Through
word and over 300 exquisite photographs, Synagogues
Without Jews tells the colorful histories of over thirty Jewish
communities in Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, northern
Italy, Greece, and the Czech and Slovak Republics that thrived
before World War II. It is filled with floor plans, elevations, full-color
photographs, and descriptions of the synagogues that were the pride
and joy of their congregations. And there are stories of people
of Jews of the past and of Jews of the present who remain...
The
Iron Tracks
by
Aharon Appelfeld
How
does one live after surviving injustice? What satisfaction comes
from revenge? Can the past be left behind?
The Iron Tracks is a haunting exploration of one survivor's
complex, wrenching inner world....
The
Castle
by
Franz Kafka
On the
occasion of the publication by Schocken Books of a new translation
of Franz Kafka's The Castle, PEN American Center sponsored an evening
of tribute, reflection, and re-examination of Kafka's work. Important
writers and actors (including David Remnick, Thulani Davis, Aharon
Appelfeld, E.L. Doctorow, Cynthia Ozick, Paul Auster, Susan Sontag,
Norman Manea, Mark Harman, David Remnick) participated in the program,
which was held on March 26 at New York City's Town Hall and directed
by Tom Palumbo. You can listen to any section
of this important literary event, using RealAudio.
In
The Book of Jewish Values: A Day-by-Day
Guide to Ethical Living, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin has combed
the Bible, the Talmud, and the whole spectrum of Judaism's sacred
writings to give a manual on how to lead a decent, kind, and honest
life in a morally complicated world. Telushkin speaks to the major
ethical issues of our time, issue that have, of course, been around
since the beginning. The range of the book is as broad as life itself.
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The
Sunflower:
On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness,
by Simon Wiesenthal
While
imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Wiesenthal was taken one
day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS.
Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted
to confess to and obtain absolution from a Jew. Faced with the choice
between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Weisenthal said
nothing. But even years after the war had ended, he wondered: Had
he done the right thing?
Psychologist
and researcher Dr. Michele Klein has curated the Museum of the Jewish
Diaspora (Beth Hatefutsoth) exhibition, "Be Fruitful and Multiply,"
shown on America Online throughout 1996. In this RealAudio
interview recording, Klein discusses Jewish sources and traditions
about Jewish grandmothers.
In
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Israel, photograper Frederic
Brenner has produced an exquisitely crafted book of black and white
photographs of members of some fourteen recent immigrant families,
all of whom he had previously photographed in their native countries.
His photograph essay, Exile at
Home (Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 1998), evokes questions
regarding the definitions of "exile" and "home."
Enjoy an audio webcast interview with the photographer.
Documentors
of the Dream: Pioneer Jewish Photographers in the Land of Israel 1890-1933
(Magnes
Press and Jewish Publication Society, 1998) is the first comprehensive
book to chart the origins and development of local photography seen
through the eyes of Jewish photographers. The material is based on
primary research mostly from Israeli archives, and interviews with
descendants of the early photographers. Documentors of the Dream
is the work of photographer and photo historian Vivienne Silver-Brody,
of the Silver Print Gallery in the Israeli artists' village of Ein
Hod on the Carmel. Enjoy also an audio webcast interview with Ms.
Silver-Brody.
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