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Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com ![[shavuot: dairy free cookbook]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1602390835.jpg )
Welcome to MyJewishBooks.com, where we list new and eclectic books of Jewish interest and sort them by publication date. All net proceeds go to tzedaka. Look at the hyperlinks to the left for books by season. Be sure to visit on Summer 09 and Spring 09Books pages, and oFrah's Jewish Book Club, Shavuot booksThank you for visiting. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0805241590.jpg)
LAISHA NOVEL BY AHARON APPELFELD Spring 2009, Schocken PW: Concentration camp survivor Appelfeld delivers a beautifully written, deeply disturbing tale of pilgrims en route to Jerusalem in pre-WWII Eastern Europe. Narrator Laish is a 15-year-old orphan employed by Fingerhut, a sickly and unpleasant "man of means." But when Fingerhut dies, Laish is forced to fend for himself among the pilgrims, finding work with the pious "old men" who teach him the Torah; Ploosh, a driver who kills one of the other members of the convoy; and Sruel, a former inmate who has a special connection with animals. As the journey wears on and the elements and sickness take their toll, the pilgrims reveal themselves to be a gallery of grotesques: they steal from each other, keep a mentally ill woman in a cage (and drive her out when she becomes too much trouble), sell one another out and are brutes in general. Appelfeld's gorgeous writing creates a stirring atmosphere, while Laish's observations and experiences illustrate some harsh truths about survival. THE New York Times Book Review: "Aharon Appelfeld's latest novel, "Laish," is a story of pilgrimage, then, and, as in all pilgrimages, what matters most is reaching the goal, sustaining faith through the travails of the journey. The stopping places, the pauses, the tests of faith, the perils to be overcome, count for very little, so long as they are survived; they are merely stages on the road to salvation. " Click the book cover to read more. If you are visiting New York City this Summer, please visit the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side for the exhibit corresponding to the book below: ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0520249615.jpg) ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0520249615a.jpg) ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0520249615b.jpg)
THEY CALLED ME MAYERPainted Memories of a Jewish Childhood in Poland before the Holocaust By Mayer Kirshenblatt with his daughter, BKG (Barbara Kishenblatt-Gimblett) MAZEL TOV TO THESE TWO RECIPIENTS OF THE 2009 SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE: SANA KRASIKOV and DALIA SOFER ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0385524390.jpg) ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0385524390a.jpg)
ONE MORE YEARSTORIES BY SANA KRASIKOV From Publishers Weekly: Starred Review. In her stunning short story debut, Krasikov hones in on the subtleties of hope and despair that writhe in the hearts of her protagonists, largely Russian and Georgian immigrants who have settled on the East Coast. In Better Half, 22-year-old Anya gets a protection order against her husband, Ryan, after he attacks her; he pleads for forgiveness, but, Anya realizes, a future with Ryan would be like staying in Russia. In The Repatriates a man returns to Moscow-to his wife's disappointment-intent on applying to the Russian stock market some tricks he picked up on Wall Street. In Maia in Yonkers, a Georgian immigrant is visited by her son, and the tensions are fierce and palpable. In The Alternate, Victor meets the Americanized daughter of an old love from Russia. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1846271770.jpg)
Though many of Krasikov's stories are bleak, there are swells of promise; even Lera, whose husband leaves her for another woman, suddenly felt nothing but the most pure-hearted compassion for him, a kindness and forgiveness that almost broke her heart. Krasikov's prose is precise, and her stories are intelligent, complex and passionate.
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THE SEPTEMBERS OF SHIRAZA NOVEL BY SALIA SOFER From Publishers Weekly: Sofer's family escaped from Iran in 1982 when she was 10, an experience that may explain the intense detail of this unnerving debut. On a September day in 1981, gem trader Isaac Amin is accosted by Revolutionary Guards at his Tehran office and imprisoned for no other crime than being Jewish in a country where Muslim fanaticism is growing daily. Being rich and having had slender ties to the Shah's regime magnify his peril. In anguish over what might be happening to his family, Isaac watches the brutal mutilation and executions of prisoners around him. His wife, Farnaz, struggles to keep from slipping into despair, while his young daughter, Shirin, steals files from the home of a playmate whose father is in charge of the prison that holds her father. Far away in Brooklyn, Isaac's nonreligious son, Parviz, struggles without his family's money and falls for the pious daughter of his Hasidic landlord. Nicely layered, the story shimmers with past secrets and hidden motivations. The dialogue, while stiff, allows the various characters to come through. Sofer's dramatization of just-post-revolutionary Iran captures its small tensions and larger brutalities, which play vividly upon a family that cannot, even if it wishes to, conform. MAZEL TOV TO THESE THREE OTHER FINALISTS OF THE 2009 SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE: ELISA ALBERT, ANNE LANDMAN, AND ANYA ELINICH ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0743291301.jpg)
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DefianceThe Bielski Partisans The Story of the Largest Armed Rescue of Jews by Jews During World War II by Nechama Tec November 2008, Oxford From Kirkus Reviews - Powerful account by Holocaust survivor Tec (Sociology/Univ. of Connecticut; In the Lion's Den, 1989, etc.) of the operations of a Jewish partisan group in WW II Belorussia. Seeking to counteract the widespread conception of European Jews as victims who went meekly to their deaths, Tec researched the extraordinary story of the three Bielski brothers and their partisan group, using interviews with group survivors in Israel, the US, and elsewhere. Led by the oldest brother, Tuvia, the partisan group had grown to more than 1,200 Jews by the time Russian forces liberated them in 1944. The Bielski brothers, Tec explains, determined early on to save not only themselves and their families but every Jew who would join them. Resisting efforts to limit their group only to fighters, Tuvia accepted any Jew until more than 70% of the group was comprised of women, children, and middle-aged and elderly men. A charismatic leader of limited education but great intelligence and diplomatic ability, Tuvia maintained good relations with a variety of other partisan groups, some initially hostile. Putting his emphasis on saving lives rather than on killing Germans, he nonetheless acted ruthlessly against those collaborating with the Nazis, and in so doing saved many Jewish lives. At the end of the war, with Stalin's control of Belorussia becoming more oppressive, Tuvia and his brothers escaped to Romania, traveling on to Palestine and then the US--although Tuvia never again gained the recognition or prominence that his leadership qualities might have justified. A remarkable story of a great leader, as well as of a neglected aspect of WW II. Click the book cover to read more. DO YOU REMEMBER "RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MEIN KOPF" IN YIDDISH... ? HOW ABOUT THE LATIN MAMBO STYLE HAVA NAGILA? OR THE BARRY SISTERS ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0307394670.jpg)
AND YOU SHALL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF VINYLTHE JEWISH PAST AS TOLD BY THE RECORDS WE HAVE LOVED AND LOST BY ROGER BENNETT AND JOSH KUN November 2008, Crown This is the tale of two men in search of their past and how they found an unexpected narrative through the faded liner notes and technologically passe medium of vinyl records. It took them eight years of eBay, garage sales, generous seniors and friends, to compile all the treasures of Jewish vinyl. Here is Johnny Mathis singing Kol Nidre, Charlton Heston reads the Old Testament, Fiddler on the Roof goes Latin, Theodore Bikel is Silent No More. Here is Neil Sedaka, the Barry Sisters, Barry Manilow, and Barbra. Nat King Cole and Cantors galore. Eydie Gorme (nee Sephardic born Gormezano). The Brothers Zim and Topol, Jewish mambo, Jewish Catskills, Belle Barth, Totie Fields, and Pearl Williams. YOU WILL DIE when you see the record album covers. I owned so many! Such as Silent No More, David Ben Gurion, Never Again. I had them all. Sammy Davis Junior sings Jewish; Folksy Nina and yiddish favorites, NOWstalgia, Fred Katz and his Jammers, Si Zentner, Larry Best, Batman and Rubin, Max Asnas recorded live at the Stage Deli, Dave Tarras, Haifa Hi Fi, El Al promotional albums, the Malavsky Family Passover, Orchestra Harlow. And all along the way, we glean what it meant to be Jewish in the age of vinyl in America, with guest commentaries from Anna Powers, Oliver Wang, Norman Lear, Aimee Bender, Michael Wex, Lamont Dozier and even Sandra Bernhard. Click the book cover to read more. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0061657328.jpg)
JUST SAY NUYIDDISH FOR EVERY OCCASION WHEN ENGLISH JUST WON'T DO BY MICHAEL WEX September 2008, Harper Perennial PW: This is not your bubbe's-or Leo Rosten's-Yiddish. Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic, use of Yiddish in such areas as madness, fury, and driving, mob Yiddish, insults and thirteen designations for the human rear (in declining order of politeness). Wex is knowledgeable about the biblical and Talmudic roots of some colloquial phrases; for example, he points out that tukhes (ass as he translates it) may be derived from Tuhkhes, one of the places where the Israelites sojourned on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. While most of Wex's discussions of words and phrases are brief, he provides lengthier sections on five key, highly nuanced Yiddish words: nu (Well?), shoyn (already, right away), epes (something, somewhat), takeh (precisely) and nebakh (alas). Wex's advice on the complex usage of these words can help even the greenest Yiddish speaker. The book could have given more attention to regional dialects and there are a few organizational quirks. Still, Wex offers both fun and instruction for the non-maven. Click the book cover to read more. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1578191173.jpg)
KOSHER BY DESIGN LIGHTENS UPFabulous food for a healthier lifestyle by Susie Fishbein (Author) November 17, 2008, Mesorah This sixth volume in Susie Fishbein's celebrated Kosher by Design cookbook series was crafted with your good health in mind! Kosher by Design Lightens Up is a gorgeous culinary guide, bursting with easy-to-do ideas for eating and feeling better. This cookbook teaches healthy cooking and food combining techniques, with special commentary by certified nutritional expert Bonnie Taub-Dix, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Assn. Susie says, These nutritious recipes are easy to integrate into your everyday menus. Anyone looking to migrate into a better way of eating and living will find delicious options here. Over 145 brand new recipes, Over 160 full color photos, Creative entertaining ideas, including oil olive tasting, a party spritzer station and more! Simple, healthy approaches to: cooking oils, sweeteners, whole grains, superfoods, smarter shopping, and more efficient kitchen gadgets. And Comprehensive cross-reference index . While traditional kosher cooking invokes images of heavy, fatty Eastern European fare, Fishbein's cookbooks are a cosmopolitan tour-de-force. Lightens Up showcases international influences that are varied and inspired, including: Argentinean Bison Steak, Korean Beef Kim Chee Skewers, Merquez Sausage on Whole Wheat Couscous, Chicken Tikka Masala, Lebanese Salad, Mexican Citrus Salad, Thai Chicken Soup, Moroccan Spiced Vegetables, a Greek Frittata Ring, and Tangy Mediterranean Vegetables. With 21 different desserts, such as Baklava Bites and a Frozen Pumpkin Pie, Lightens Up proves that sweet and healthy can be complementary adjectives. Fishbein advises, "Most people find that if eating healthier involves a drastic change - the dreaded diet syndrome - they will not stick with it long-term. My concept is simple. Take small steps." Her own positive experience comes through in Lightens Up as she admits, "I have noticed that as I eat more whole grains and cut back on fats, sugars, and oils, I've developed new taste buds! The new flavors are refreshingly pure and satisfying." Click the book cover to read more. NOT CRAFTY JEWS... BUT CRAFTING JEWISH ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1422608174.jpg)
Crafting JewishFun holiday crafts and party ideas for the whole family by Rivky Koenig November 2008, Mesorah Crafting Jewish is a unique and beautiful book. It has been designed both for experienced crafters looking for creative and unusual ideas and For beginners just starting to discover the joys of crafts. This book has it all! Over 120 holiday and everyday projects, each with step-by-step instructions Stunning full-color photos of every craft Distinctive ideas for holiday get-togethers - many with delicious recipes Pictorial reference guide of crafting tools and product buying guide Full-size templates and comprehensive index The entire family will love creating these marvelous, homemade crafts - and the warm and loving family traditions that you create at the same time, as you enjoy Crafting Jewish. Rivky Koenig is passionate about three things: family life, crafting, and preserving Jewish traditions. Not surprisingly, the upstate New York teacher, wife, and mother of five found a creative way to weave her enthusiasm into a single focus - Crafting Jewish: Fun holiday crafts and party ideas for the whole family. A delightful and visually appealing volume, Koenig's book appeals to novice and experienced crafters alike, offering more than 130 projects themed around Jewish holidays. A teacher of Literature, Language-Arts, and Social Studies, Koenig gained recognition for her tactile, hands-on approach to pedagogy, reinforcing subject matter through artistic and creative tasks. "It's well known that people learn more by doing than by hearing," she reflects. Her foray into Jewish crafting began with a stint as director of a series of crafting workshops for a popular teens' summer camp in the Catskill Mountains. "I saw kids get turned on by the idea of handmade traditional crafts they could make at home with family and friends. As we created, we'd discuss the significance of the project to Jewish values and practices. These lessons stay with them for life." Click the book cover to read more. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0827608845.jpg)
A HEART AFIRESTORIES AND TEACHINGS OF THE EARLY HASIDIC MASTERS BY RABBI ZALMAN SCHACHTER_SHALOMI and NETANEL MILES-YEPEZ May 2009, JPS The latest book from the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement. The interpretations in A Heart Afire are as rich and meaningful as the teachings and tales themselves in this intimate guided tour of Hasidism and Hasidic storytelling led by Reb Zalman, an old-world Hasidic elder who is also profoundly connected to modern culture. As a bridge between both worlds, Reb Zalman, and his student Netanel Miles-Yepez, introduce the reader to rare and unique translations of Hasidism with their own personal reflections on their meaning. This book gives the readers the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Hasidic wisdom and narrative and in the teachings of a modern Hasidic master. Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, known as Reb Zalman, is the father of the neo-Hasidic Jewish Renewal movement. He was ordained by HaBaD-Lubavitch in1947, and later received his MA from Boston University and DHL from Hebrew Union College. He is professor emeritus of Psychology of Religion and Jewish Mysticism at Temple University and is World Wisdom Chair holder emeritus at Naropa University. He is the author of Spiritual Intimacy and collaborated with Miles-Yepez on Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Tales and Teachings of the Hasidic Masters. Netanel Miles-Yepez is a teacher of Sufism and Hasidism and, with Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, is the co-founder of the Sufi-Hasidic, Inayati-Maimuni Tariqat, the only Jewish order of Sufis in the world. He collaborated with Reb Zalman on Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Hasidic Masters and is the editor of The Common Heart: An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue. He is also the executive director of the Reb Zalman Legacy Project. Click the book cover to read more. A good primer for our readers who want to join the Obama Administration: ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0964702592.jpg)
TEN STEPS TO A FEDERAL JOBHOW TO LAND A JOB IN THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION BY KATHRYN TROUTMAN Summer 2008, This guide shows you what you must know and do to get a good federal job-with health insurance, retirement benefits, and a stable future. Inside this book, find how to translate your work experience and education into federal employment. Discover where to aim with the 10 hottest federal fields. Effectively present specialized experience, as needed. Expand your short private industry resume into a typical 4-page USAJOBS federal resume. Determine and use the right words that federal hiring authorities look for. Break the code on difficult KSAs and challenging self-assessment questionnaires ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0805212248.jpg)
The Book of New Israeli FoodA Culinary Journey by Janna Gur Summer 2008, From Publishers Weekly: Gur, founder and chief editor of Israel's leading food and wine magazine, Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, offers an enticing look at the evolution of Israeli cuisine. Part cookbook, part history, this collection with full-color photographs throughout paints a tantalizing and vivid portrait of the nation's culinary heritage and present-day gastronomy. Recipes include classics such as Falafel, Challah, Classic Jewish Chicken Soup, and Traditional Chopped Liver, as well as the less-familiar Figs Stuffed with Bulgur and Cranberry Salad, Citrus Semolina Cake, and Mina del Pesach (Passover Matzo Pie). Recipes are easy-to-follow and are grouped under salads, the street and the market, simple pleasures, grill, Shabbat and holidays. Detailed sections on the Israeli breakfast, olive oil, coffee, cheese and wine complement the recipes and give context to the important role these play in the Israeli diet. Additional information on open air markets, fishing in Israel and Israeli Shabbat add to the book's appeal. A section on special ingredients identifies the unusual, although most are easily obtained and will be at least somewhat familiar to most cooks. Beautiful and comprehensive, this book will become an immediate favorite with anyone with even a passing interest in Israeli cuisine. Click the book cover to read more. Move over Eastern European Jewish cooking. Riga born, former El Al flight attendant and star of Israeli food has allowed one of her books to be translated into English, and it is filled with spices and vegetables, including shakshuka, falafel, FISH FALAFEL, bourekas, salads, more salads, mejadra, kubbe hamousta (Kurdish lemony soup), chreime (hot fish stew), pumpkin jam with spices, and more. She also includes holiday menus and recipes for Israeli holidays, including Rosh Hashana and Ramadan. Ramadan? YES RAMADAN! Why? Cuz not all israelis are Eastern European Jews. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1403984921.jpg)
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N O W I N P A P E R B A C K ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0007149832.jpg)
The Yiddish Policemen's UnionA Novel by Michael Chabon Spring 2008, Harper From Publishers Weekly. Starred Review. Chabon's storytelling, in this alternate history of a world where Jews were settled in Alaska after World War II, is vivid enough, with inventive metaphors packed in like tapestry threads, but Peter Riegert's versatile voice makes the invented society even more tangible. Told through the eyes of Meyer Landsman, a police detective investigating a murder, the novel occurs in a strange time to be a Jew, as several characters ruefully put it: the special Jewish district will soon be controlled by Alaska again. In a bonus interview on the last disc, Chabon relates his desire to write about a place where Yiddish was an official language. The book is shot through with Yiddish phrases and names, which melodically roll off Riegert's tongue. He gives Landsman and his tough but warmhearted partner Berko similar yet distinct gruff voices that contrast well with the effeminate-sounding sect leader and the Southern-accented Americans who come to start the land reversion process. Riegert's pacing increases the enjoyment of this expertly spun mystery. Click the book cover to read more. NOW IN PAPERBACK ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0452295297.jpg)
CITY OF THIEVESA Novel by David Benioff May 2008, Viking David Beniott (Friedman), novelist and screenwriter, Dartmouth grad and husband to Amanda Peet, has written the Russia based novel based on the stories of his grandfather. Lev Beniov, 17, is arrested during WW2 in Leningrad for looting a dead German soldier. Rather than execute Lev, Colonel Grechko sends him on a quest to find a dozen eggs which will be used to make a wedding cake for the colonel's daughter. And so the adventure begins. Lev Beniov considers himself "built for deprivation." He's small, smart, and insecure, a Jewish virgin too young for the army, who spends his nights working as a volunteer firefighter with friends from his building. When a dead German paratrooper lands in his street, Lev is caught looting the body and dragged to jail, fearing for his life. He shares his cell with the charismatic and grandiose Kolya, a handsome young soldier arrested on desertion charges. Instead of the standard bullet in the back of the head, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful colonel to use in his daughter's wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt to find the impossible. A search that takes them through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and the devastated surrounding countryside creates an unlikely bond between this earnest, lust-filled teenager and an endearing lothario with the gifts of a conman. Set within the monumental events of history, City of Thieves is an intimate coming-of-age tale with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men. Click the book cover to read more. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0805242511.jpg)
A Pigeon and a BoyA Novel by Meir Shalev, Evan Fallenberg (Translator) October 2007. Schocken From the internationally acclaimed Israeli writer Meir Shalev comes a mesmerizing novel of two love stories, separated by half a century but connected by one enchanting act of devotion. During the 1948 War of Independence--a time when pigeons are still used to deliver battlefield messages--a gifted young pigeon handler is mortally wounded. In the moments before his death, he dispatches one last pigeon. The bird is carrying his extraordinary gift to the girl he has loved since adolescence. Intertwined with this story is the contemporary tale of Yair Mendelsohn, who has his own legacy from the 1948 war. Yair is a tour guide specializing in bird-watching trips who, in middle age, falls in love again with a childhood girlfriend. His growing passion for her, along with a gift from his mother on her deathbed, becomes the key to a life he thought no longer possible. Unforgettable in both its particulars and its sweep, A Pigeon and A Boy is a tale of lovers then and now--of how deeply we love, of what home is, and why we, like pigeons trained to fly in one direction only, must eventually return to it. In a voice that is at once playful, wise, and altogether beguiling, Meir Shalev tells a story as universal as war and as intimate as a winged declaration of love. Click the book cover to read more. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0615176534.jpg)
Leveling the Playing FieldAdvancing Women in Jewish Organizational Life by Shifra Bronznick, Didi Goldenhar, and Marty Linsky, with Beverly Joel (Illustrator) March 2008. This guidebook is about how to create a particular kind of organizational change in a particular kind of organization -- advancing women and creating gender equity in Jewish organizations. If you believe that gender equity is vital to the health of Jewish communities and want to turn your beliefs into productive action, then this guidebook is for you. The strategies and tools in this guidebook will be relevant wherever you are positioned in your organization. The goals and tactics may vary depending on your formal and informal roles, but the opportunity for exercising leadership on gender equity is available to you whether you are sitting in the corner office or just getting started in your career. Published by a group that has long sought to advance the cause of gender equity in Jewish life, "Leveling the Playing Field" provides a how-to guide to gender equity for Jewish professionals and the organizations where they work. As the JTA.org commented, "...It's not that women are absent from Jewish life. They fill the pews of liberal synagogues and make up most of the staff at Jewish organizations. More than half the new non-Orthodox rabbis and most of the cantors are women. Jewish summer camps and youth groups are overwhelmingly female. In fact the liberal movements, particularly the Reform, are struggling to bring their boys and men back into religious life. But the top echelons of Jewish communal life -- the executives of major Jewish organizations and the leaders of the large federations -- are still male...... The book... provides concrete steps that women -- and men -- can take to move their own Jewish organizations onto a more gender-equal footing, from building alliances to setting up inhouse mentoring programs for promising young employees. In addition, Advancing Women Professionals will provide mentoring support and a conversation kit to help people trying to effect such organizational changes.... Shifra Bronznick, one of three authors of "Leveling the Playing Field," says the will to change is more prevalent now, but the change has to come from below -- the men and women coming up within these organizations. "People are ready to be part of a change initiative," she says. "This book is aimed at giving them the tools." Bronznick, who wrote the book with Didi Goldenhar and Marty Linsky, is the founding president of the 8-year-old advocacy group Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community. She has spent years working on gender inequity issues, devoting much of the early 2000s trying to convince Jewish CEOs and communal leaders to take the problem seriously. ..." Many of the steps outlined in the new book have been piloted by key Jewish organizations, working together with Advancing Women Professionals. The group collaborated on a United Jewish Communities gender equity project involving 14 federations and worked with regional directors of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism to create rabbinic search criteria aimed at hiring more women rabbis. Click the book cover to read more. ![[movers]](http://www.sefersafari.com/movers-and-shakers.gif) MYJEWISHBOOKS.COM CURRENT MOVERS AND SHAKERS Just a quick note, first. To give you an idea of what the best selling books in America were in 2007... The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Sold over 4 million copies in 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseini. Sold 2.2 million copies Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. Sold 1.9 million copies Playing for Pizza by John Grisham. Sold 1.4 million copies Double Cross by James Patterson. Sold 1.4 Million copies The Quickie by James Patterson. Sold 800,000 copies Einstein. By Walter Isaacson. Sold 494,000 copies Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal by Eric Van Lustbader. Sold 257,000 copies ... ... The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. Sold 246,000 copies How Doctors Think. By Jerome Groopman. Sold 182,000 copies Exit Ghost by Philip Roth. Sold 135,000 copies The Year of Living Biblically by A J Jacobs. Sold 113,000 copies. Away by Amy Bloom. Sold 109,000 copies The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. Sold 101,000 copies And now for our movers and shakers People of the Book. A Novel by Geraldine Brooks Night by Elie Wiesel (Hill and Wang) The Mascot. Unraveling the mystery of my Jewish Father's Nazi Boyhood by Mark Kurzem The Jewish Americans. Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America by Beth Wenger Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado (Ecco) Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster) I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron. (Knopf) Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present By Michael B. Oren (Norton) Survival at Auschwitz by Primo Levi (Touchstone) The Deadliest Lies. The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control by Abraham H. Foxman (Palgrave) The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt (FS&G) How To Read The Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James L. Kugel. (Free Press) The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter. (W. W. Norton) Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm. (Yale Univ. Press) The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn (Harper paperback) The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A. J. Jacobs. (Simon & Schuster) The Zookeeper's Wife. A War Story. By Diane Ackerman (Norton) The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon (HarperCollins) Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure by Michael Chabon The Jew of Home Depot and Other Stories by Max Apple The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer (Ecco) Away by Amy Bloom (Random House) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Knopf) Rashi's Daughters, Book II: Miriam by Maggie Anton (Plume) The Saturday Wife by Naomi Ragen (St. Martin's Press) Bearing the Body by Ehud Havazelet (FS&G) The Gravedigger's Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco) Jews and Power by Ruth R. Wisse. (Schocken) Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck and Michael J. Cohen. (Ecco) In August 2007, Carolyn Goodman of Manhattan's Upper West Side passed away at the age of 91. She was a clinical psychologist, a professor emeritus of Yeshiva University who created the PACE program to help mentally disturbed mothers of young children. She was also a civil rights leader, and the mother of 3 sons, one of whom joined Chabad and made aliyah, and another of whom was Andrew Goodman, 20, who was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan along with his friends, James Chaney, 21, and Michael Schwerner, 24, while working for civil rights and Freedom Summer in June 1964 in Philadelphia Mississippi (Neshoba County). The morning before he was kidnapped he mailed the following postcard: "Dear Mom and Dad, I have arrived safely in Meridian, Miss. This is a wonderful town, and the weather is fine. I wish you were here. The people in this city are wonderful, and our reception was very good. All my love, Andy." And so, we at MyJewishBooks.com extend our condolences to her family and recall her life as an example to be followed. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1560258640.jpg)
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A shout out to all our friends at the BLACK ROCK JCC at Burning Man in the Nevada desert. At the risk of having you think that obituaries are driving our late Summer selections, we just had to take this time to recall with great affection our favorite poet, Grace Paley. We recall, as if it were last month, when we sat next to Ms. Paley on the "dinky" to Princeton. She was so sensible, down-to-earth and friendly; she labeled herself as a cooperative anarchist and combative pacifist. One noted admirer, novelist Philip Roth, said her stories offered "an understanding of loneliness, lust, selfishness and fatigue that is splendidly comic and unladylike." Some of her books are below: ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0374530289.jpg)
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![[our smart car]](http://www.sefersafari.com/smartcar.jpg) Have you seen us driving around in our new delivery car? Like it? Wave when we drive by you. We'll give you a ride.Please note: We will post Google Adsense ads on our site. They are autmatically served and usually of Jewish interest. But sometimes there are some unusual ads, sometimes from group neither you or I approve of. We are working to block some of the more egregious ads. Thanks for understanding. ![[nypd jew]](http://www.sefersafari.com/nypdjew.bmp) The NY Post beat us to it. While every one was talking about a Yiddische Kopf, the Nypd Auxiliary was busy recruiting a Yiddische KOP. It is true that we at MyJewishBooks.com were already at work on scripts for CSI: CROWN HEIGHTS, for ADAM-18, and for LAW AND ORDER: SHATNEZ SQUAD, but now we will have to scrap those ideas. Sigh... Well, at least we are gladdened that this new cadet was influenced to 'protect and serve' by his Talmud studies and perhaps by copies of of ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/1580231098.jpg) ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/mystmid.jpg) Criminal Kabbalah and Mystery Midrash. Now optioned to be a film from Fox And winner of a 2006 Jewish Book Award ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0375831002.jpg) ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0375831002a.jpg)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak March 2006, Knopf. Random House Grade 9 and Up Death had to kill so many people during the Holocuast, that Death needed a distraction. Zusak has created a work that deserves the attention of sophisticated teen and adult readers. Death himself narrates the World War II-era story of Liesel Meminger from the time she is taken, at age nine, to live in Molching, Germany, with a foster family in a working-class neighborhood of tough kids, acid-tongued mothers, and loving fathers who earn their living by the work of their hands. The child arrives having just stolen her first book-although she has not yet learned how to read-and her foster father uses it, The Gravediggers Handbook, to lull her to sleep when she's roused by regular nightmares about her younger brother's death. Across the ensuing years of the late 1930s and into the 1940s, Liesel collects more stolen books as well as a peculiar set of friends: the boy Rudy, the Jewish refugee Max, the mayor's reclusive wife (who has a whole library from which she allows Liesel to steal), and especially her foster parents. An extraordinary narrative. Click the book cover above to read more. The Washington Post adds: Death, like Liesel, has a way with words. And he recognizes them not only for the good they can do, but for the evil as well. What would Hitler have been, after all, without words? As this book reminds us, what would any of us be? As you know, Oprah has a book club, and we have oFrah's Jewish Club But perhaps oPrah has more power than a gaggle of rabbis. Her addition of NIGHT BY ELIE WIESEL to her recommended list has rocketed the slim book to the top of the nation's best sellers' lists. As a nugget of trivia to booklovers, Farrar Straus Giroux sold the mass market paperback rights to NIGHT by Elie Wiesel to Bantam. Bantam has sold the book as a paperback each year for over 23 years. But their rights to the book expired in 2005. Oy! If only oPrah had selected the a few months earlier. The Bantam edition and the oPrah edition are to the right: ![[book cover click here]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0553272535.jpg)
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Night by Elie Wiesel Choose between the Bantam edition or oPrah's edition from Hill and Wang In Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's memoir Night, a scholarly, pious teenager is wracked with guilt at having survived the horror of the Holocaust and the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel's lifelong project to bear witness for those who died. ![[book cover click here]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0312307411.jpg)
BORN TO KVETCH Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods by Michael Wex September 2005. St martins press From Publishers Weekly: Fortunately, despite its title and cover photo, this is not a kitschy book about a folksy language spoken by quaint, elderly Jews. It is, rather, an earthy romp through the lingua franca of Jews, which has roots reaching back to the Hebrew Bible and which continues to thrive in 21st-century America. Canadian professor, translator and performer Wex has an academic's breadth of knowledge, and while he doesn't ignore your bubbe's tsimmes, he gives equal time to the semantic nuances of putz, schmuck, shlong and shvants. Wex organizes his material around broad, idiosyncratic categories, but like the authors of the Talmud (the source for a large number of Yiddish idioms), he strays irrepressibly beyond the confines of any given topic. His lively wit roams freely, and Rabbi Akiva and Sholem Aleichem collide happily with Chaucer, Elvis and Robert Petrie. Academics, and others, will be disappointed at the lack of source notes, and a few errors have crept in (the fifth day of Sukkot is not Hoshana Rabba, for instance). Overall, however, this treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history and folklore offers a fascinating look at how, through the centuries, a unique and enduring language has reflected an equally unique and enduring culture. Click to read more. ![[book cover click here]](http://www.sefersafari.com/0061131229.jpg)
ALSO NOW IN AUDIO CD: BORN TO KVETCH AUDIO CD: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods by Michael WexYou've heard of OPrah's Book Club, But Have You Checked Out Our OFrah's Jewish Book Club? Drop by OFrah's Jewish Book Club's monthly selections. For more information on any book, to purchase one, or to add a review, click on any book cover below. Please note that our goal is to promote Jewish books and literature. All our proceeds from book sales go to charity. We pay no salaries. ![[book cover]](http://www.sefersafari.com/2164net.gif)
2164 has released a report on the Jewish groups that need to be emulated. A Must read. 21/64 // Strategic Philanthropy Through The Generations. 21/64 is a division of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies. Based in our New York offices, we offer philanthropic tools, networks and communications vehicles to individuals, families, foundations and federations during times of generational transition. 21/64 works with clients on strategic grantmaking through three hands-on approaches: Convening, Communicating and Consulting. We invite you to contact us for further information.
Our work is conducted in partnership with FJC, The Samberg Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation and an Anonymous Foundation. Many people have asked us what 21/64 means. The name is a symbol of our multigenerational approach to philanthropy. "21" being the time when young people come of age and "64" connoting the age at which people begin to think about their legacies. Together, "21/64" describes the multigenerational approach our company takes to the challenges and opportunities relating to family and community philanthropy. Click the report cover to read the report for free.
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Although this is not a book, it is an important read for anyone in institutional Judaism. It is a creative brief on how to communicate to younger American Jews. Click the report cover to read the report for free.
People ask me... "I am writing a Jewish children's book. Do they sell well?" It is impossible to answer that. But for the tape measure, note that in 2003, the latest Harry Potter book sold 12 million copies; Madonna's The English Roses sold 718,000 copies; Madonna's book on Mr Peabody's Apples (based on a Hassidic tale) sold 442,000 copies; and Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak's BRUNDIBAR sold 133,000 copies. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/kushnersendak.jpg)
Rabbis Tony Kushner, Meryl Streep, and Maurice Sendak are seen here in search of a good Jewish Book. ![[book]](http://www.sefersafari.com/grandcentralnude.jpg)
To the right, hundreds of nude people lied down and protested in New York City's Grand Central Station when if was announced that MyJewishBooks.com might be closed for a few hours. ![[Man is praying]](http://www.sefersafari.com/patrobertsonprays.jpg) This man reportedly is praying that you will buy and read an entertaining Jewish book. Please, don't let him down.Actually this is a pic of Pat Robertson, praying that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and others will resign from the court. But let's turn a negative into a positive, okay? Did you know that MyJewishBooks.com was one of the original pixel buyers on MillionDollarHomePage.com ? We are the 100 pixel Star of David between "Sushi" and "Kosher" ![[Segway Human Transporter]](http://www.sefersafari.com/segwayrabbi.jpg)
![[Segway Human Transporter]](http://www.sefersafari.com/B00007EPJ6.jpg) The Segway Human Transporter. Available on MyJewishBooks.com for less than $5000, not including about $99 for shipping. Only two allowed per person. Not for use on the Sabbath. Emissions free, powered by rechargeable NiMH battery packs. Fun to ride--a unique experience ![[campbell soup 1]](http://www.sefersafari.com/campbellsoup1.jpg) ![[campbell soup 2]](http://www.sefersafari.com/campbellsoup2.jpg)
Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable soup is now certified O-U kosher. Here is a test of your skills. In this picture, guess which of these men are employees of Campbell's and which are employed by the Orthodox Union. Hmmmm... Hmmmm... good, Hmmmm... good. Guess who is Jewish, hmmmm... good. Hint: Jeremy J. Fingerman is the President of Campbell's U.S. Soup Division. We wonder if he is the same Fingerman who was USY President in 1979, after David Marcu. We at MyJewishBooks.com also wonder if there is a minyan in Maxon, NC 
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THE WOMEN'S HAFTARAH COMMENTARYNew Insights from Women Rabbis on the 54 Weekly Haftarah Portions, the 5 Megillot and Special Shabbatot. Edited By Rabbi Elyse Goldstein September 2003. Jewish Lights. I fell in love with the Women's TORAH Commentary. An instant classic and must have. And now this, for the first time, women's unique perspectives and experiences are applied to the weekly portions and special readings. Includes feminist interpretations of the stories of Yael and Devorah, David and Goliath, David and Batsheva, Jonah and the fish (and female fish), Jerusalem as female, the motif of the whore, and the Witch of Endor. Contributors include: Judith Z. Abrams, Analia Bortz, Sharon Brous, Sue Levi Elwell, Susan P. Fendrick, Karen L. Fox, Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, Laura Geller, Rachel Sabath-Beit Halachmi, Jill Hammer, Karyn D. Kedar, Valerie Lieber, Sheryl Nosan-Blank, Debra Orenstein, Barbara Rosman Penzner, Hara E. Person, Geela Rayzel Raphael, Laura M. Rappaport, Ilene Schneider, Rona Shapiro, Shira Stern, Pamela Wax, and Nancy Wechsler-Azen. Click the book cover above to read more. HEY.. NOW YOUR CAN SEARCH OUR SITE, INSTEAD OF JUST SEARCHING AMAZON. TRY IT OUT... Drop us a line or post a comment to our Jewish Books and Films Message Board and let us know what you're reading or seeing. ![[Gershon chaim_yankle_chen of yahoo]](http://www.sefersafari.com/georgechen.jpg) Rebbe Gershon Chaim Yankle Chen says, "Beryl, Peryl, and Schmeryl were planning to move to America and change their names. Beryl said he would change his named from Beryl to Buck. Peryl said he would change his to Puck. And Schmeryl.. well Schmeryl said, "Ich for nit kin America." (I am not moving to America)
![[Is It Safe. The Marathon Man]](http://www.sefersafari.com/isitsafe.jpg) Is it safe to read a Jewish Book? You bet it is. Some tidbits we like: ![[walking the bible dvd]](http://www.sefersafari.com/B000E1NWDC.jpg)
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THE RED TENT IS NOW ON AUDIO THE RED TENT [ABRIDGED] by Anita Diamant. Audio Cassette Abridged edition Abridged (November 2000). THE BEST SELLING JEWISH BOOK OF 1999 AND 2000 IS NOW ON AUDIO. CLICK THE ICON TO READ OVER 170 REVIEWS OF IT. It is a top selection of so many Jewish book reading groups (maybe because Mickey Perlman loved it, and the publisher sent a free copy to 500 Reform Rabbis, and 300 female Ministers). Rabbi Laurie Katz Braun has written a study guide for this book (click here to read it). Click here to post or read or reply to a message or comment on our Jewish Books and Films Message Board .
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