Golda Meir: Israel's Matriarch

A balanced biography of Golda Meir, who was both adored and abhorred, from award-winning author Deborah E. Lipstadt
 
Golda Meir (1898–1978) was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister of Israel. She was born in Kiev into a childhood of poverty, hunger, and antisemitism. When she was five, her father left to find work in America, and a year later the family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager she became devoted to Labor Zionism, giving street-corner speeches, and her family’s home became a destination for Zionist emissaries. Her love for Labor Zionism was so fervent that her boyfriend, Morris Meyerson (her future husband), was often in competition with her dedication to the cause.
 
Zionism prevailed. In 1921, Golda left America for Palestine with Morris and her sister Sheyna. Though the reality of living in Palestine was far from the dream of Zionism, Meir settled on the kibbutz Merhavia and was swiftly appointed to the Histadrut (the General Organization of Hebrew Workers in Palestine). As an ally of the Zionist David Ben-Gurion, Meir played an important role in the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine; proved an almost singular ability to connect and fundraise with diaspora Jewry, particularly Americans; and served in three pivotal positions following Israel’s independence: labor secretary of the newly formed state, foreign minister, and Israel’s fourth prime minister.
 
In tracing the life of Golda Meir, acclaimed author Deborah E. Lipstadt explores the history of the Yishuv and Jewish state from the 1920s through the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all while highlighting the contradictions and complexities of a person who was only the third woman to serve as a head of state in the twentieth century.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deborah E. Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. Her award-winning books include Denying the Holocaust, History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier (the basis for the film Denial), Antisemitism: Here and Now, The Eichmann Trial, and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945. Ambassador Lipstadt currently serves as the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism. She lives in Washington, DC.

Golda Meir: Israel's Matriarch

$26.00

By Deborah E. Lipstadt
Published August 15, 2023
288 pages

“Thoughtful” —Kirkus Review

A balanced biography of Golda Meir, who was both adored and abhorred, from award-winning author Deborah E. Lipstadt

Golda Meir (1898–1978) was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister of Israel. She was born in Kiev into a childhood of poverty, hunger, and antisemitism. When she was five, her father left to find work in America, and a year later the family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager she became devoted to Labor Zionism, giving street-corner speeches, and her family’s home became a destination for Zionist emissaries. Her love for Labor Zionism was so fervent that her boyfriend, Morris Meyerson (her future husband), was often in competition with her dedication to the cause.

Zionism prevailed. In 1921, Golda left America for Palestine with Morris and her sister Sheyna. Though the reality of living in Palestine was far from the dream of Zionism, Meir settled on the kibbutz Merhavia and was swiftly appointed to the Histadrut (the General Organization of Hebrew Workers in Palestine). As an ally of the Zionist David Ben-Gurion, Meir played an important role in the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine; proved an almost singular ability to connect and fundraise with diaspora Jewry, particularly Americans; and served in three pivotal positions following Israel’s independence: labor secretary of the newly formed state, foreign minister, and Israel’s fourth prime minister.

In tracing the life of Golda Meir, acclaimed author Deborah E. Lipstadt explores the history of the Yishuv and Jewish state from the 1920s through the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all while highlighting the contradictions and complexities of a person who was only the third woman to serve as a head of state in the twentieth century.

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Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence

An intimate look at Elie Wiesel, author of the seminal Holocaust memoir Night and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
 
As an orphaned survivor and witness to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) compelled the world to confront the Holocaust with his searing memoir Night. How did this soft-spoken man from a small Carpathian town become such an influential figure on the world stage? Drawing on Wiesel’s prodigious literary output and interviews with his family, friends, scholars, and critics, Joseph Berger seeks to answer this question.
 
Berger explores Wiesel’s Hasidic childhood in Sighet, his postwar years spent rebuilding his life from the ashes in France, his transformation into a Parisian intellectual, his failed attempts at romance, his years scraping together a living in America as a journalist, his decision to marry and have a child, his emergence as a spokesperson for Holocaust survivors and persecuted peoples throughout the world, his lifelong devotion to the state of Israel, and his difficult final years. Through this penetrating portrait we come to know intimately the man the Norwegian Nobel Committee called “a messenger to mankind.”

Joseph Berger was a New York Times reporter, columnist, and editor for thirty years, and he continues to contribute periodically. He has taught urban affairs at the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College. He is the author of Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust and lives in New York City.

Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence

$26.00

By Joseph Berger
Published May 23, 2023
360 pages

“Moving” —Cynthia Ozick

An intimate look at Elie Wiesel, author of the seminal Holocaust memoir Night and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

As an orphaned survivor and witness to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) compelled the world to confront the Holocaust with his searing memoir Night. How did this soft-spoken man from a small Carpathian town become such an influential figure on the world stage? Drawing on Wiesel’s prodigious literary output and interviews with his family, friends, scholars, and critics, Joseph Berger seeks to answer this question.

Berger explores Wiesel’s Hasidic childhood in Sighet, his postwar years spent rebuilding his life from the ashes in France, his transformation into a Parisian intellectual, his failed attempts at romance, his years scraping together a living in America as a journalist, his decision to marry and have a child, his emergence as a spokesperson for Holocaust survivors and persecuted peoples throughout the world, his lifelong devotion to the state of Israel, and his difficult final years. Through this penetrating portrait we come to know intimately the man the Norwegian Nobel Committee called “a messenger to mankind.”

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Maimonides: Faith in Reason

An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one of the world’s foremost bibliophiles
 
Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.
 
As a scholar of Jewish law, a physician, and a philosopher, Maimonides was a singular figure. His work in extracting all the commanding precepts of Jewish law from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, interpreting and commenting on them, and translating them into terms that would allow students to lead sound Jewish lives became the model for translating God’s word into a language comprehensible by all. His work in medicine—which brought him such fame that he became Saladin’s personal physician—was driven almost entirely by reason and observation.
 
In this biography, Alberto Manguel examines the question of Maimonides’ universal appeal—he was celebrated by Jews, Arabs, and Christians alike. In our time, when the need for rationality and recognition of the truth is more vital than ever, Maimonides can help us find strategies to survive with dignity in an uncertain world.

Alberto Manguel is an internationally acclaimed reader, writer, and interpreter of a broad array of texts. From 2015 to 2018 he was the director of the National Library of Argentina. His books include The Library at Night and Fabulous Monsters. He lives in Lisbon.

Maimonides: Faith in Reason

$26.00

By Alberto Manguel
Published March 21, 2023
256 pages

“Illuminating” —Publishers Weekly

An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one of the world’s foremost bibliophiles

Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.

As a scholar of Jewish law, a physician, and a philosopher, Maimonides was a singular figure. His work in extracting all the commanding precepts of Jewish law from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, interpreting and commenting on them, and translating them into terms that would allow students to lead sound Jewish lives became the model for translating God’s word into a language comprehensible by all. His work in medicine—which brought him such fame that he became Saladin’s personal physician—was driven almost entirely by reason and observation.

In this biography, Alberto Manguel examines the question of Maimonides’ universal appeal—he was celebrated by Jews, Arabs, and Christians alike. In our time, when the need for rationality and recognition of the truth is more vital than ever, Maimonides can help us find strategies to survive with dignity in an uncertain world.

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Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew

A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy
 
Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, is one of the great comic voices of the twentieth century. Having won almost every entertainment award there is, Brooks has straddled the line between outsider and insider, obedient and rebellious, throughout his career, making out-of-bounds comedy the American mainstream.
 
Jeremy Dauber argues that throughout Brooks’s extensive body of work—from Your Show of Shows to Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to Spaceballs—the comedian has seen the most success when he found a balance between his unflagging, subversive, manic energy and the constraints imposed by comedic partners, the Hollywood system, and American cultural mores. Dauber also explores how Brooks’s American Jewish humor went from being solely for niche audiences to an essential part of the American mainstream, paving the way for generations of Jewish (and other) comedians to come.

Jeremy Dauber is a professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University. His books include Jewish Comedy and The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem, both finalists for the National Jewish Book Award, and, most recently, American Comics: A History. He lives in New York City.

Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew

$26.00

By Jeremy Dauber
Published March 7, 2023
216 pages

“Entertaining and enlightening” —Kenneth Turan

A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy

Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, is one of the great comic voices of the twentieth century. Having won almost every entertainment award there is, Brooks has straddled the line between outsider and insider, obedient and rebellious, throughout his career, making out-of-bounds comedy the American mainstream.

Jeremy Dauber argues that throughout Brooks’s extensive body of work—from Your Show of Shows to Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to Spaceballs—the comedian has seen the most success when he found a balance between his unflagging, subversive, manic energy and the constraints imposed by comedic partners, the Hollywood system, and American cultural mores. Dauber also explores how Brooks’s American Jewish humor went from being solely for niche audiences to an essential part of the American mainstream, paving the way for generations of Jewish (and other) comedians to come.

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Historian Anita Shapira on David Ben-Gurion

Casting a great shadow during his lifetime, David Ben-Gurion's legacy continues as one of the most important Zionist icons and the founder of modern Israel. As we prepare to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary of statehood, explore the story of Ben-Gurion's life anew with master historian Anita Shapira and gain new insights into his experience leading the new state of Israel through its early years, focusing on the personal qualities that defined his political leadership.

This program was hosted by Park Avenue Synagogue and the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel

$26.00

By Anita Shapira
Published November 25, 2014
288 pages

“A beautiful portrayal” —Shimon Peres, President of Israel (2007-2014)

An insightful study of the inner life of the Zionist leader responsible for the creation of the state of Israel

David Ben-Gurion cast a great shadow during his lifetime, and his legacy continues to be sharply debated to this day. There have been many books written about the life and accomplishments of the Zionist icon and founder of modern Israel, but this new biography by eminent Israeli historian Anita Shapira strives to get to the core of the complex man who would become the face of the new Jewish nation. Shapira tells the Ben-Gurion story anew, focusing especially on the period after 1948, during the first years of statehood. As a result of her extensive research and singular access to Ben-Gurion’s personal archives, the author provides fascinating and original insights into his personal qualities and those that defined his political leadership. As Shapira writes, “Ben-Gurion liked to argue that history is made by the masses, not individuals. But just as Lenin brought the Bolshevik Revolution into the world and Churchill delivered a fighting Britain, so with Ben-Gurion and the Jewish state. He knew how to create and exploit the circumstances that made its birth possible.” Shapira’s portrait reveals the flesh-and-blood man who more than anyone else realized the Israeli state.

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Arthur Miller: American Witness

“New Yorker critic Lahr shines in this searching account of the life of playwright Arthur Miller. . . . It’s a great introduction to a giant of American letters.” —Publishers Weekly

“No one writes about playwrights and the theater the way John Lahr does. In this probing, brilliantly insightful, and also deeply readable and entertaining book, he offers unique insight into how Miller’s mind works, and how the details of his biography impacted his body of work.” —Sarah Ruhl, MacArthur Prizewinning playwright

Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915–2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater into a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller’s life—his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller’s role as a public intellectual—this book demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller’s psychology and his plays. Concentrating largely on Miller’s most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr probes Miller’s early playwriting failures; his work writing radio plays during World War II after being rejected for military service; his only novel, Focus; and his succession of award-winning and canonical plays that include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible, providing an original interpretation of Miller’s work and his personality.

John Lahr has been a contributor to the New Yorker since 1991, where for twenty-one years he was its senior drama critic. He is the author of eighteen books, including Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

Arthur Miller: American Witness

$26.00

By John Lahr
Published November 1, 2022
264 pages

“Brilliantly insightful” —Sarah Ruhl

A great theater critic brings twentieth-century playwright Arthur Miller’s dramatic story to life with bold and revealing new insights

Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915–2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater into a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller’s life—his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller’s role as a public intellectual—this book demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller’s psychology and his plays. Concentrating largely on Miller’s most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr probes Miller’s early playwriting failures; his work writing radio plays during World War II after being rejected for military service; his only novel, Focus; and his succession of award-winning and canonical plays that include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible, providing an original interpretation of Miller’s work and his personality.

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Sidney Reilly: Master Spy by Benny Morris

A revealing biography of Sidney Reilly, the early twentieth-century virtuoso of espionage

Sidney Reilly (c. 1873–1925) is one of the most colorful and best–known spies of the twentieth century. Emerging from humble beginnings in southern Russia, Reilly was an inventive multilingual businessman and conman who enjoyed espionage as a sideline. By the early twentieth century he was working as an agent for Scotland Yard, spying on émigré communities in Paris and London, with occasional sorties to Germany, Russia, and the Far East. He spent World War I in the United States, brokering major arms deals for tsarist Russia, and then decided to become a professional spy, joining the ranks of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service. He came close to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime in Moscow before eventually being lured back to Russia and executed. Said to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond character, Reilly was simultaneously married to three or four women and had mistresses galore. Sifting through the reality and the myth of Reilly’s life, historian Benny Morris offers a fascinating portrait of one of the most intriguing figures from the golden age of spies.

Benny Morris is an Israeli historian, formerly professor of history in the Department of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University. He is the author of a dozen books, including 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War and Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001.

Sidney Reilly: Master Spy

$26.00

By Benny Morris
Published October 25, 2022
208 pages

“Remarkable” —Gershom Gorenberg

A revealing biography of Sidney Reilly, the early twentieth-century virtuoso of espionage

Sidney Reilly (c. 1873–1925) is one of the most colorful and best–known spies of the twentieth century. Emerging from humble beginnings in southern Russia, Reilly was an inventive multilingual businessman and conman who enjoyed espionage as a sideline. By the early twentieth century he was working as an agent for Scotland Yard, spying on émigré communities in Paris and London, with occasional sorties to Germany, Russia, and the Far East. He spent World War I in the United States, brokering major arms deals for tsarist Russia, and then decided to become a professional spy, joining the ranks of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service. He came close to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime in Moscow before eventually being lured back to Russia and executed. Said to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond character, Reilly was simultaneously married to three or four women and had mistresses galore. Sifting through the reality and the myth of Reilly’s life, historian Benny Morris offers a fascinating portrait of one of the most intriguing figures from the golden age of spies.

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Gift Ideas 2022: Best Gifts to Give This Year

Announcing the latest
Jewish Lives Collections

Perfect for 2022 Holiday Gifts

The Limited Edition Art Collection

$165.00

Celebrate the lives that shaped the art world. The Art Collection is a beautifully designed and expertly curated set perfect for any bookshelf.

This unique, custom set is available while supplies last.

Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel
By Annie Cohen-Solal

“Illuminating. Sublime.” —The Washington Times
A fascinating exploration of the life and work of one of America’s most famous and enigmatic postwar visual artists

Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows
By Arthur Lubow

"An exceptional gem.” —Benjamin Talyor, Proust: The Search
A biography of the elusive but celebrated Dada and Surrealist artist and photographer connecting his Jewish background to his life and art

Alfred Stieglitz: Taking Pictures, Making Painters
By Phyllis Rose

“The work of a master” —Judith Thurman, author of Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
A fascinating biography of a revolutionary American artist ripe for rediscovery as a photographer and champion of other artists

Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern
By Francine Prose

“Lively, complex, and inclined to shock.” —Publishers Weekly
A spirited portrait of the colorful, irrepressible, and iconoclastic American collector who fearlessly advanced the cause of modern art

Bernard Berenson: A Life in the Picture Trade
By Rachel Cohen

“Irresistibly readable” —ARTnews
An illuminating new biography of the connoisseur who changed the art world and the way we see art

Add to cart

The Limited Edition Antiquity Collection

$130.00

Discover the lives of towering figures of the ancient world.

The Limited Edition Antiquity Collection is the perfect addition to any bookshelf. The unique, custom set is available while supplies last.

Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud
By Barry W. Holtz

“Lively and thought-provoking” —Publishers Weekly
A compelling and lucid account of the life and teachings of a founder of rabbinic Judaism and one of the most beloved heroes of Jewish history

David: The Divided Heart
By David Wolpe

“Vibrant and nuanced” —The Jewish Week
A reexamination of the biblical David, legendary warrior, poet, and king, by one of America’s most respected rabbis

Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch
By Yair Zakovitch

“Eloquently provocative” —Choice
A powerful hero of the Bible, Jacob is also one of its most complex figures

Moses: A Human Life
By Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

“A rich, erudite study” —Kirkus Review, Starred Review
An unprecedented portrait of Moses's inner world and perplexing character, by a distinguished biblical scholar

Add to cart

The Limited Edition Origins of Israel Collection

$260.00

Explore the origins of the modern State of Israel with Jewish Lives. This unique 8-book custom set is available while supplies last.

Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel
By Anita Shapira

“A beautiful portrayal” —Shimon Peres, President of Israel (2007-2014)
An insightful study of the inner life of the Zionist leader responsible for the creation of the state of Israel

Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew
By Avner Holtzman

“A remarkable story, superbly told” —David G. Roskies, JTS
A moving inquiry into the dramatic life, epic success, and ultimate tragedy of the great Hebrew poet

Moshe Dayan: Israel’s Controversial Hero
By Mordechai Bar-On

“Refreshing. Highly thoughtful.”—Jerusalem Report
Instantly recognizable with his iconic eye patch, Moshe Dayan (1915–1981) was one of Israel's most charismatic—and controversial—personalities

Theodor Herzl: The Charismatic Leader
By Derek Penslar

“Excellent” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
A masterful new biography of Theodor Herzl by an eminent historian of Zionism

Jabotinsky: A Life
By Hillel Halkin

“Beautifully written” —New York Review of Books
An insightful new biography of the most controversial and perhaps most fervent of all Zionist political figures

Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution
By Yehudah Mirsky

“Learned, luminous and uncannily timely” —Jewish Review of Books
Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) was one of the most influential—and controversial—rabbis of the twentieth century

Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch
By Deborah E. Lipstadt

“Always thoughtful” —Kirkus Review
A balanced biography of Golda Meir, who was both adored and abhorred, from award-winning author Deborah E. Lipstadt

Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman
By Itamar Rabinovich

“A thoughtful and extraordinarily comprehensive account of a significant leader” —Henry A. Kissinger
An insider’s perspective on the life and influence of Israel’s first native-born prime minister, his bold peace initiatives, and his tragic assassination

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The Limited Edition Thinkers Collection

$130.00

Explore the lives of modern Jewish thought.*

It’s the perfect gift for the lover of Jewish history and culture. This gorgeous gift set is available while supplies last.

Moses Mendelssohn: Sage of Modernity
By Shmuel Feiner

“A fascinating portrait” —Library Journal
The “German Socrates,” Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786) was the most influential Jewish thinker of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution
By Yehudah Mirsky

“A significant contribution to the history of Jewish ideas” —Leon Wieseltier
Rav Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935) was one of the most influential—and controversial—rabbis of the twentieth century.

Martin Buber: A Life of Faith and Dissent
By Paul Mendes-Flohr

“Authoritative" —The New York Times Book Review
The first major biography in English in over thirty years of the seminal modern Jewish thinker Martin Buber

Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement
By Julian E. Zelizer

“Zelizer covers the life and career of Heschel thoroughly and elegantly.” —Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple
A biography of the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who became a symbol of the marriage between religion and social justice

*Forthcoming titles include Hannah Arendt by Masha Gessen, Ayn Rand by Alexandra Popoff, and Spinoza by Ian Baruma.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The cover jacket material is paper (not leather and suede).

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Gorgeous gift collections for your 2022 Holiday / Hanukkah Shopping List!

The Art Collection
The Antiquity Collection
The Thinkers Collection
The Origins of Israel Collection

Celebrate Jewish heritage with limited edition gift collections of the prizewinning Jewish Lives series. These expertly curated collections will be a highlight in any family's library for generations to come.

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences.

Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present.

Jewish Lives is a partnership of Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation. 

Ruth: A Migrant's Tale by Ilana Pardes

A wide-ranging exploration of the story of Ruth, a foreigner who became the founding mother of the Davidic dynasty

The biblical Ruth has inspired numerous readers from diverse cultural backgrounds across many centuries. In this insightful volume, Ilana Pardes invites us to marvel at the ever-changing perspectives on Ruth’s foreignness. She explores the rabbis’ lauding of Ruth as an exemplary convert, and the Zohar’s insistence that Ruth’s Moabite background is vital to her redemptive powers. In moving to early modern French art, she looks at pastoral paintings in which Ruth becomes a local gleaner, holding sheaves in her hands. Pardes concludes with contemporary adaptations in literature, photography, and film in which Ruth is admired for being a paradigmatic migrant woman. Ruth’s afterlives not only reveal much about their own times, but also shine new light upon this remarkable ancient tale and point to its enduring significance. In our own era of widespread migration and dislocation, Ruth remains as relevant as ever.

Ilana Pardes is Katharine Cornell Professor of Comparative Literature and the director of the Center for Literary Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of Countertraditions in the Bible and The Song of Songs: A Biography.

Ruth: A Migrant's Tale

$26.00

By Ilana Pardes
Published October 4, 2022
232 pages

“Excellent” —Steven Weitzman

A wide-ranging exploration of the story of Ruth, a foreigner who became the founding mother of the Davidic dynasty

The biblical Ruth has inspired numerous readers from diverse cultural backgrounds across many centuries. In this insightful volume, Ilana Pardes invites us to marvel at the ever-changing perspectives on Ruth’s foreignness. She explores the rabbis’ lauding of Ruth as an exemplary convert, and the Zohar’s insistence that Ruth’s Moabite background is vital to her redemptive powers. In moving to early modern French art, she looks at pastoral paintings in which Ruth becomes a local gleaner, holding sheaves in her hands. Pardes concludes with contemporary adaptations in literature, photography, and film in which Ruth is admired for being a paradigmatic migrant woman. Ruth’s afterlives not only reveal much about their own times, but also shine new light upon this remarkable ancient tale and point to its enduring significance. In our own era of widespread migration and dislocation, Ruth remains as relevant as ever.

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Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation

In the Bible, Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero, the most popular figure in Jewish folklore, invited into every Jewish home during the Passover Seder? In Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, his new biography in the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press, author Daniel C. Matt explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). Dr. Matt will be in conversation with Dr. Barry W. Holtz, Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

This program was hosted by the Center for Jewish History and funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This event took place on March 3, 2022.

Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation

$26.00

By Daniel C. Matt
Published March 15, 2022
248 pages

“Masterful” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The story of the prophet Elijah’s transformation from fierce zealot to compassionate hero and cherished figure in Jewish tradition

In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.

How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish folklore? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.

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Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance

Watch a 1-hour exploration of the life and legacy of dance world legend Jerome Robbins.

Jerome Robbins, born in New Jersey to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, declined to join the family business and instead pursued a life in the theater, where he went on to become a renowned dancer, choreographer, writer, producer, and director. His work in ballet, Broadway, and film on such projects such as West Side Story, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof leave a legacy of artistry for generations to come.

This event took place on March 14, 2022 at Park Avenue Synagogue as part of the Reading Jewish Lives series and was co-sponsored by the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance

$26.00

By Wendy Lesser
Published October, 9, 2018
216 pages

“A compact and incisive portrait” —Kirkus Reviews

A lively and inspired biography celebrating the centennial of this master choreographer, dancer, and stage director

Jerome Robbins (1918–1998) was born Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz and grew up in Weehawken, New Jersey, where his Russian-Jewish immigrant parents owned the Comfort Corset Company. Robbins, who was drawn to dance at a young age, resisted the idea of joining the family business. In 1936 he began working with Gluck Sandor, who ran a dance group and convinced him to change his name to Jerome Robbins. He went on to become a choreographer and director who worked in ballet, on Broadway, and in film. His stage productions include West Side Story, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof. In this deft biography, Wendy Lesser presents Jerome Robbins’s life through his major dances, providing a sympathetic, detailed portrait of her subject.

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Hollywood Icons, Legendary Performers

Discover the stage and silver screen with Jewish Lives

Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power

$26.00

By Neal Gabler
Published April 26, 2016
296 pages

“Fascinating and insightful” —The Wall Street Journal

An enthralling appreciation of the monumentally gifted popular artist and cultural icon who challenged Hollywood’s standards of beauty and glamour

Barbra Streisand has been called the “most successful...talented performer of her generation” by Vanity Fair, and her voice, said pianist Glenn Gould, is “one of the natural wonders of the age.” Streisand scaled the heights of entertainment—from a popular vocalist to a first-rank Broadway star in Funny Girl to an Oscar-winning actress to a producer and director. But she has also become a cultural icon who has transcended show business. To achieve her success, Brooklyn-born Streisand had to overcome tremendous odds, not the least of which was her Jewishness. Dismissed, insulted, even reviled when she embarked on a show business career for acting too Jewish and looking too Jewish, she brilliantly converted her Jewishness into a metaphor for outsiderness that would eventually make her the avenger for anyone who felt marginalized and powerless.

Neal Gabler examines Streisand’s life and career through this prism of otherness—a Jew in a gentile world, a self-proclaimed homely girl in a world of glamour, a kooky girl in a world of convention—and shows how central it was to Streisand’s triumph as one of the voices of her age.

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Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio

$26.00

By David Thomson
Published August 8, 2017
232 pages

“Witty and stunningly original” —Jeanine Basinger

Behind the scenes at the legendary Warner Brothers film studio, where four immigrant brothers transformed themselves into the moguls and masters of American fantasy

Warner Bros charts the rise of an unpromising film studio from its shaky beginnings in the early twentieth century through its ascent to the pinnacle of Hollywood influence and popularity. The Warner Brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—arrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood.

David Thomson provides fascinating and original interpretations of Warner Brothers pictures from the pioneering talkie The Jazz Singer through black-and-white musicals, gangster movies, and such dramatic romances as Casablanca, East of Eden, and Bonnie and Clyde. He recounts the storied exploits of the studio’s larger-than-life stars, among them Al Jolson, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Doris Day, and Bugs Bunny. The Warner brothers’ cultural impact was so profound, Thomson writes, that their studio became “one of the enterprises that helped us see there might be an American dream out there.”

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Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures

$26.00

By Adina Hoffman
Published February 12, 2019
264 pages

“Electrifying” —Booklist, starred review

A vibrant portrait of one of the most accomplished and prolific American screenwriters, by an award-winning biographer and essayist

He was, according to Pauline Kael, “the greatest American screenwriter.” Jean-Luc Godard called him “a genius” who “invented 80 percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today.” Besides tossing off dozens of now-classic scripts—including Scarface,Twentieth Century, and Notorious—Ben Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. During World War II, he also emerged as an outspoken crusader for the imperiled Jews of Europe, and later he became a fierce propagandist for pre-1948 Palestine’s Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared “child of the century” came to embody much that defined America—especially Jewish America—in his time.

Hecht's fame has dimmed with the decades, but Adina Hoffman’s vivid portrait brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life on the page. Hecht was a renaissance man of dazzling sorts, and Hoffman—critically acclaimed biographer, former film critic, and eloquent commentator on Middle Eastern culture and politics—is uniquely suited to capture him in all his modes.

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Stan Lee: A Life in Comics

$26.00

By Liel Leibovitz
Published April 21, 2020
192 pages

“Thoroughly entertaining” —Jeremy Dauber

A meditation on the deeply Jewish and surprisingly spiritual roots of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics

Few artists have had as much of an impact on American popular culture as Stan Lee. The characters he created—Spider-Man and Iron Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four—occupy Hollywood’s imagination and production schedules, generate billions at the box office, and come as close as anything we have to a shared American mythology.

This illuminating biography focuses as much on Lee’s ideas as it does on his unlikely rise to stardom. It surveys his cultural and religious upbringing and draws surprising connections between celebrated comic book heroes and the ancient tales of the Bible, the Talmud, and Jewish mysticism. Was Spider-Man just a reincarnation of Cain? Is the Incredible Hulk simply Adam by another name? From close readings of Lee’s work to little-known anecdotes from Marvel’s history, the book paints a portrait of Lee that goes much deeper than one of his signature onscreen cameos.

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Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker

$29.00

By David Mikics
Published August 18, 2020
248 pages

“A joy to read” —Molly Haskell

An engrossing biography of one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history

Kubrick grew up in the Bronx, a doctor’s son. From a young age he was consumed by photography, chess, and, above all else, movies. He was a self-taught filmmaker and self-proclaimed outsider, and his films exist in a unique world of their own outside the Hollywood mainstream. Kubrick’s Jewishness played a crucial role in his idea of himself as an outsider. Obsessed with rebellion against authority, war, and male violence, Kubrick was himself a calm, coolly masterful creator and a talkative, ever-curious polymath immersed in friends and family.

Drawing on interviews and new archival material, Mikics for the first time explores the personal side of Kubrick’s films.

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Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films

$26.00

By Molly Haskell
Published January 3, 2017
248 pages

“Uncommonly absorbing” —The New Republic

A film-centric portrait of the extraordinarily gifted movie director whose decades-long influence on American popular culture is unprecedented

“Everything about me is in my films,” Steven Spielberg has said. Taking this as a key to understanding the hugely successful moviemaker, Molly Haskell explores the full range of Spielberg’s works for the light they shine upon the man himself. Through such powerhouse hits as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Indiana Jones, to lesser-known masterworks like A.I. and Empire of the Sun, to the haunting Schindler’s List, Haskell shows how Spielberg’s uniquely evocative filmmaking and story-telling reveal the many ways in which his life, work, and times are entwined.

Organizing chapters around specific films, the distinguished critic discusses how Spielberg’s childhood in non-Jewish suburbs, his parents’ traumatic divorce, his return to Judaism upon his son’s birth, and other events echo in his work. She offers a brilliant portrait of the extraordinary director—a fearful boy living through his imagination who grew into a man whose openness, generosity of spirit, and creativity have enchanted audiences for more than 40 years.

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Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence

$26.00

By Lee Siegel
Published January 12, 2016
176 pages

“Delightfully perverse” —The New York Times Book Review

A trenchant examination of an iconic American figure that explores the cultural and psychological roots of his comic genius

Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho was the most verbal of the famed comedy team, the Marx Brothers, his broad slapstick portrayals elevated by ingenious wordplay and double entendre. In his spirited biography of this beloved American iconoclast, Lee Siegel views the life of Groucho through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television. The author uncovers the roots of the performer’s outrageous intellectual acuity and hilarious insolence toward convention and authority in Groucho’s early upbringing and Marx family dynamics.

The first critical biography of Groucho Marx to approach his work analytically, this fascinating study draws unique connections between Groucho’s comedy and his life, concentrating primarily on the brothers’ classic films as a means of understanding and appreciating Julius the man. Unlike previous uncritical and mostly reverential biographies, Siegel’s “bio-commentary” makes a distinctive contribution to the field of Groucho studies by attempting to tell the story of his life in terms of his work, and vice versa.

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Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio

$26.00

By David Thomson
Published August 8, 2017
232 pages

“Witty and stunningly original” —Jeanine Basinger

Behind the scenes at the legendary Warner Brothers film studio, where four immigrant brothers transformed themselves into the moguls and masters of American fantasy

Warner Bros charts the rise of an unpromising film studio from its shaky beginnings in the early twentieth century through its ascent to the pinnacle of Hollywood influence and popularity. The Warner Brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—arrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood.

David Thomson provides fascinating and original interpretations of Warner Brothers pictures from the pioneering talkie The Jazz Singer through black-and-white musicals, gangster movies, and such dramatic romances as Casablanca, East of Eden, and Bonnie and Clyde. He recounts the storied exploits of the studio’s larger-than-life stars, among them Al Jolson, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Doris Day, and Bugs Bunny. The Warner brothers’ cultural impact was so profound, Thomson writes, that their studio became “one of the enterprises that helped us see there might be an American dream out there.”

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The Limited Edition Hollywood Collection

$230.00

Discover the magic of the silver screen with Jewish Lives.

Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power
By Neal Gabler

“Fascinating and insightful” —The Wall Street Journal
An enthralling appreciation of the monumentally gifted popular artist and cultural icon who challenged Hollywood’s standards of beauty and glamour

Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio
By David Thomson

“Witty and stunningly original” —Jeanine Basinger, author of The Star Machine
Behind the scenes at the legendary Warner Brothers film studio, where four immigrant brothers transformed themselves into the moguls and masters of American fantasy

Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence
By Lee Siegel

“Delightfully perverse” —The New York Times Book Review
A trenchant examination of an iconic American figure that explores the cultural and psychological roots of his comic genius

Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker
By David Mikics

“A joy to read” —Molly Haskell, author of Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films
An engrossing biography of one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history

Ben Hecht: Fighting words, Moving Pictures
By Adina Hoffman

“Electrifying” —Booklist, starred review
A vibrant portrait of one of the most accomplished and prolific American screenwriters, by an award-winning biographer and essayist

Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films
By Molly Haskell

“Uncommonly absorbing” —The New Republic
A film-centric portrait of the extraordinarily gifted movie director whose decades-long influence on American popular culture is unprecedented

Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew
By Jeremy Dauber

“Entertaining and enlightening” —Kenneth Turan, author of Not to Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film
A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy

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VIDEO: Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power

Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986), born Chaim Godalia Rykower in a Polish shtetl, was the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history and an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. Possessing engineering brilliance, a ferocious will, a combative personality, and an indefatigable work ethic, he oversaw the development of nuclear marine propulsion and the first civilian nuclear utility.

In a new biography in the Jewish Lives series published by Yale University Press, independent historian and award-winning freelance journalist Marc Wortman, PhD, explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.

Wortman is in conversation with Bruce E. Kahn, retired U.S. Navy Chaplain and Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Sholom in Chevy Chase, MD, who co-officiated at Rickover’s memorial service.

This program is hosted by The Center for Jewish History and is funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

This event took place on February 17, 2022.

Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power

$26.00

By Marc Wortman
Published February 15, 2022
328 pages

“Superb” —Admiral James Stavridis

A riveting exploration of the brilliant, combative, and controversial “Father of the Nuclear Navy”

Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. As important as the transition from sail to steam, his development of nuclear-propelled submarines and ships transformed naval power and Cold War strategy. They still influence world affairs today.

His disdain for naval regulations, indifference to the chain of command, and harsh, insulting language earned him enemies in the navy, but his achievements won him powerful friends in Congress and the White House. A Jew born in a Polish shtetl, Rickover ultimately became the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history.

In this exciting new biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.

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Who is Elijah the Prophet?

In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.

How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish folklore? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.

Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation

$26.00

By Daniel C. Matt
Published March 15, 2022
248 pages

“Masterful” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The story of the prophet Elijah’s transformation from fierce zealot to compassionate hero and cherished figure in Jewish tradition

In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.

How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish folklore? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.

Add to cart

Who is Admiral Hyman Rickover?

Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. As important as the transition from sail to steam, his development of nuclear-propelled submarines and ships transformed naval power and Cold War strategy. They still influence world affairs today.

His disdain for naval regulations, indifference to the chain of command, and harsh, insulting language earned him enemies in the navy, but his achievements won him powerful friends in Congress and the White House. A Jew born in a Polish shtetl, Rickover ultimately became the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history.

In this exciting new biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.

Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power

$26.00

By Marc Wortman
Published February 15, 2022
328 pages

“Superb” —Admiral James Stavridis

A riveting exploration of the brilliant, combative, and controversial “Father of the Nuclear Navy”

Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. As important as the transition from sail to steam, his development of nuclear-propelled submarines and ships transformed naval power and Cold War strategy. They still influence world affairs today.

His disdain for naval regulations, indifference to the chain of command, and harsh, insulting language earned him enemies in the navy, but his achievements won him powerful friends in Congress and the White House. A Jew born in a Polish shtetl, Rickover ultimately became the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history.

In this exciting new biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.

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A Conversation with James Traub: Who is Judah Benjamin?

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis.

In this new biography in the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press, journalist and scholar James Traub grapples with the difficult truth that Benjamin, who was considered one of the greatest legal minds in the United States, was a slave owner who deployed his oratorical skills in defense of slavery.

This program was hosted by the Center for Jewish History and funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This event took place on October 20, 2021.

You can learn more in the new Jewish Lives biography Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy by James Traub.

Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy

$26.00

By James Traub
Published October 5, 2021
200 pages

“The best…biography of Benjamin that exists.” —Jonathan Sarna

A moral examination of one of the first Jewish senators, confidante to Jefferson Davis, and champion of the cause of slavery

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis. In this new biography, author James Traub grapples with the difficult truth that Benjamin, who was considered one of the greatest legal minds in the United States, was a slave owner who deployed his oratorical skills in defense of slavery.

How could a man as gifted as Benjamin, knowing that virtually all serious thinkers outside the American South regarded slavery as the most abhorrent of practices, not see that he was complicit with evil? This biography makes a serious moral argument both about Jews who assimilated to Southern society by embracing slave culture and about Benjamin himself, a man of great resourcefulness and resilience who would not, or could not, question the practice on which his own success, and that of the South, was founded.

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Julian Zelizer on the Life and Legacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” From his words spoken in 1965 to this day, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel remains a model of the intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America.

Explore Heschel’s early years and foundational influences; the fortuitous opportunity that brought him to the United States to study at Hebrew Union College and teach at the Jewish Theological Seminary; and his lasting legacy that has endured as a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books, and has written for CNN.com, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

This program was hosted by the Park Avenue Synagogue as part of the Reading Jewish Lives book program, and was co-sponsored by American Jewish University.

You can learn more in the new Jewish Lives biography, Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement by Julian E. Zelizer.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement

$26.00

By Julian E. Zelizer
Published October 26, 2021
328 pages

“Elegant” —Rabbi David Wolpe

A biography of the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who became a symbol of the marriage between religion and social justice

“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith. In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel’s early years and foundational influences—his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hasidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States and saved him from the Holocaust, to teach at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

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Who is Abraham Joshua Heschel?

“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith.

In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel’s early years and foundational influences—his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hasidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States and saved him from the Holocaust, to teach at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books, and has written for CNN.com, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement

$26.00

By Julian E. Zelizer
Published October 26, 2021
328 pages

“Elegant” —Rabbi David Wolpe

A biography of the rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who became a symbol of the marriage between religion and social justice

“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith. In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel’s early years and foundational influences—his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hasidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States and saved him from the Holocaust, to teach at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

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Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis.

In this new biography, author James Traub grapples with the difficult truth that Benjamin, who was considered one of the greatest legal minds in the United States, was a slave owner who deployed his oratorical skills in defense of slavery.

How could a man as gifted as Benjamin, knowing that virtually all serious thinkers outside the American South regarded slavery as the most abhorrent of practices, not see that he was complicit with evil? This biography makes a serious moral argument both about Jews who assimilated to Southern society by embracing slave culture and about Benjamin himself, a man of great resourcefulness and resilience who would not, or could not, question the practice on which his own success, and that of the South, was founded.

Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy

$26.00

By James Traub
Published October 5, 2021
200 pages

“The best…biography of Benjamin that exists.” —Jonathan Sarna

A moral examination of one of the first Jewish senators, confidante to Jefferson Davis, and champion of the cause of slavery

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis. In this new biography, author James Traub grapples with the difficult truth that Benjamin, who was considered one of the greatest legal minds in the United States, was a slave owner who deployed his oratorical skills in defense of slavery.

How could a man as gifted as Benjamin, knowing that virtually all serious thinkers outside the American South regarded slavery as the most abhorrent of practices, not see that he was complicit with evil? This biography makes a serious moral argument both about Jews who assimilated to Southern society by embracing slave culture and about Benjamin himself, a man of great resourcefulness and resilience who would not, or could not, question the practice on which his own success, and that of the South, was founded.

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Tags: Civil War, American History

Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream

In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel rose from desperate poverty to ill-gotten riches, from an early-twentieth-century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas.

Join Vanity Fair writer Michael Shnayerson for a 60-minute discussion in which Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel, but rather to understand him in all his complexity.

This program took place on Jul 22, 2021 in partnership with Park Avenue Synagogue, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream

$26.00

By Michael Shnayerson
Published February 9, 2021
248 pages

“Amazing” —Nicholas Pileggi

The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip

In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill-gotten riches, from an early-twentieth-century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity.

Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel’s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early- to mid-twentieth century.

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