Hannah Arendt, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess (First Complete Edition), edited by Liliane Weissberg, translated from the German by Richard Winston & Clara Winston (Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1997).
Jeremy Dauber, The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2013).
Alan M. Dershowitz, Abraham (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2015) ("Just as there is no one way of being a Jew, there is no one way of practicing law Jewishly. But just as there is a common core of being a Jew, there is a common core of being a Jewish lawyer. The bigots of the bar thought they knew what meant to be a Jewish lawyer back in the 1920s. They associated Jewish lawyers with greed, aggressiveness, and shoddy ethics. In fact, Jewish lawyers have been involved disproportionately in pro bono representation cause-oriented litigation, government service, man rights and civil rights work, constitutional protection, and other public interest activities. 'Thou shall not stand idly by,' 'Do not place a stumbling block in front of the blind,' 'Repair the world,' 'Have compassion for the downtrodden,' and the difficult pursuit of justice. Several years ago, The New York Times Magazine had an article about John Rosenberg, a Jewish immigrant form Nazi Germany who made his life in the most un-Jewish of places, rural Kentucky--trying to bring justice to the poor. Among his associates were three other lawyers with Jewish-sounding names (David Rubinstein, Dan Goldberg, and Ira Newman). Although the title of the piece, 'What's a Nice Jewish Lawyer Like John Rosenberg Doing in Appalachia?,' tried to make it seem unusual, it is not. Because whenever the downtrodden need legal representation, you will often find a Jewish lawyer refusing to stand by idly, repairing the world, showing compassion, and seeking justice." "This does not mean, of course, that non-Jews cannot arrive at the same point by consulting Christian or other sources or that Jews make better lawyers that non-Jews, It does suggest that we are all the products of our experiences, personal and historical, and that these experiences may inform the manner in which we practice our professions and I've or lives." Id at 131-132 (citations omitted). Food for thought.).
Saul Friedlander, When Memory Comes, translated from the French by Helen R. Lane, with an introduction by Claire Messed (New York: Other Press, 1979, 2016)
Saul Friedlander, Where Memory Leads: My Life (New York: Other Press, 2016) ("I often think of my nonchalant attitude in 1967-68 regarding the ongoing national exaltation . . . I have to admit that in my heart of hearts I shared the euphoria. Obviously I did not share the messianic dreams or the sudden devotion to the 'whole land of Israel that well-known leftist writers . . . suddenly discovered and proclaimed; but I was not shocked. . . . And yet, that I, who of all people should have understood what occupation does to the occupied and to the occupier, didn't see any 'writing on the wall' embarrasses me on hindsight. How didn't I perceive that notwithstanding the economic benefits enjoyed by many Palestinians (the term was not yet commonly used), humiliation was lurking and that it was just a matter of time for humiliation to turn into a thirst for revenge, a need to inflict pain on the occupier by any available means? It would lead to repression that would intensify the anger and turn it into rage. This is, as we know, the disastrous course that event were to follow. The only thing that I perceived soon enough was the danger of moral degradation that the occupation could foster within Israeli society." Id. at 121-122.).
Masha Gessen, Where the Jews Aren't: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2016).
Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem: A Clash of Ancient Civilizations (New York: Knopf, 2007).
Daniel Gordis, Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel's Soul (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2014).
Adam Kirsch, The People of The Book: 18 Classics of Jewish Literature (New York: Norton, 2016).
Harold S. Kushner, The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2012) ("If there is more interest in the book of Job today among people who are not regular students of the Bible, I think we can attribute that to two things: cancer and to Adolf Hitler. It is hard to read of the Nazi treatment of Jews, Poles, gays, and other 'inferior' people and still believe in God, unless, as C. S. Lewis warned us, tragedy leads people to conclude that God exists and He is a monster." Id. at 165.).
Seth Lipsky, The Rise of Abraham Cahan (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2013).
Goran Rosenberg, A Brief Stop On the Road from Auschwitz, translated from the Swedish by Sarah Death, edited by John Cullen (New York: Other Press, 2015).
Jonathan D. Sarna, When General Grant Expelled the Jews (Jewish Encounters) (New York: Nextbook/Schocken, 2012).
Susan Rubin Suleiman, The Nemirovsky Question: The Life, Death, and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in Twentieth-Century France (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2016).
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 1982).
