Ein Yaakov

Ein Yaakov (Hebrew: עין יעקב‎) is a compilation of all the Aggadic material in the Talmud together with commentaries. Its introduction contains an account of the history of Talmudic censorship and the term Gemara. It was compiled by Jacob ibn Habib and (after his death) by his son Rabbi Levi ibn Habib.

Get a copy of: Ein Yaakov

An English version in 5 volumes appeared in 1921, prepared by Rabbi Shmuel Tzvi - Hirsch Glick of Chicago. It presents the original text on the right column of each page, with the corresponding English version to its left. It doesn't include any of the commentaries that appear in the classic version, but Rabbi Glick's translation and accompanying footnotes suffice for comprehension.

Another English translation, by Avraham Yaakov Finkel, titled Ein Yaakov: The Ethical and Inspirational Teachings of the Talmud, was compiled in one volume.

Aggadah

The Aggadah consists of the inspirational and ethical teachings of the Talmud. These legends and stories illustrate the character of the great Rabbinic Sages. The Rabbis come alive as they expound, exhort, encourage the downtrodden, negotiate with Roman emperors and generals, and help the poor, sick and oppressed. These stories extend to every sphere of life, from ethics to astronomy, mysticism to marriage, and medicine. These anecdotes show that the Sages were not just thinkers and philosophers but saintly individuals whose qualities we should emulate.

About the Translator: Avraham Yaakov Finkel was born in Basel, Switzerland and lived in the Hague, Netherlands until 1942, when he was deported to Bergen-Belsen by the Nazis. He authored of a number of significant volumes, including "The Essential Maimonides", "Great Chasidic Masters", and "The Responsa Anthology".

Health and Psychological Principles of Maimonides

The Life-Transforming Diet
based on Health and Psychological
Principles of Maimonides and other Classical Sources

Obesity is a chronic multifaceted disease that requires multimodal management. The Life Transforming Diet’ puts forward a weight loss program that addresses dietary, exercise and behavioral aspects of eating. The understanding of proper nutrition is returning to the principles espoused by the Rambam. It is my belief that this book will be of great benefit to those that read it and apply its principles appropriately -- Charlene Wolberg, M.D. & Nutritionist

A Mouse in the Rabbi's Study

Aharon's Jewish Books and Judaica
600 South Holly Suite #103 Denver, Colorado
303-322-7345 or 800-830-8660

A Mouse in the Rabbi's Study: The weather is turning cool and a mouse, who is looking for a place to spend the winter, makes his way into the synagogue. When the rabbi discovers him, they strike a bargain.

Since the somewhat plump Rabbi Saltzman enjoys eating while he works, he often makes a mess with crumbs that rain all over his desk and onto the floor. If the mouse, who the rabbi names Mazel (luck), will keep his study tidy, he can stay.

As the weeks and months go by, Rabbi Saltzman teaches Mazel about the Jewish holidays and the special food associated with each. Because they have become good friends, by spring both rabbi and mouse are sad to part. Then there's a great surprise ending!

“ I got the idea for the book when the High Holidays were coming and our house was suddenly inundated with mice... ”

While dealing with the emergency, the longtime early childhood educator began to imagine what would happen if a mouse found its way into a rabbi’s study at Rosh Hashanah. The rabbi she invented likes to eat at his desk and enlists the aid of the mouse, whom he dubs Mazel, to clean up his crumbs. Their humorous relationship extends through a year of Jewish holidays and gives Mazel a Jewish education, along with tastes of challah, latkes, hamantashen and other holiday leftovers.

Beautifully illustrated by Colorado pastel artist Pegi Ballenger, the book includes a CD dramatization of the story interspersed with holiday songs performed by Daniel Stellini. While the warm-hearted story is aimed primarily at children in kindergarten through third grade, the story is educational and entertaining for youngsters of any age, as well as for adults interested in learning about Judaism.

Reading Level:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
Length:	36 pages / $19.99
ISBN:	978-0981465401
Dimensions:	11.25" x 8.25" x 0.38"
Weight:	13.5 ounces
Includes CD: Music and Story narrated by Daniel Stellini, Deborah Stellini, and Nancy Larner and Sung by Daniel Stellini
Purchase a copy on line at: Aharon's Jewish Books and Judaica

All Hebrew Tehillim

Psalms all Hebrew Tehillim
9 x 12 CM

Psalms (Hebrew: Tehilim, תהילים) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. The Psalms are counted among the "Writings" or Ketuvim

The original meaning of Tehllim is a song or chant, the word psalm can be used to mean any religious chant or poem of praise.

Tehillim Eis Ratzon

A new edition of Tehillim with a clear, easy-to-follow translation that captures the simple meaning of the words in an elegant, faithful and inspiring rendition. Beautifully designed as a companion volume for Aneni, this volume was designed to be part of a forthcoming two volume gift-set. This Tehillim puts powerful, heartfelt prayer, within every person's reach. Clear typesetting and facing Hebrew/English page format make this an eminently useful volume. A perfect gift for every occasion.

Tehillim Eis Ratzon: Paperback
Memento Edition

Editor: Rabbi Emanuel Feldman
Translated by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Iskowitz
Binding: Paperback

The Art of Praise

Turn the pages to say birkas hamazon and you will immediately be moved to inspiration. The words simply come alive in this beautifully illustrated bencher by world-renowned artist Gadi Pollack. Featuring explanatory illustrations, select commentary, and an interlinear translation. Sheva Berachos and Beracha me’Eyn Shalosh are included, as well as ample space on the front cover for inscription.

The Art of Praise By Gadi Pollack

ISBN: 1-58330-914-4

Binding: Paperback

Thinking Teenagers Guide to Life

Product Description

This book powerfully explains some of the deepest concepts in Judaism, demonstrating how those ideas and principles can, and should, guide decisions, relationships and growth to real maturity. There's no "talking down" here; there's just straight inspiration, depth, and many answers.

Product Details

Thinking Teenages Guide to Life
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Targum (1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1568711751
ISBN-13: 978-1568711751

Living Inspired by Akiva Tatz

Shows how an understanding of some of the deeper ideas and patterns of Torah thought can illuminate our everyday experiences.

Excerpt from Living Inspired by Akiva Tatz

Inspiration and Disappointment (or Why a Good Time Never Lasts)

The natural pathway of all life experiences begins with inspiration and soon fades to disappointment. Let us analyze this phenomenon and understand it.

Human consciousness and human senses are tuned to an initial burst of sensitivity and then rapidly decay into dullness. Sights, sounds, smells, even tactile stimuli are felt sharply at first and then hardly at all - a constant sound is not registered; one suddenly becomes aware that it was present when it stops! We are incapable of maintaining the freshness of any experience naturally - only in the dimension of miracle is that possible: the sacrificial bread in the Beis Hamikdash, the Temple, remained steaming fresh permanently to manifest the constant freshness of Hashem's relationship with the Jewish people. The natural pathway is that things which are fresh become stale.

One of the Torah sources for this idea lies in the sequence of events surrounding the exodus from Egypt. At an extremely low point in our history, during the intense misery of slavery in Egypt, literally at the point of spiritual annihilation, the Jewish people were uplifted miraculously. Ten plagues revealed Hashem's presence and might, culminating in a night of unprecedented revelation with the tenth. This spiritual high was amplified by many orders of magnitude at the splitting of the sea - there the lowliest of the Jewish people experienced more than the highest prophet subsequently. And suddenly, once through the sea, they were deposited in a desert with many days of work ahead of them to climb to the spiritual status of meriting the Sinai experience, the giving of the Torah. Mystically, a desert means a place of intense death-forces, a place of lethal ordeals. No water means no life. (And we see later the potency of the ordeals which faced them in the desert.)

What is the meaning of this pattern? The idea is that in order to save the Jewish people in Egypt outside help was necessary. Hashem appeared and elevated us spiritually although we did not deserve it intrinsically, we had not yet earned it. But once saved, once inspired, once made conscious of our higher reality, the price must be paid, the experience must be earned, and in working to earn the level which was previously given artificially, one acquires that level genuinely. Instead of being shown a spiritual level one becomes it.

And that is the secret of life. A person is inspired artificially at the beginning of any phase of life, but to acquire the depth of personality which is demanded of us, Hashem removes the inspiration. The danger is apathy and depression; the challenge is to fight back to the point of inspiration, and in so doing to build it permanently into one's character. The plagues in Egypt and the splitting of the sea are dazzling beyond description, but then Hashem puts us in the desert and challenges us to fight through to Sinai. In Egypt He demonstrates destruction of ten levels of evil while we watch passively; in the desert He brings ten levels of evil to bear against us and challenges us to destroy them.

This idea recurs everywhere. Pesach occurs in Nissan - the zodiac of this month is the sheep, an animal which is passively led. Next comes Iyar - the ox, an animal which has its own wilful strength. And thereafter comes Sivan - twins, perfect harmony. It is like a father teaching his child to walk: first the father supports the child as he takes his first step, but then the father must let go; there is no other way to learn, and the child must take a frightened and lonely step unaided. Only then, when he can walk independently, can he feel his father's love in the very moment which previously felt like desertion.

Unfortunately most people do not know this secret. We are misled into thinking that the world is supposed to be a constant thrill and we feel only half-alive because it is not. Let us examine some applications of this fundamental principle.

* * *

In aggadic writings we are told that the unborn child is taught the whole Torah in the womb. An angel teaches him all the mysteries of Creation and all that he will ever need to know in order to reach perfection, his own chelek (portion) in Torah. A lamp is lit above his head, and by its light he sees from one end of the world to the other. As the child is born, however, the angel strikes him on the mouth and he forgets all that he has learned and is born a simple and unlearned baby. The obvious question is: why teach a child so much and then cause all the teaching to be forgotten?

But the answer is that it is not forgotten; it is driven deep into the unconscious. A person may be born with no explicit knowledge, but beneath the conscious surface, intact and rich beyond imagination, is all that one wishes to know! A lifetime of hard work learning Torah and working on one's personality will constantly release, bring to consciousness, innate wisdom. Often when one hears something beautiful and true one has the sensation, not of learning something, but of recognizing something! A sensitive individual will feel intimations of his or her own deep intuitive level often.

The pathway is clear - a person is born with a lifetime of work ahead, spiritual wisdom and growth are hard-earned. But the inspiration is within; you were once there! And that inner sense of inspiration provides the motivation, the source of optimism and confidence that genuine achievement is possible, even assured, if the necessary effort is made.

A second application: a characteristic feature of childhood, and relatively, of the teenage years, is inspired optimism and the lack of a sense of limitation. Children believe that they can become anything. The world is larger-than-life to a child, a child is not oppressed by a limited sense of what is possible. A child has simply to be exposed to almost any form of greatness (unfortunately, all too often physical and meaningless) to begin fantasizing about becoming or achieving that same thing.

However, later in life one is lucky to have any inspiration left at all. Many adults wonder why life seemed so rich when they were teenagers, why they could laugh or cry so richly, so fully, back then; and why life seems so flat (at best) now. But the idea is as we have described above. First comes a phase of unreal positivity, a charge of energy. And then life challenges one to climb back to real achievement independently.

* * *

A third application is to be found in the ba'al teshuva world (ba'al teshuva describes a person who has discovered a Torah-oriented way of life after living a more secular lifestyle). Many ba'alei teshuva experience an unexpected and disturbing letdown. Often the pathway is as follows. A young person discovers Torah, becomes inspired by a Torah teacher, and begins to study. Every Torah experience, whether in learning or in contact with the Orthodox world, is spectacular. Every text studied is alive with significance, every Shabbos experience is high, and there is a phase of euphoria. Somehow though, subtly, this changes and growth has to be sought. Learning may be very difficult. Often the difficulties seem to far outweigh the breakthroughs. Many are tempted not to persevere in learning. Of course this is exactly the way it must be, real growth in learning comes when real effort is generated. Just as physical muscle is built only against strenuous resistance, so too spiritual and personality growth is built only against equivalent resistance. A person who understands this secret can begin to enjoy the phase of work; a maturity of understanding makes clear that the first phase was artificial, it is the second phase which yields real development.

* * *

Perhaps the sharpest application of this idea in modern Western society is in marriage. Marriage today is to a large extent in ruins in the secular world. In many communities divorce is more usual than survival of marriage, and even in those marriages which do survive it is common to find much disharmony.

One of the prime factors in this disastrous situation is the lack of understanding of our subject. Marriage has two distinct phases: romance, and love. Romance is the initial, heady, illogical swirl of emotion which characterizes a new relationship and it can be extreme. Love, in Torah terms, is the result of much genuine giving. Love is generated essentially not by what one receives from a partner, but by the well-utilized opportunity to give, and to give oneself. The phase of romance very soon fades, in fact just as soon as it is grasped it begins to die. A spiritually sensitive person knows that this must be so, but instead of becoming depressed and concerned that one has married the wrong person, one should realize that the phase of work, of giving, is just beginning. The phase of building real love can now flourish. In fact, in Hebrew there is no word for "romance" - in its depth it is an illusion. However, in the world of secular values, the first flash, the "quick fix", is everything.

"Love" is translated as "romance" and when it dies, what is left? No-one has taught young people that love and life are about giving and building, and so the tendency is to give up and search for a "quick fix" elsewhere. Of course, the search must fail because no new experience will last. Understanding this well can make the difference between marital misery or worse and a lifetime of married happiness. Jewish marriage is carefully crafted to transition from initial inspiration, not to disappointment but to even deeper inspiration. The menstrual separation laws are just one example - instead of allowing intensity to dull into tired familiarity, phases of separation generate new inspiration and the magic never fades.

Living Inspired
By Akiva Tatz
ITEM #: 2191ISBN: 1-56871-026-7
Binding: Hard Cover / 216 pages Dimensions: 6 1/4" x 9 1/4" / Weight: 1.25 LBS
Published by Targum Press

Strive for Truth!: Complete 3-volume gift-boxed set

Complete 3 Vol. Gift Set Strive For Truth
Hardcover.
Carmell, Rabbi Aryeh

In over a thousand lectures throughout his lifetime of teaching, the renowned master of mussar, Rabbi Eliyahu E. Dessler offered countless inspiring and original insights into the ethics and philosophy of Torah Judaism. His shiurim were issued in a series of five Hebrew volumes entitled Michtav Me-Eliyahu, and have become a classic of modern Torah thought. Rabbi Dessler's powerful words and ideas are brought to life in English by his disciple Rabbi Aryeh Carmell.

This beautifully written and designed work contains the compiled Mussar lectures of Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler, written by his esteemed Talmid, student. A major work of contemporary Torah thought, now available as a complete set of three volumes.

In the pocket edition Volumes 1, 2 and 3 contain a penetrating outlook on our complex world and moving, inspiring thoughts from the world of mussar. Volume 4 contains mussar and insights on the Yom Tovim and Festivals. Volumes 5 and 6 are his teachings on parashas ha'shavua, the weekly Torah Portion.



Strive for Truth!: Complete 3-volume gift-boxed set
By Rabbi E. E. Dessler F-1583303502

Strive for Truth all Hebrew

The Rabbi of 84th Street

Category Subject Biography & Autobiography Religious This book is part of our Judaica collection.

Overview:

Always wearing an easy smile, Hasidic rabbi Haskel Besser spreads joy wherever he goes, enriching the lives of his many friends and congregants with his profound understanding of both Orthodox Judaism and human nature. With warmth and admiration, journalist Warren Kozak writes about the rabbi's extraordinary life - from his family's escape to Palestine in the late 1930s to his witnessing of Israel's rebirth in 1948, to his move to New York City, where he lives today. A rare window into the normally closed world of Hasidic Jews, The Rabbi of 84th Street is also the story of Judaism in the twentieth century; of the importance of centuries-old traditions; and of the triumph of faith, kindness, and spirit.


The Rabbi of 84th Street
Author: Kozak, Warren (A)
Publisher: Perennial Format: Paperback List Price: $13.95
ISBN-13: 9780060511029
ISBN-10: 0060511028
Language: English Pages: 200 Dimensions: N/A Weight: 0.19 kg / 0.42 lbs

Book of Our Heritage

Book of Our Heritage - 3 Volume Set
The Laws, Customs, and Reasons for the Jewish Holidays.
Age Level: 12-Adult

Media: Hard Cover

ISBN: 0-87306-763-0


About - Book of Our Heritage - 3 Volume Set

This beloved classic, completely revised and annotated for the contemporary reader, explores the holidays, Festivals and fast days of the Jewish calendar and explains their laws and customs. Midrashic commentaries and insights of great Jewish thinkers and spiritual leaders enhance the heartwarming, inspiring text. Eliyahu Kitov 1,126 pp.

Primo Levi

Primo Levi

No Different than me

The Gefilte Variations

The Gefilte Variations: 200 Inspired Re-creations of Classics from the Jewish Kitchen, with Menus, Stories, and Traditions for the Holidays and Year-Round (Hardcover)

Best Price: Found at MileChai Jewish Books: The Gefilte Variations

The Gefilte Variations: 200 Inspired Re-creations of Classics From the Jewish Kitchen With Menus, Stories, and Traditions for the Holidays and Year-Round.

The Gefilte Variations is a hefty volume, sporting no obvious cookbook filler -- there aren't even any photographs. But the cover's Cubist menorah in blue hues, with its scholarly, tome-like appearance, is misleading, because Cohen's Jewish cookbook gives us atypical interpretations of a very rich tradition.

Jayne Cohen's collection of cultural recipes is a revamping of classic dishes for current tastes, with flourishes expected of cooking today, like Crispy Shallot Latkes With Sugar Dusting. Her innovations are successful; while Cohen won't cloak recipes in ancestral form, she doesn't toy with innovation frivolously. As she says, her improvisations "are firmly rooted in Jewish tradition, and while playful, they remain faithful to its spirit and soul."

But where does one find a tradition's spirit and soul? What, in other words, is the essence of a culinary tradition? There is no easy academic answer, only personal takes on the matter -- call them the Bubby Debates. Essentially, "Jewish" to one grandmother is unlike what the word means to the next. Again, take latkes. One Bubby's family makes hers with potato and onion, frying them in schmaltz, "as in the old days." Another substitutes zucchini or yams for the traditional potato but insists on frying them in oil, like the Chanukah story prescribes. Another cares little for ingredients or method. Instead, she preserves a dish's context, noting the latke's role in holiday ritual. Cohen seems most interested in this last aspect, freely altering the ingredients of traditional dishes, but using them in their established roles. Kugel, for instance, can be made with peaches and plums as long as it preserves the spirit of practicality and abundance required of the Jewish Sabbath and holiday meals.

I don't mind if Jewish cooks borrow ingredients or techniques from other culinary canons, trying to infuse some new flavors into Old Country Cuisine. However, I prefer that this integration is limited to geographic areas of historic influence. Chinese food, for example, is a huge part of contemporary American Jewish culture, particularly on the East Coast, but it is not a major influence on Jewish culture historically. Therefore, it would seem out of place in a book trying to maintain an earnest tie to the past. Cohen, happily, avoids these kinds of superficial associations. In general, she refrains from compiling a worldly potpourri of Jewish cuisine. Her recipes are unusually elegant, but they stay close to the familiar tastes of home and the flavors of the seasons. She writes, "I am not creating silly, culturally perverse combinations here, like ... jalapeño-sundried tomato gefilte fish. ... Rather, my recipes are all integrated interpretations of food I think of as Jewish, and all are kosher." Her pairing of mostly Mediterranean flavors is right on: Apricot Blintzes With Toasted Pistachios and Yogurt Cream, Sorrel Onion Noodle Kugel. She does dabble in adjectival excess, the editorial equivalent of a striptease. But at least tiringly verbose titles like "Salmon Gefilte Fish Poached in Fennel-Wine Broth With Ginger-Beet Horseradish" reveal quite deliciously what the recipe holds in store.

Cohen's book is a testament to how integration -- a risky idea to historically ostracized people -- can have preservative value. Cohen is a wonderful cook, and she has used the fertile ground of classic Jewish cooking to make good food. For that reason, this book is a worthy tribute and contribution to a continually evolving cuisine.

Sample Recipe:

POMEGRANATE-ORANGE SUNSETS

Back to Recipes
PAREVE

Make haste, give me a cup,
Before the dawn starts to rise,
Of spiced pomegranate juice
From the perfumed hand of a girl

-SAMUEL HA-NAGID (993 - 1056), "AN INVITATION"
(TRANSLATED BY DAVID GOLDSTEIN)

Sephardim break the fast with several refreshing beverages: sweet "milks" made from almonds or pumpkin seeds; juices of pomegranates, apricots, watermelon, or apples. American Ashkenazi Jews traditionally drink fresh orange juice, befitting a meal at which they typically serve breakfast foods. This gorgeous juice - a mixture of pomegranate and orange - combines the best of both cultures.

Pour your guests these break-the-fast beverages in fine, clear crystal to capture the swirl of colors. Serve regular sunsets in tall tumblers or water goblets; offer frozen sunsets in stemmed cocktail glasses, like frozen margaritas.

• Chilled orange juice - about 4 ounces for each serving
• Ice cubes
• Fresh or bottled pomegranate juice (See Cook's Note) - 3-4 ounces for each serving
• Mint leaves and/or thin slices of fresh orange, for garnish

1. For regular sunsets. Pour the orange juice into tall glass tumblers or large water goblets filled with ice cubes. Gently pour in the pomegranate juice to taste (I usually combine approximately half and half proportions, but exact amounts will depend on the sweetness of the juices as well as personal preference). Colors should be marbled like a vibrant sunset; if necessary, lightly mix by swirling pomegranate juice through orange juice with a cocktail stirrer or chopstick. Garnish each glass with a mint leaf and/or orange slice. Serve right away.

2. For frozen sunsets. Fill an ice cube tray with pomegranate juice nad freeze until completely solid. Put about 8 frozen pomegranate cubes in a blender. Add 1 cup of orange juice and process until smooth. Divide between two large stemmed glasses, serve with a straw, and garnish with mint leaves and a slice of fresh orange. Serve straightaway. (If the liquid begins to separate from the frozen froth, just stir it up with a cocktail stirrer.)

COOK'S NOTE: To make fresh pomegranate juice, score just the rind of a pomegranate, as you would an orange, in quarters lengthwise. Then peel off the rind in sections carefully - it stains seriously! Scoop out the seeds and juice sacs surrounding them, breaking apart and discarding all the bitter white pith. Put the seeds and the juice sacs through a food mill, or whirl in a blender - not a food processor, which would crush the seeds - for 30 seconds, and then strain. Or rub the seeds and sacs against a strainer or colander. You can also put them through an electric juicer.

Just be sure to remove all of the acrid, mouth-puckering white pith. When I was pregnant with my daughter, the only thing that would settle my stomach was the terrific pomegranate punch served at Brownie's, an old vegetarian restaurant near me (now the site of the Union Square Cafe). One day, my insides in dire turmoil, I attempted to re-create the drink, throwing the entire peeled fruit, pith and all, in my juicer. I could have dyed a rug with it, but I couldn't drink it.
Three medium pomegranates will yield approximately 1-11/2 cups of juice. Fresh juice will keep for about 1 week in the refrigerator, 3 months in the freezer.

Pure, bottled juice is available at Middle Eastern shops and many specialty and health food stores. Don't use pomegranate molasses for this recipe.

Best Price: Found at MileChai Jewish Books: The Gefilte Variations

Coming Home to Jerusalem

An American Jewish woman uproots her family to live in Jerusalem, searching for a new home. For Wendy Orange, a writer in her early forties, what starts as a ten-day conference in Jerusalem stretches into a six-year residence in one of the world's most captivating cities, where she undertakes an illuminating and evocative trip to both banks of this ancient land.

Amid language barriers, household drama, homesickness, and a halting job search, Wendy Orange strives to settle her small family in Israel for the long term. Her sociability and interest in her surroundings fast connect her to a wide assortment of Israel's varied personalities: famous authors, ob-scure artists, politicians, psychologists, journalists, American-Israeli housewives, evangelical Christian teachers. She meets a long-lost family friend who came to Jerusalem in the 1948 war, and she comes to know sabras who are wearying of the life she finds fascinating and compelling. She is introduced to Holocaust survivors who arrived shattered to work the land on farms. She meets therapists who blame her problems on American self-absorption, and rabbis obsessed with the Torah whose lectures she yearns to understand. She goes to a picnic with absolutist West Bank settlers. She falls in love with a Moroccan-Israeli cab driver and receives an education in Israel's class schisms.

When Orange gets a job as the Israel correspondent for an American magazine, she crosses the Green Line that separates Israelis from displaced Palestinians and she begins a journey through another country she comes to love. Crisscrossing from Israel to the territories, Orange confronts views of the world that are completely at odds and she experiences in a profound way the ancient conflicts as she becomes absorbed with people who are at polar extremes: peaceniks and settlers, the political elite and the downtrodden, high-profile intellectuals and young soldiers. She is drawn into subcultures that coexist, if barely, throughout Israel. In Coming Home to Jerusalem, Wendy Orange brings to life the extraordinary and the everyday in a country she tries to make her own.

Synopsis:

In an illuminating and evocative tour through the byways of Israel, an American Jewish woman tells her own story of uprooting her family to live in Jerusalem, searching for a new home.

About the Author

Wendy Orange was a clinical psychologist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the director of a master's program in psychology in Burlington, Vermont. She made her first visit to Jerusalem, where she became a journalist, in 1991. She currently lives in New York City with her family.

100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature

The 100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature To Purchase a copy - click on the title The National Yiddish Book Center has identified the “100 Greatest Works of Modern Jewish Literature” – written in Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, German, Spanish, English and other languages. Our plans are to integrate them into the mainstream of contemporary Jewish education. The seven distinguished judges compiling the list are: Glenda Abramson of Oxford University; Robert Alter of the University of California at Berkeley; Hillel Halkin of Zichron Ya-akov, Israel; Gershon Shaked of Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times; Ilan Stavans of Amherst College; and Ruth Wisse of Harvard University. The project coordinator is Dr. Jeremy Dauber, a former Yiddish Book Center intern, a recent Rhodes Scholar, and assistant professor of Yiddish at Columbia University. Deliberations began in the spring of 2000 and concluded in December 2001. The Center’s president, Aaron Lansky, describes the results as “a fascinating, challenging, sometimes surprising list with books ranging from Mendele to Maus.” Professor Ruth Wisse, author of The Modern Jewish Canon, says that the final list reflects “a mighty literature.”
Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler (Fishke der krumer, 1869) (Kitser masoes Binyomin hashlishi, 1878) S.Y. Abramovitch	The Nag (Di Kliyatshe, 1873-1909) S.Y. Abramovitch
Ash on a Young Man’s Sleeve (1954) Dannie Abse	A Guest for the Night (Oreakh nata lalun, 1939) S.Y. Agnon
A Simple Story (Sipur Pashet, 1935) S.Y. Agnon	Only Yesterday (Tmol shilshom, 1945) S.Y. Agnon
The Joy of the Poor (Simkhat aniyyim, 1941) Nathan Alterman	Selected Poetry Yehuda Amichai
Pioneers (Pionern, 1904-05) S. An-ski	The Dybbuk (Der Dibuk: Tsvishn tsvey veltn, 1911) S. An-ski
The Age of Wonders (Tor hapelaot, 1978) Aharon Appelfeld	Salvation (Der tilim-yid, 1934) Sholem Asch
Collected Stories Isaac Babel	The First Day and Other Stories (2001) Dvora Baron
The Garden of the Finzi-Contini (Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini, 1962) Giorgio Bassani	Feathers (Notzot, 1979) Haim Be’er
Herzog (1964) Saul Bellow	Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970) Saul Bellow
Selected Stories Michah Yosef Berdichevsky	Descent (Opgang, 1920) David Bergelson
Selected Poems H.N. Bialik	Breakdown and Bereavement (Shekhol vekishalon, 1920) Joseph Hayyim Brenner
The Rise of David Levinsky (1917) Abraham Cahan	The Memoirs (1977-1986) Elias Canetti
Selected Poems and Prose (2000) Paul Celan	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000) Michael Chabon
Belle du Seigneur (1968) Albert Cohen	Tales in Praise of the Baal Shem Tov (Shivkhei Ha-Besht, 1814) Dov Ber of Linitz
Whither? (Lean, 1927) Mordecai Ze’ev Feierberg	Jud Süss (1925) Leon Feuchtwanger
The Journey (Podroz, 1990) Ida Fink	The Diary of A Young Girl Anne Frank
The Williamsburg Trilogy (1961) Daniel Fuchs	The Jewish Gauchos of the Pampas (Los gauchos judios, 1940) Alberto Gerchunoff
The Things We Used to Say (Lessico famigliare, 1963) Natalia Ginzburg	Selected Poems Jacob Glatstein
Next To (Etzel, 1913) Uri Nisan Gnessin	The Fragmented Life of Don Jacobo Lerner (1978) Isaac Goldemberg
The Yeshiva (Tsemakh Atlas, 1967) Chaim Grade	Selected Poetry Uri Zevi Greenberg
See Under: Love (Ayen erekh ahava, 1986) David Grossman	Life and Fate (Zhizn i sudba, 1980) Vasily Grossman
The Victory (1969) Henryk Grynberg	Selected Poems Moishe Leib Halpern
The Dweller in Gardens (Yoshevet baganim, 1943) Hayim Hazaz	Jewish Stories and Hebrew Melodies (1987) Heinrich Heine
Heschel’s Kingdom (1999) Dan Jacobson	The Castle (Das Schloss, 1926) Franz Kafka
Collected Stories Franz Kafka	The Trial (Der Prozess, 1925) Franz Kafka
A Walker in the City (1951) Alfred Kazin	Fateless (1975) Imre Kertesz
The Second Scroll (1951) A.M. Klein	Zelmenyaner (1928) Moyshe Kulbak
Hebrew Ballads and Other Poems (1902-1939) Else Lasker-Schüler	The Golem (Der Goylem, 1919) H. Leivick
If This Is a Man (Se questo e un uomo, 1946) [Survival in Auschwitz] Primo Levi	The Complete Stories (1997) Bernard Malamud
Khumesh Lider and Selected Poems Itzik Manger	Selected Poetry Peretz Markish
The Pillar of Salt (La statue de sel, 1953) Albert Memmi	Victoria (Viktoryah, 1993) Sami Michael
Death of a Salesman (1949) Arthur Miller	Paper Bridges (2000) Kadya Molodowsky
The Tales (Mayses, 1815) Nachman of Bratslav	The Family Mashber (Di mishpokhe mashber, 1939; 1943) Der Nister
Unto Death (Ad mavet, 1971) Amos Oz	The Pagan Rabbi (1971) Cynthia Ozick
Selected Poetry (1989) Dan Pagis [1]	Collected Stories (1994) Grace Paley [2]
Selected Stories I.L. Peretz [3]	Revealer of Secrets (Megale temirin, 1819) Joseph Perl
Selected Poems Rakhel	Blood from the Sky (Le sang du ciel, 1961) Piotr Rawicz
Collected Poems (1937) Isaac Rosenberg	Call It Sleep (1934) Henry Roth [4]
Leviathan (Der Leviathan, 1940) Joseph Roth [5]	The Counterlife (1986) Philip Roth
Patrimony (1991) Philip Roth [6]	The Street of Crocodiles (Sklepy cynamonowe, 1934) Bruno Schulz
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (1938) Delmore Schwartz	The Centaur in the Garden (1980) Moacyr Scliar
Past Continuous (Zikhron Devarim, 1977) Yaakov Shabtai	The Blue Mountain (Roman rusi, 1988) Meir Shalev
The Jewish Government and Other Stories (1971) Lamed Shapiro	Menakhem-Mendl and Mottel Peyse the Cantor's Son (Menakhem-Mendl, Mottel Peyse dem khazns, 1909) Sholem Aleichem
Tevye the Dairyman (Tevye der milkhiger, 1895-1914) Sholem Aleichem [7]	Fables (Mesholim, 1932) Eliezer Shteynbarg
The Brothers Ashkenazi (Di brider ashkenazi, 1937) Israel JOSHUA Singer	Satan in Goray (Sotn in goray, 1935) Isaac Bashevis Singer
The Collected Stories (1953) Isaac Bashevis Singer	Maus: A Survivor's Tale (1986) Art Spiegelman
As a Driven Leaf (1939) Milton Steinberg [8]	The Collected Poems of Abraham Sutzkever (1991) Abraham Sutzkever [9]
Selected Poems Saul Tchernikhovsky	The Investigation (Die Ermittlung, 1965) Peter Weiss
Night (1958) Elie Wiesel	Five Seasons (Molkho, 1987) A.B. Yehoshua
The Days of Ziklag (Yemei Ziklag, 1958) S. Yizhar	Selected Poetry Natan Zakh