ALBANY–The Albany Jewish Community Center will hold a Book Mavens session, which is open to the community, on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 3 – 4:30 p.m. in the Albany JCC’s Massry Senior Center, 340 Whitehall Rd. Rabbi Beverly Magidson, director of chaplaincy services for Jewish Federation of Northeastern NY, will review Playing With Matches by Suri Rosen. This novel is about matchmaking in […]

By MARCY OSTER NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Judith Krantz, one of the best-selling female novelists of all time, has died. Krantz died on at her home in Bel Air, Calif. at the age 91, Deadline  has reported. According to the Jewish Women’s Archives, Krantz is the third-largest-selling female novelist in history. “Although her goal is for her books to […]

By JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JNS) – Before Joe Lieberman was observing the Sabbath while running for vice president, Steven Spielberg throwing all of his considerable Hollywood weight behind a movie about the Holocaust and other celebrities advertising their Jewish identity and incorporating it in their public work, there was Herman Wouk. The novelist, who died on May 17, just 10 […]

By RACHEL GORDAN BOSTON (JTA) – Herman Wouk, the bestselling Orthodox Jewish author whose literary career spanned nearly seven decades and who helped usher Judaism into the American mainstream, died Friday, May 17, at the age of 103. His agent confirmed the news to The Associated Press. Wouk was the author of two dozen novels and works of nonfiction, including […]

(JTA) – Joyce Carol Oates’ grandmother was Jewish, but the author wasn’t aware of that fact until after her grandmother’s death in 1970. After immigrating to America, Oates’ ancestor hid her Jewish heritage from the rest of her family. “I felt an immense loss and sympathy because I never really knew that my grandmother was Jewish, so my whole cultural […]

ALBANY–The Albany Jewish Community Center will kick off the 2019 Book Mavens series on Wednesday, March 13, 3 – 4:30 p.m. at the Center’s Massry Senior Center, 340 Whitehall Rd., with a review by retired educator Judy Arian-Eson of Mary Morris’ Gateway to the Moon. According to organizers, the historical novel tells a story about those who survived the Spanish Inquisition […]

By JONATHAN S. TOBIN (JNS) – For those who only know Israel as a field of political combat, Amos Oz was just a writer with a point of view about his country’s basic political and security dilemmas. Oz’s advocacy for the two-state solution and his dim view of the current Israeli government, as well as many of its predecessors, figured prominently […]

SCHENECTADY– Mike DeMasi, journalist and area resident, will discuss his new book, What They Said: 25 Years of Telling Stories at the Congregation Gates of Heaven “Senior Moments” lunch and program on Wednesday, Jan. 16. The program, free and open to the community, is from noon to 2 p.m. at the temple, 852 Ashmore Ave., Schenectady. DeMasi has been writing […]

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – Amos Oz would often speak in the kind of tossed-off epigrams that come only with a lot of practice. But just when you wanted to smack him for his breezy erudition, he would redeem himself with a flash of spot-on — and hilarious — self-awareness. Chronicling A Bridge Collapse In 2011, speaking at […]

ALBANY–B’nai Sholom Reform Congregation continues its 2018-19 “Synagogue Scholars” series with a book discussion led by Prof. Martha Rozett. She will discuss Love and Treasure by Ayelet Waldman following the congregation’s Friday, Jan. 11, Shabbat service. The service and program will begin at 8 p.m. B’nai Sholom is located at 420 Whitehall Rd., Albany.         Waldman’s historical novel combines interlocking episodes from three times […]