Poetry is a particularly appropriate literary form for the days of reflection on the past year after the dark day of Oct. 7, 2023. To help us along, Rachel Korazim, who teaches at the Shawm Hartman Institute in Jerusalem has given us “Shive – Poems of October 7,” and its meaning in our lives.
In this anthology, Korazim presents lines of deeply held verse by a number of poets in 59 poems in Hebrew and English on facing pages. It is an appropriate reminder that Israel and indeed, all of us, are looking for answers during this troubling time and a good start may be found in the powerful imagery that is present in poetic verse. The translations are by Michael Bohnen, Healther Silman and Korazim.
“Why The Bible Began – An Alternative History of Scripture and Its Origins” — It’s puzzling how this brilliant and original book by an Emory University faculty members didn’t make it into the book festival this year, The author, Jacob L. Wright, teaches the Hebrew Bible at the Emory School of Theology and is on the faculty of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies. His book, which has been praised for its originality and clarity, tackles the issue of how Jewish scribes of the seventh and eighth centuries BCE reinvigorate Jewish tradition after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. Its message both reflects political and intellectual activism in an earlier time as well as points the way toward a path forward in this difficult time of present-day Jewish life.
“The Joy of Connection: 100 Ways to Beat Loneliness and Live a Happier and More Meaningful Life” — This is the last book by Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the irrepressible dynamo and sex therapist who died at the age of 96 this summer. It was written out of a series of conversations with the Emmy Award-winning journalist, Allison Gilbert, and her longtime collaborator, Pierre Lehu. Her message before leaving us is that we have only ourselves to blame when we complain about being lonely. This diminutive survivor of the Holocaust found meaning in her long life by aggressively making friends and acquaintances. In this, the last of the 46 books she wrote or co-wrote, she offers her hundred suggestions for getting and keeping our relationships going. She starts with the words she uttered to everyone when they were about to go on their way, “when will I see you again?”
“Olive Days” — This novel by Jessica Elisheva Emerson is a sexy read about a young Modern Orthodox wife and mother living in the Jewish community in Los Angeles. She’s encouraged by her equally Orthodox husband to engage in a night of sexual swinging. The experience transforms her life and leads to an emotional awakening that takes her beyond the confines of her tradition-bounded community. Some she left behind in the olive groves she encountered when she was young. It’s an unexpectedly engaging story of passion and adventure that’s challenges the obligations and beliefs of her traditional life.
“Tablets Shattered – The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life” — Quite a mouthful from the young 30-year-old doctoral student, Joshua Leifer. His challenging thesis explores Jewish life from the perspective of a millennial who is a politically active, spiritually committed, left-wing Jew. This book offers a timely critique of why young Jews with an active mind are forsaking some treasured beliefs as liberalism and Zionism in contemporary American Jewish life. “The once vast suburban architecture of liberal Jewish life,” he writes, “is becoming a mausoleum to a religious civilization that has now passed.”
“Dust” — a quirky, nonfiction memoir by one-time Georgia resident Summer Breener of how she escaped from her wealthy Jewish family in Atlanta and settled into the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. After the death of her mother, she becomes the caretaker of her brother, David, whom she takes west to live with her in a life that is more beatnik than debutante. With surprising insights, this now octogenarian has transformed her own life and her view of family and it obligations.
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