Editors: Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes Table of contents Acknowledgments The Contributors Part One: Jewish Philosophy in Perspective 1 Jewish Philosophy as Cultural Practice Hava Tirosh-Samuelson 2 Jewish Philosophy in the Academy Aaron W. Hughes 3 The Versatility of Contemporary Jewish Philosophy Warren Zev Harvey 4 Desiderata Lenn E. Goodman Part Two: Jewish Philosophy in Public Life 5 The Promise and Perils of Perplexity: Jewish Philosophy and Public Culture,…
Dana E. Katz examines the Jewish ghetto of Venice as a paradox of urban space. In 1516, the Senate established the ghetto on the periphery of the city and legislated nocturnal curfews to reduce the Jews’ visibility in Venice. Katz argues that it was precisely this practice of marginalization that put the ghetto on display for Christian and Jewish eyes. According to her research, early modern Venetians grounded their conceptions…
Hava (Eva) Bromberg and Ephraim Sokal were Jewish teenagers in Poland when the Nazis invaded in 1939. Hiding in plain sight, Bromberg lived among the non-Jewish Polish population, always in danger of discovery or betrayal. Sokal and his family were deported as “enemies of the people” when the Russians occupied eastern Poland–a calamity that saved their lives. Liberated by the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Sokal fought the…
Three weeks after being detained on her way home from school, fourteen-year-old Ella finds herself in the Upper Tailoring Studio, a sewing workshop inside a Nazi concentration camp. There, two dozen skeletal women toil over stolen sewing machines. They are the seamstresses of Birchwood, stitching couture dresses for a perilous client list: wives of the camp’s Nazi overseers and the female SS officers who make prisoners’ lives miserable. It is…
Interview wit a Member of Turkey’s Crypto-Judaic “Dönme” Community Since the late 20th century, academic interest in the crypto-Judaic group known as the Dönmes has grown and intensified. Most studies resulting from this interest have concentrated on the Dönmes’ place in a world of intersecting identities, and on the nature of their secret religion. In this process, however, narratives by actual members of this community have been few and far-between.…
On the eve of Passover, April 19, 1943, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto staged a now legendary revolt against their Nazi oppressors. Since that day, the deprivation and despair of life in the ghetto and the dramatic uprising of its inhabitants have captured the American cultural imagination. The Warsaw Ghetto in American Art and Culture looks at how this place and its story have been remembered in fine art, film,…
Finding Peace in the Promised Land Paperback Experience Israel through new eyes as you join Aryeh Green on a 680-mile journey through the promised land. Following a devastating divorce, Aryeh decided to hike the Israel National Trail alone. Along the way, he found healing as he strengthened his relationship with the people, land and state of Israel. This inspiring story shares his descriptions of the stunning places he walked and…
When sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum accidentally time-travels via red balloon to 1988 East Berlin, she’s caught up in a conspiracy of history and magic. She meets members of an underground guild in East Berlin who use balloons and magic to help people escape over the Wall—but even to the balloon makers, Ellie’s time travel is a mystery. When it becomes clear that someone is using dark magic to change history, Ellie…
Illustrator: Inbal Gigi Bousidan When Mina s beloved Grandma dies, nothing feels right anymore. People come to visit. Mina just hides up in the big old oak tree. But the stories she hears about Grandma bring her slowly back down until at last Mina feels ready to smile again. via Jewish Book Council
A distinguished group of scholars from Germany, Israel and right across the United States are brought together in Nazi Law to investigate the ways in which Hitler and the Nazis used the law as a weapon, mainly against the Jews, to establish and progress their master plan for German society. The book looks at how, after assuming power in 1933, the Nazi Party manipulated the legal system and the constitution…