Book review

'Rogue Justice': Exploring how Israel’s top court turned into a political powerhouse - review

Yonatan Green reveals how Israel’s Supreme Court seized power, shaping law and politics with little democratic oversight.

Entrance hall of the Supreme Court, decorated with a section of mosaic pavement recovered from the 5th-to-8th-century Hamat Gader synagogue, near the Golan Heights.
The Irgun Museum in Tel Aviv.

'The Gavriel Tirosh Affair': Unforgettable teacher, lingering memory - review

Inaugurating Hasdai Crescas Street in Jerusalem, 2011. Front row (from left): Esti Eisenman, specialist in Crescas and initiator of street naming; Prof. Warren Zeev Harvey, leading specialist in Crescas. Back row (from left): Regional council member Yael Anatbi, and Prof. Yomtov Asis.

A forgotten voice from 1391: 'Hasdai Crescas: Collected Writings' - book review

HELPING MOURNERS to heal.

'The Jewish Journey Through Loss': Combining halacha and psychology in order to heal - review


'Are We There Yet?': Getting over marital roadblocks - review

Chana Levitan, a couples therapist and educator, presents the stories of 18 couples who overcame specific roadblocks in their relationships and are still driving that car called marriage.

 ‘THE WEDDING REGISTER’ by Edmund Leighton, 1920.

'Ancient Jewish Food': What’s cooking in the Talmuds? - review

A new book by food scholar Susan Weingarten offers a glimpse into what Jews ate almost 2,000 years ago and how the food was prepared.

 An illustrative image of wheat and dairy products next to a Torah scroll.

'Above All, We Are Jews': The life story of a great American Reform rabbi - review

To learn more about this great American Reform rabbi, Jews and non-Jews alike will want to read this well-researched and highly accessible biography.

 Rabbi Alexander Schindler became one of the greatest supporters of the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

'American Maccabee': American Jewry and antisemitism during the days of Teddy Roosevelt - review

American Maccabee provides an informative and nuanced analysis of Theodore Roosevelt’s respect for Jews and his handling of a series of challenges that affected them.

 OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE portrait of Roosevelt by John Singer Sargent in 1903.

'From Eden to Exodus': Learning the meaning of Hebrew words - review

From Eden to Exodus incorporates 53 articles explaining the meanings of various words and phrases from the first two books of the Torah.

 HEBREW BIBLE in a silver case in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Switzerland, printed in Israel in 1962.

'The Great Betrayal': Revolutions rarely succeed in the first attempt - review

Fawaz Gerges makes a compelling case that political and economic reform has been stifled by several mutually reinforcing factors.

 ANGRY YOUTHS gather in central Cairo in 2012, protesting thenEgyptian president Islamist Mohamed Morsi, near Tahrir Square, the heart of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled his predecessor, Hosni Mubarak

'The Triumph of Life': Reimagining the relationship between God and humanity - review

Greenberg’s recently published magnum opus, The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism, is arguably the most compelling and thought-provoking book to grace the Jewish bookshelf this year. 

 JEWS IN BUDAPEST being rounded up by police in 1944. The Holocaust was a ‘devastating example of the abuse of human power.’

'The Jews, 5,000 Years and Counting:' Jewish history can be funny - review

The Jews: 5,000 Years and Counting achieves an incredible feat: It covers our entire “epic journey through time, space, and guilt” in 224 pages.

BEN-GURION AIRPORT security, Terminal 1, during the COVID-19 pandemic

'Eminent Jews:' Jewish sensibility at its best - review

In his book Eminent Jews, David Denby provides engaging, informative, insightful, mostly, but not entirely, celebratory biographies of four eminent Jews.

 LEONARD BERNSTEIN and Benny Goodman in rehearsal, circa 1940-1949

'Israel’s War of Self-Defense': Capturing a nation in despair - book review

Alan Silverstein, a rabbi and PhD in political science, has written a 235-page book addressing every anti-Israel canard.

 The funeral of Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, a 21-year-old soldier killed in southern Lebanon during the current war