Majesty and Humility: The Thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik

by OU Press

It’s no small feat to write a book on a scholarly topic that can appeal to both scholar and layman alike, capture their interest, and even teach them a thing or two, but Rabbi Reuven Ziegler has managed to pull it off.

In Majesty and Humility: The Thought of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, (co-published by OU Press | Jewish Educational Publications, Urim Publications, and Maimonides School), Rabbi Ziegler, Director of Research and Archives of the Toras Harav Foundation, takes on the daunting challenge of surveying the thought-world of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik — “the Rav,” as he is reverently and affectionately called by his students and followers — and presenting his teachings and world-view in a clear and organized way. Writing in accessible and comprehensible language, Rabbi Ziegler takes the reader through the major tenets of the Rav’s thought and his significant writings and integrates the Rav’s life with his thought.

A new generation of intellectually curious, spiritually sensitive Jews is discovering the creativity and power, the wonder and excitement, of Rabbi Soloveitchik’s philosophical world. But how does one go about entering that vast thought-world? Majesty and Humility offers the perfect introduction to the extensive corpus of the Rav’s works and philosophy.

Long-time students of the Rav, too, will find a wealth of valuable insights in this logically structured, comprehensive, internally consistent presentation that properly places many of the Rav’s ideas into their natural biographical and intellectual context.

Majesty and Humility is perfect for both the experienced student of the Rav and for one looking for an introduction to his approach.

The original article can be viewed here.

The Religious Life Of Two Senators

By Jack Jenkins
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Truth be told, when asked to name a spiritual role model, few people would likely pick a sitting U.S. senator.

In fact, with congressional approval ratings at record lows, few lawmakers — Democrats or Republicans — would seem to qualify as a profile in righteousness.

But two new books this summer, Sen. Jim DeMint’s “The Great American Awakening” and Sen. Joe Lieberman’s “The Gift of Rest,” are trying to push back against the image of a godless Senate.

To be sure, DeMint and Lieberman have differences both political and religious: DeMint is a Tea Party Republican from South Carolina and a self-described “follower of Christ,” while Lieberman, an observant Jew from Connecticut, is a sometimes unpredictable Independent.

But their books offer equally intimate glimpses into the spiritual lives of America’s elected officials.

On the surface, DeMint’s “The Great American Awakening” is primarily focused on the insurgent conservative movement, particularly the Tea Party.

“The book is really about what Americans did between when Obama was elected and the 2010 elections,” DeMint said in an interview. “The power has shifted out of the hands of Washington and back into the hands of the people where it belongs.”

While the topic is technically more about politics than religion, DeMint said the title of the book is meant to echo the Second Great Awakening, a period of religious revival in the early 19th century.

“(The Tea Party) is as much a spiritual awakening as a political awakening,” said DeMint, a Presbyterian. “The concern about our country … has awakened the faith of many people.”

DeMint frequently cites Christian theology and biblical passages to help make his points. “The spiritual assessment is just the lens I look through,” he said.

Such strong connections between faith and politics seem second nature to DeMint in his book. Arguing that the separation of church and state “is contrary to what our founders envisioned,” he attacks the idea of big government on spiritual grounds.

“Big government is a religious issue,” DeMint writes. “History shows in nations where there is a big government, there is a little God. When people are dependent on government, they are less dependent on God, and their spiritual fervor fades. Socialism and secularism go hand in hand, as do faith and freedom.”

DeMint admitted that he hasn’t

36 under 36: Leah Larson gives Jewish girls a voice

by Amy Spiro

While most 12-year-old girls were catching up on homework or joining the local softball team, Leah Larson was learning how to build a website, raise money and write and edit articles. What began as one pre-teen girl’s quest to find a magazine that catered to young Jewish girls, became the Yaldah Media empire (www.yaldah.com), which today includes the magazine, as well as books, local clubs and weekend retreats for teen girls.

Growing up, Larson — a native of Sharon, Mass. — subscribed to magazines like American Girl and New Moon, but she never felt that they reflected her Jewish values. She thought about the types of articles she would want to appear in her magazine, and one day “I asked myself, ‘why not make it?’” So Larson spent a year learning the publishing business from the ground up, and published the first issue of Yaldah in 2004, printing 150 copies. “I sold them around school,” said Larson, “and then very quickly word started spreading.” She printed another 100 copies, and set to work on the next issue. Today the magazine comes out quarterly, and its pages are filled with recipes, crafts, essays and stories. More than 2,000 copies are printed of each issue, 700 of which are sent to subscribers.

Though the first issue of Yaldah was created on her own, today Larson has input from girls around the country. “By the second issue I was taking applications for what we now call the editorial board,” said Larson, which is a group of 20 girls that changes yearly. “They are the primary ones creating the content, writing stories interviewing, illustrating, doing photographs and testing recipes.” Larson handles the business end of things, including marketing, budget and accounting.

Larson was able to launch Yaldah’s book publishing branch — YM Media — after she won $100,000 in 2008 in a Wells Fargo competition. “Our goal is really high quality Jewish books,” said Larson, “that anyone could pick up and relate to.”

Long distance: For two years in boarding school, a year spend in Israel after high school, and today at Stern College, Larson continues to work on Yaldah via laptop.

Wedding Bells: Larson will tie the knot this June, but stay in New York to finish college.

Original article from the Jewish Week can be found here.

Good Jewish boys don’t go to prison: Avi Steinberg’s two years at The Bay

by Michael Orbach

Fresh out of Harvard University with a degree in English literature, Avi Steinberg did the only thing a former-yeshiva student could do. He went to a maximum-security prison.

“I guess I ended up in prison like a lot of people: by accident,” Steinberg laughed.

Steinberg is the author of “Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian,” (Doubleday) a non-fiction account of the two years he spent as a librarian in “The Bay,” The Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston. Steinberg, who was born in Israel and attended Maimonides in Boston, said the job “was a dream.”

“If you love books, people take it seriously,” he explained. “Having a library is not taken for granted. It’s easy to get a book in the outside world… but over there it’s precious and people just get that.”

Steinberg got the job after answering an ad on Craigslist. Once there, he fashioned the prison library, about the size of a small public library, into what he calls a type of “beit meidrash.” He gave creative writing courses to the mostly black inmates and said, rather than feeling threatened, he felt appreciated.

“Books create relationships,” Steinberg said.

The most requested book was “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Green, a modern version of “The Art of War,” which the library refused to stock. The second most requested items were books about dream interpretations, which reminded Steinberg of Joseph’s experience in prison in Egypt that he learned in Chumash class.

Seattle JTNews reviews Exodus and Emancipation

by Diana Brement

Exodus and Emancipation: Biblical and African-American Slavery, by Kenneth Chelst (Urim, cloth, $34.95). An interesting and unusual take on a familiar idea from an equally interesting author — a professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at Wayne State University and an ordained rabbi. Chelst delves into the story of Biblical slavery — using a variety of sources and commentary — and compares and contrasts it with the historically documented experiences of African American slaves in a way that enriches the reader’s understanding of
both. He explores social, psychological, religious and philosophical dimensions in a dense, but readable tome, and his passion shines through. With illustrations, footnotes and glossary.

From JTNews.com.

The original article may be found here.

Immigrant soldiers

by David Geffen

What becomes very clear in ‘Jews and the Civil War’ is that Jews, depending, supported the ideology of their close neighbors.

For Jews in America,” Eli Evans, noted historian of Southern Jewry, begins his essay reprinted in this volume, “the Civil War was a watershed that involved Jewish soldiers from all over the nation.” He emphasizes that “Jews served in both armies and helped in the war effort in many other ways. Serving their countries under fire and fighting side by side with their gentile comrades in arms accelerated the process of acculturation, not only through their self-perceptions, but also because of the reactions of the community around them.”

Then Evans makes this key point about what the Civil War accomplished in terms of identity. “Jewish immigrants who had only recently arrived in America and thought of themselves as Germans came to see themselves not only as Americans, but as Americans who belonged.” Significantly, “the veterans, who were Jews, were largely treated that way when they returned home.”

What Is This Thing We Call Jewish Literature? Yearning for the Past in the Future

by Gerald Sorin

Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging
Brandeis University Press, 336 pages, $26

We continue to be in the tricky business of trying to define what we mean (or don’t mean) by “Jewish writer.” Any writer who is a Jew? Only a writer, Jewish or not, who includes Jewish “content” in his or her work? Or a writer, often Jewish, whose work, with or without Jewish specificity, reveals, when read closely, Jewish meaning, values or sensibility? Derek Rubin, editor of “Promised Lands,” is determined to demonstrate, as he did in his earlier anthology, “Who We Are: On Being (and Not Being) a Jewish American Writer” (Schocken Books, 2005), not only that all such Jewish writers exist, but also that whatever else Jewish writing might mean, it almost always embodies a “core Jewish theme” of longing and belonging.

Wearing Europe’s Tattoo: Cynthia Ozick’s Novel of Ambition

by Dara Horn

Cynthia Ozick is one of America’s greatest living writers. What makes her work breathtaking is its unvarying subject, a single idea that encompasses all that marks American life, Jewish tradition and every other challenge to the world as it is: ambition. From ancient times, the desire to change the world, or even merely to change one’s life, was what distinguished Israel from other nations. But Ozick understands that ambition as we now know it is actually a form of idolatry, a worshipping of fame and approval over integrity. What makes her work not merely breathtaking, but also necessary, is her awareness of ambition’s opposite: freedom.

Pulling Up Anchor on Jewish Devon

After 70 years in Chicago, Rosenblum’s World of Judaica moves to Skokie.

by Mimi Rosenbush

The cultural complexity of Devon Avenue is told by its honorary street names. A brown sign declares Devon from Ravenswood to be Honorary Sheikh Mujib Way, after the founder of Bangladesh; from Damen to Western, it’s Mohammed Ali Jinnah Way, after the founder of Pakistan. From Western to California, it’s Gandhi Marg. And from California to Kedzie, it’s Golda Meier Boulevard.

But while Indian Devon is packed with glittering jewelry shops and bustling restaurants, Jewish Devon to the west looks shabby, worn, and sparse. The businesses of Jewish Devon are disappearing.

For the past 37 years, Rosenblum’s World of Judaica has held down the fort at 2906 W. Devon, between Richmond Street and Francisco Avenue. But at the end of October, Rosenblum’s owner, Avi Fox, will pack up his stock of menorahs, mezuzahs, Torah scrolls, and thousands of books and move them all to Skokie. After 71 years, the city of Chicago will be without the “Oldest & Largest Full Service Jewish Book Store in the Midwest.”

(Sometimes-Not-So) All-of-a-Kind-Families

by Laurel Snyder

With the Jewish High Holidays behind us, and Jewish Book Month looming, it feels natural to talk about Jewish books.  Of course, being the Mixed Up Files, we’re discussing (duh) the Jewish middle grade, specifically.   To that end, we’ve invited our wonderful friend Heidi Estrin to join us, for an illuminating chat about Jewish books for kids!

Heidi hosts The Book of Life, a monthly podcast on Jewish books, music, film, and web. She is Vice-President of the Association of Jewish Libraries, and past chair of AJL’s Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. She’s also  the Library Director & Computer Specialist at Feldman Children’s Library, Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida.  But most of all, she’s a friend to kids (of all ages)who love books!

Thanks so much for joining us today at the MIXED UP FILES blog, Heidi.  We’re glad to have you here.

Thanks, Laurel, I am thrilled to be here!

A lot of people, when they think about Jewish middle grade, really fall back on All of a Kind family and Anne Frank, and then get stuck. So we were hoping you could share your thoughts with us  on Jewish characters or themes in other books, books we maybe haven’t read, or haven’t thought of as Jewish.

Let me first give All-of-a-Kind Family its due, since the series was actually pretty important in the history of Jewish kidlit as a genre. It was the first (non-Biblical) story with Jewish characters that became popular with readers from all different backgrounds. It kind of set the tone for our current embrace of multicultural literature! That’s why the Association of Jewish Libraries calls its annual Jewish children’s literature award the Sydney Taylor Book Awards, in memory of the author of All-of-a-Kind Family.