God, Man, and Devil

God, Man, and Devil
Author: Nahma Sandrow
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2015-02-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0815628161

An anthology of five Yiddish plays in translation—all written by well-known playwrights in the first quarter of the twentieth century—God, Man, and Devil also includes two independent scenes, which in Nahma Sandrow's words, "show off the raucous characteristic of Yiddish theater, especially in popular performance." The settings of the plays range widely—a luxurious parlor, a haunted graveyard, a farmyard, a sweatshop on strike, a subway, and the boardwalk of Atlantic City. They are both comic and mournful, and reflect expressionism, satire, fantasy, farce, suspense, and romance. But all consider the same question: what makes life morally good and worth living? Before the modern Yiddish secular culture evolved as we know it today, Yiddish plays were being written for about a century. As Yiddish-speaking communities flourished, so did their love for theater. "Yiddish playwrights shared their experiences and made them art." Edited to make them more accessible for both reading and performance, each play is accompanied by an introduction, which provides historical context, production histories, and elucidation of references.

Israeli Historical Revisionism

Israeli Historical Revisionism
Author: Derek J. Penslar
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135318573

The essays in this volume, by leading scholars from within and outside Israel, shed new light on the Israeli historians' controversy of the creation of the State of Israel, the 1948 War and its aftermath, Israel's attitude towards Holocaust survivors, the "melting pot" absorption policy and similar subjects. The attack on Zionist historiography, which initially came from what is dubbed the "post-Zionist" radical left, has recently broadened to include a critique from the right. These essays cover diverse aspects of the critique, exploring its historiographical, political, sociological and educational ramifications.

The Ark

The Ark
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 826
Release: 1913
Genre: Jewish literature
ISBN:

Culture Front

Culture Front
Author: Benjamin Nathans
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2014-06-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812291034

For most of the last four centuries, the broad expanse of territory between the Baltic and the Black Seas, known since the Enlightenment as "Eastern Europe," has been home to the world's largest Jewish population. The Jews of Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Galicia, Romania, and Ukraine were prodigious generators of modern Jewish culture. Their volatile blend of religious traditionalism and precocious quests for collective self-emancipation lies at the heart of Culture Front. This volume brings together contributions by both historians and literary scholars to take readers on a journey across the cultural history of East European Jewry from the mid-seventeenth century to the present. The articles collected here explore how Jews and their Slavic neighbors produced and consumed imaginative representations of Jewish life in chronicles, plays, novels, poetry, memoirs, museums, and more. The book puts culture at the forefront of analysis, treating verbal artistry itself as a kind of frontier through which Jews and Slavs imagined, experienced, and negotiated with themselves and each other. The four sections investigate the distinctive themes of that frontier: violence and civility; popular culture; politics and aesthetics; and memory. The result is a fresh exploration of ideas and movements that helped change the landscape of modern Jewish history.

A Traveler Disguised

A Traveler Disguised
Author: Dan Miron
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 1996-02-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780815603306

This exposition of writer S. Y. Abramovitsh explores the symbolic importance of his central character, Mendele the Bookseller, and the history of Yiddish fiction in Russia during the nineteenth century.

Jewish History

Jewish History
Author: Gila Gevirtz
Publisher: Behrman House, Inc
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2008
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780874418385

Adult readers will appreciate this epic story of the Jewish people rendered as a concise, accessible, and engaging narrative. This lively and accessible volume presents the full range of Jewish history, from biblical to contemporary times. Adapted from the two-volume award-winning work, The History of the Jewish People by Professors Jonathan Sarna and Jonathan Krasner, this single volume treats readers to a fast-paced account of Jewish history that is grounded in scholarship and brimming with information on topics as diverse as the development of Christianity beyond its Jewish roots into a new religion and the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. The text is filled with colorful anecdotal detail about Jewish communities throughout history and around the world, such as how Passover was celebrated on the Civil War battlefield and the origins of Beta Israel, the Ethiopian-Jewish community. The broad array of graphics-16 maps, 12 charts, 27 timelines, and more than 100 photographs--is sure to engage readers and enrich their appreciation and understanding of Jewish history.

The Dworskys of Lazdei

The Dworskys of Lazdei
Author: Michoël Ronn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 474
Release: 1990
Genre: Jews
ISBN:

The Dworskys of Lazdei is the celebration of a family's Jewish heritage. Their story spans almost 250 years, extends ten generations beginning in the mid-1700s, and includes approximately 2000 relatives. Reb Peretz is the earliest known ancestor of the Dworsky family. He lived northwest of Suvalk, Lithuania in the mid-18th century. Peretz had at least two children, Sora born in 1768, and Yosef born circa 1774. Descendants and relatives lived in Lithuania, New York, Minnesota, Florida, California, Israel, and elsewhere.

From Jerusalem to Beverly Hills

From Jerusalem to Beverly Hills
Author: Eitan Gonen
Publisher: Author House
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2010-11-23
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1452092958

This is a riveting story of the authors journey for survival as a war refugee and overcoming poverty. The story begins in Jerusalem as the British Empire crumbles and World War II ends. The ensuing turmoil in Palestine lead to Israels War of Independence and the Arab siege of Jerusalem that shaped Eitans childhood and the journey he travelled as a construction laborer, shepherd in a kibbutz, Top Gun fighter pilot in Israel Air Force, engineer for the Space Shuttle and a businessman in Beverly Hills. On his quest for independence and justice he endured family displacement, hunger, personal loss, and a government corruption scandal that nearly unraveled all he had worked to create. This compelling story, however, is ultimately one of triumph. Jerusalem, at once provincial and cosmopolitan, where lives of Christians, Jews and Arabs intermingle, is the colorful ground for a true story of a boy growing up during the tumultuous waning years of the British rule. The author describes scenes from the Arab-Israeli war, from a rare vantage point of a little boy, turned refugee in the ravaged city. As a teenager, he becomes a member of a socialist youth movement and joins his friends to establish a kibbutz. Toiling as a shepherd in the hills of Judea, and disappointed by the communal system, he leaves to join the Israel Air Force and becomes a fighter pilot. At the age of 22, he takes Dina, his wife, to Africa to create the newly independent Ghana Air Force. Fulfilling his lifelong dream, the author goes to America, but tragedy drives his young family back to Israel for eleven years. Following the Yom Kippur War, his keen sense of justice compels him to expose government corruption that inevitably teaches him that no good deed goes unpunished, but at the end of the day makes him victorious. A memorable scene aboard an El Al flight provides an emotional end. Visit jerusalemtobeverlyhills.com

The Globalization of Israel

The Globalization of Israel
Author: Uri Ram
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2013-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1135926824

This book focuses on how globalization is impacting contemporary Israel. It is a concise and originally argued introduction to Israel, but the author, Uri Ram, is careful to frame his analysis in a broader discussion of Israeli history and broader social currents. Focusing in particular on two defining – and conflicting – contemporary trends; one toward advanced liberal democracy with a cosmopolitan edge, and the other toward ethno-religious traditionalism and rejection of the secularism associated with market driven globalization. The cosmopolitan, high-tech driven city of Tel Aviv represents the former trend, and Jerusalem – a city increasingly dominated by orthodox Jews – represents the latter. Using Benjamin Barber's Jihad versus McWorld thesis to good effect, Ram's book will stand as an ideal introduction to contemporary Israel and its place in the world.