JTS Library Book Talks

Important next-generation Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s gripping novel narrates the aftermath of an Israeli neurosurgeon’s accidental killing of an Eritrean migrant. Newly translated from Hebrew, this tightly crafted story is as timely

The Ruined House: A Novel

Feb 1st, 2018

Ruby Namdar’s The Ruined House received the Sapir Prize, Israel’s most prestigious literary award. Now newly translated into English, Namdar’s tale of a man whose comfortable secular life begins to unravel in the face of haunting religious visi

Maimonides and the Merchants: Jewish Law and Society in the Medieval Islamic World

Dec 4th, 2017

The advent of Islam in the seventh century brought profound economic changes to the Middle East and to the Jews living there. The Talmud, written in and for an agrarian society, was in many ways ill-equipped for the new economy. In the early Is

Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel

Nov 1st, 2017

Francine Klagsbrun's definitive new biography of Golda Meir brings to life a world figure unlike any other. An iron-willed leader, chain-smoking political operative, and tea-and-cake-serving grandmother who became the fourth prime minister of I

The Other Peace Process

Oct 23rd, 2017

A discussion with Rabbi Ron Kronish on his new book, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, A View from Jerusalem.Drawing on personal experiences from his 25-year career as founding director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council

Rabbi Akiva: Sage of the Talmud

Sep 18th, 2017

Born in the Land of Israel around the year 50 C.E., Rabbi Akiva was one of the most important influences on Judaism as we know it today. Drawing on the latest scholarship, Barry Holtz's new book presents a clear and nuanced portrait of this

The Arabic Translation and Commentary of Yefet ben Ò…li on the Book of Proverbs

May 9th, 2017

Ilana Sasson, instructor at Sacred Heart University and JTS alumna, discusses her new critical edition of a key Arabic translation and commentary on the book of Proverbs. Working in the 10th century, Yefet ben Ò…li ha-LeviÓ³ commentary attests

Braced: A Book Talk and Discussion

Apr 3rd, 2017

Aly Gerber’s young adult novel, Braced, is the story of a 12-year-old soccer player who learns she needs to wear a back brace 23 hours a day for her worsening scoliosis. As she adjusts to life with the brace, her confidence and self-image are s

Nathan Englander: Dinner at the Center of the Earth

Apr 3rd, 2017

Dinner at the Center of the Earth, a new political thriller from Pulitzer finalist and best-selling author Nathan Englander, unfolds in the highly charged territory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.A prisoner in a secret cell. The guard who

Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391â€“1392

Mar 13th, 2017

In his new book, the winner of the 2016 National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship, JTS's Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Jewish History Dr. Benjamin R. Gampel uses rich new archival data to illuminate one of the major disasters that struck

Kohelet's Pursuit of Truth: A New Reading of Ecclesiastes

Mar 1st, 2017

In his book Koheletâ€™s Pursuit of Truth, Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, presents an arresting new translation and commentary on Ecclesiastes that unlocks the ancient wisdom

Communings of the Spirit: The Journals of Mordecai M. Kaplan (Vol. 2 1934-1941)

Dec 5th, 2016

Kaplan was a compulsive diarist. His journal of twenty seven volumes is one of the longest on record. Communings of the Spirit, volume 2, edited by Dr. Mel Scult, contains in vivid detail the edited selections from 1934-1941. He reacts passiona

Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon ibn Gabirol

Nov 28th, 2016

Named after Solomon Ibn Gabirolâ€™s own sharp self-description, Vulture in a Cage is the most extensive collection of the eleventh-century Hebrew poetâ€™s works ever to be published in English. Here, vital poems of praise, lament, and complaint

Reading Genesis: Beginning

Nov 21st, 2016

Reading Genesis: Beginnings, edited by Beth Kissileff, gathers intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to create an original constellation of modern readings of Genesis: a scientist of appetite on Eveâ€™s eating behavior

Aphrodite and the Rabbis: How the Jews Adapted Roman Culture to Create Judaism as We Know It

Oct 10th, 2016

Judaism as we know it is a western Roman religion, argues Rabbi Burton Visotzky. Yes, the very empire that destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE served as the culture in which Judaism was nurtured and became the religion of the rabbis that we

Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern Food

Sep 26th, 2016

Kosher USA: How Coke Became Kosher and Other Tales of Modern FoodRoger Horowitz (Columbia University Press, 2016)Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic produc