Book review

What Bill Clinton, Netanyahu, McDonald’s and Starbucks reveal about crisis leadership

In Crisis Management, one of Israel’s best-known crisis advisers argues that the right response depends on the leader, the moment, and the nerve to act before the room spins out of control.

|ByZVIKA KLEIN
Itay Ben-Horin’s new book, "Crisis Management: Insider Views of How Business and Political Giants Won or Lost Big, And How You Can Apply the Lessons."
Germans read an antisemitic tabloid on a billboard: 'The Jews are our misfortune.' That was in 1935. The Palestinian Authority still teaches hate and violence toward Jews today, the author writes.

'The Road to October 7': The long centuries of hatred that led to Hamas’s attack - review

This review of The Road to October 7 follows an interview with its author published in the Magazine earlier this month.

|ByNEVILLE TELLER
A GROUP of Hitler Youth, 1933.

'Stay Alive': A personal story of anti-Nazi Germans - review

Ian Buruma’s Stay Alive recounts wartime Berlin through hidden Jews, German resisters, and the ordeal of his own father.

|ByCOLIN SCHINDLER
THE EMPTY chair: Thomas Chippendale chair, c. 1772, mahogany, covered in modern red Moroccan leather, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

'Inspirational Reflections for the Seder Night': A Haggadah for empty chairs at the table - review

With reflections and prayers for each stage of the Seder, this Haggadah invites you to engage with tradition, family, and your own journey of redemption.

|ByRACHEL PARNESS

'Matchmaker Matchmaker': Relationship wisdom to find a love that lasts - review

Azeela Ben Shalom uses 11 client stories to share tips and dating advice.

JANUARY 25, 2025ByRIVKAH LAMBERT ADLER
ALEEZA BEN SHALOM presents her Netflix program, ‘Jewish Matchmaking.’

'The Holy and the Broken': A powerful case for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence - review

Written in an engaging style, a balance of informative and conversational, The Holy and the Broken leaves the reader with much food for thought.

JANUARY 24, 2025ByHANNAH ROZENBLAT
PALESTINIANS AND Israelis attend a joint ceremony for bereaved families on Remembrance Day, organized by Combatants for Peace and the Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace, in Tel Aviv, in April 2023.

'The Amazing Eleven': Tracing relationships through generations - review

The author, Nancy Klein enhances her unique family story with vivid character sketches and well-remembered family incidents.

JANUARY 23, 2025ByNEVILLE TELLER
The Amazing Eleven: The Story of the Isaacs Siblings from Cincinnati.

'Making the Weather': The six movers and shakers in British politics - review

The author, Vernon Bogdanor, a respected professor of government, argues that the influence of these six was based on being good communicators and “important teachers.” 

JANUARY 18, 2025ByCOLIN SHINDLER
WINSTON CHURCHILL (R) with his brother John and their American-born British socialite mother, Jeanette ‘Jennie’ Jerome, aka Lady Randolph Spencer-Churchill, in 1889.

'Saints and Liars': A look at those who offered aid to persecuted Jews in WWII - review

In her book 'Saints and Liars,' Deborah Dwork presents micro-histories of activities in Prague, Vilna, Shanghai, Marseilles, and Lisbon.

JANUARY 18, 2025ByGLENN C. ALTSCHULER
HARRY WEINSAFT of the JDC gives food to three-year-old Renati Rulhater, a Jewish DP in Vienna, Austria. The campaign to distribute food to needy refugees in Vienna was sponsored by the Jewish Joint Welfare Association of Vienna in conjunction with the JDC.

'Contemporary Humanistic Judaism': The contemporary movement of the Jewish world - review

Our Judaism is broadly defined as the collective historical experience of the Jewish people – a widely and wildly diverse experience that has helped foster our extraordinary resilience.

JANUARY 12, 2025ByRON KRONISH
RELIGIOUS AND secular Jews gather on Tisha B’Av outside Independence Hall in Tel Aviv to hear the annual reading of Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, last year.

'If It Takes a Thousand Years': A manual on how to defeat jihadists - review

The jihadist enemy uses the organs of American democracy to subvert it from within, and what the US needs to do to protect itself.

JANUARY 11, 2025ByNEVILLE TELLER
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group holds a rally in Gaza to commemorate armed commanders and operatives killed by Israel in the past five-day fighting, in Gaza City, May 19, 2023.

'Our Nazi': The story of a Nazi who lived in Chicago for three decades - review

Reinhold Kulle was considered an outstanding school custodian, beloved and respected by the staff and students of Oak Park and River Forest High School.

JANUARY 11, 2025ByEFRAIM ZUROFF
AN IDEOLOGICAL battle is also being waged. Pictured: Nazi leader Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag, 1941.

'Risks and Returns': How the king of bankruptcy, Wilbur Ross Jr., got to the top - review

Risks and Returns: Creating Success in Business and Life explains how the king of bankruptcy Wilbur Ross Jr. got to the top and stayed there.

JANUARY 5, 2025ByJOSEPH SCUTTS
Writer Joseph Scutts with Wilbur Ross Jr. in New York, holding Ross’s book.

'Melting Point': Showing the dilemmas and struggles of Diaspora Jewry - review

A descendant of hassidim and Zionist activists, Cockerell writes compellingly about our people’s wanderings, the need for a Jewish homeland, and her family’s fight to create it.

JANUARY 4, 2025ByGIDEON SYLVESTER
We’ll only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.’ Former prime minister Golda Meir speaks during a session of the World Jewish Congress, at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv.