. . .
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
The last words from Tony Judt, an English, intellectual, Jew
By Jonathan Kirsch
Imagine a private conversation - at moments, an intimate conversation - between two public intellectuals whose careers have been devoted to. . .
Thursday, February 23, 2012
A celebration of women visionaries
By Jonathan Kirsch
Angella M. Nazarian's rich but provocative irony suffuses her latest book, “Pioneers of the Possible: Celebrating Visionary Women of the World”. . .
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Elizabeth Taylor as feminist
By Jonathan Kirsch
M. G. Lord is a cultural critic with a sharp eye for the hidden meanings in American pop culture. Two of her previous books, for example, considered. . .
Thursday, February 9, 2012
A Jesus even Jews can love?
By Jonathan Kirsch
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,. . .
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Himmler: An ordinary man turned villain
By Jonathan Kirsch
No matter how much is written about Nazi Germany, there is always some new horror to behold and some new paradox to ponder. That’s how I felt when. . .
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Fred Weintraub: The Serendipitous Producer
By Jonathan Kirsch
Fred Weintraub is not merely an eyewitness to the history of American pop culture. As we discover in his wholly winning memoir, “Bruce Lee,. . .
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Notable books of 2011
By Jonathan Kirsch
In addition to our prizewinner, we also want to honor some of the other exceptional books that came to our attention in 2011, each of which is. . .
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
In the beginning, there was Monterey
By Jonathan Kirsch
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. . .
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Jerusalem, behind the veil of piety
By Jonathan Kirsch
Jerusalem is always in the headlines, or so it seems, but the same city on a hill has commanded the attention of the Western world without. . .
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
A scholar reveals the Qur’an
By Jonathan Kirsch
No book is regarded with more fear and loathing in the West than the Qur’an, the fundamental religious text of Islam, and yet I am confident that. . .
Monday, November 28, 2011
Israel’s ‘Unmaking’
By Jonathan Kirsch
No book review I’ve written for The Jewish Journal has prompted as much feedback as the one I wrote about “A New Voice for Israel” by Jeremy. . .
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Books: The J Street Zionist
By Jonathan Kirsch
“Israel’s existence is in fact threatened by a progressive, terminal illness,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of J Street, writes in “A New Voice. . .
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Spend Shabbat with the senator
By Jonathan Kirsch
A joke was told about U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman during the 2000 presidential campaign. Not only was Lieberman the first Jew to run for vice president,. . .
Friday, November 4, 2011
Exploring the mitzvah of social action
By Jonathan Kirsch
Among the gifts of the Jews, to use Thomas Cahill’s flattering phrase, perhaps none is more stirring and enduring than the biblical call to social. . .
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
An insider’s view of Ariel Sharon
By Jonathan Kirsch
Ariel Sharon was a figure of controversy throughout his long career in war, politics and diplomacy, but no one can deny that he looms large in the. . .
Thursday, October 20, 2011
A guide to becoming Jewish
By Jonathan Kirsch
Jennifer S. Hanin was raised Catholic and converted to Judaism after marrying a Jewish man.. . .
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
‘MetaMaus’ revisits, expands upon Pulitzer-winning graphic novel
By Jonathan Kirsch
Art Spiegelman shattered the conventions of comic books and Holocaust literature with the publication of “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic. . .
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
An insider’s view of also being an outsider
By Jonathan Kirsch
Sometimes I wonder if there isn’t a variant of Gresham’s law at work in the arts and letters of the digital age: Is bad writing driving out good?. . .
