ALBANY– The Congregation Beth Emeth Sisterhood will hosting a virtual book club on Thursday, Aug. 20, from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. This month’s discussion, to be led by Cantor Kohn, is This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared by Rabbi Alan Lew.  According to organizers, this book may be particularly relevant as congregations prepare for a very different High […]

ALBANY– The Albany Jewish Community Center has announced two book programs. Jewish science fiction will be discussed at the Albany Jewish Community Center Book Maven program on Wednesdays in August at 3 p.m.  Each Zoom discussion will focus on a chapter from Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction by Jack Dann. Rabbi Susan Gulack led the discussion […]

ALBANY–Congregation Beth Emeth will host a virtual meeting with author Jody Savin to discuss her book Stitched & Sewn – The Life-Saving Art of Holocaust Survivor, Trudie Strobel and to show attendees Strobel’s artwork on Thursday, July 16, from 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. A child survivor of the Holocaust, Strobel settled in California, raised a family and never discussed the […]

SCHENECTADY– Sarah L. Young, a LGBTQ and Jewish young adult fiction author will speak about her book Nice Jewish Boys with the Schenectady Jewish Community Center (JCC) and the community in a free discussion on Thursday, June 18, at 5 p.m. via Zoom. The book relates the story of Avishai Miller, a typical kid. Except that his mother is dead, […]

by Gary C. Gambill May 31, 2020 Adi Schwartz, an Israeli journalist and coauthor (with former Israeli Knesset member Einat Wilf) of the new book The War of Return, spoke to participants in a May 4 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about the centrality of the refugee issue in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. For many years, Schwartz explained, efforts to broker peace between […]

AMHERST, Mass.– Though the Yiddish Book Center’s building in Amhearst is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organization is offering a lineup of virtual public programs, which will be broadly accessible through Facebook and Zoom and posted on the Center’s website. Highlights of the virtual program lineup include a multimedia presentation by David Mazower on the NYC salon of […]

By BABETTE DUNKELGRÜN (JTA) – In Season 2 of the Hulu comedy “Shrill,” based on the book by Lindy West, there’s a restaurant scene in which the central character’s mom closely monitors her daughter’s food intake. It’s clear the tendency is familiar — even in their relationship as adults, the mother discloses her almost political stance against dessert and bread […]

By SHIRA HANAU NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Simmy Cohen has hardly read from the Torah since his bar mitzvah. When he’s not working at his marketing job from his home in Queens, New York, Cohen spends far more time these days reading children’s books to his 13-month old daughter. But with a spark of comedic genius and perhaps a […]

By SAM GLASER An excerpt from The Joy of Judaism On the first night of Nissan, we start counting until the moon is full on the fifteenth. This is Seder night, our annual birthday party as a nation. Some 3000 years ago, we were an enslaved people yearning for liberation from a decadent tyrant. Thanks to the genius of the […]

By ALAN GRABINSKY NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Unlike Shanghai or Hong Kong, which received Jews fleeing from World War II, Beijing does not have a robust Jewish history. In the words of Joshua Kurtzig, former president of the Reform congregation there, the massive Chinese capital is a “very transient city,” especially for Jews — meaning that many pass through without […]