Jewish Review of Books
@jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social
A quarterly magazine of Jewish criticism, religion, and culture and monthly web-exclusive reviews and essays.
Subscribe at https://www.ezsubscription.com/jrb/subscribe
Subscribe at https://www.ezsubscription.com/jrb/subscribe
Our Fall issue is now online!
September 29, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Our Fall issue is now online!
Our Fall issue is now out in the world! Stay tuned for our online launch, next week.
September 26, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Our Fall issue is now out in the world! Stay tuned for our online launch, next week.
Reposted by Jewish Review of Books
My recent romp through the history of the Jewish cult of saints, is out with @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo... Visiting the Graves of the Righteous: Inns of Molten Blue - Jewish Review of Books
Visiting the Graves of the Righteous: Inns of Molten Blue - Jewish Review of Books
Graves of Tzaddikim hold many things—hopes, prayers, and sometimes even the deceased's body.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
July 15, 2025 at 3:46 PM
My recent romp through the history of the Jewish cult of saints, is out with @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo... Visiting the Graves of the Righteous: Inns of Molten Blue - Jewish Review of Books
Happy to announce the Spring issue, timely Passover- and other-wise, with discussion of war in Gaza and dissent against oppressive government, while also keeping our heads in the clouds, or at least in poetry about the strange air above a librarian’s ladder. jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/spring...
Spring 2025 - Jewish Review of Books
jewishreviewofbooks.com
April 9, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Happy to announce the Spring issue, timely Passover- and other-wise, with discussion of war in Gaza and dissent against oppressive government, while also keeping our heads in the clouds, or at least in poetry about the strange air above a librarian’s ladder. jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/spring...
What a cover!!!
April 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
What a cover!!!
David and Benji are a classic odd couple, a little bit like Steve Martin and John Candy in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', except this time the trains are Polish and the characters are Jewish, which admittedly gives it all a different valence.
Emil Stern's riotous review in our latest issue.
Emil Stern's riotous review in our latest issue.
January 28, 2025 at 5:13 PM
David and Benji are a classic odd couple, a little bit like Steve Martin and John Candy in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', except this time the trains are Polish and the characters are Jewish, which admittedly gives it all a different valence.
Emil Stern's riotous review in our latest issue.
Emil Stern's riotous review in our latest issue.
Reposted by Jewish Review of Books
After seeing A Real Pain, I felt disappointed. This line resonates with me: "And this is the film’s real problem: It does not, or cannot, confront the actual, tortured history of Jews in Poland or the issue of Polish complicity in the Holocaust."
Winter issue just dropped, with a book review by Adam Kirsch, movie review by Emil Stern, an essay by Malka Simkovitch, a necrology by Ben Balint, soccer hooligan memories by Mark Glanville, and much much more! jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/winter...
Winter 2025 - Jewish Review of Books
jewishreviewofbooks.com
January 16, 2025 at 3:06 PM
After seeing A Real Pain, I felt disappointed. This line resonates with me: "And this is the film’s real problem: It does not, or cannot, confront the actual, tortured history of Jews in Poland or the issue of Polish complicity in the Holocaust."
Winter issue just dropped, with a book review by Adam Kirsch, movie review by Emil Stern, an essay by Malka Simkovitch, a necrology by Ben Balint, soccer hooligan memories by Mark Glanville, and much much more! jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/winter...
Winter 2025 - Jewish Review of Books
jewishreviewofbooks.com
January 15, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Winter issue just dropped, with a book review by Adam Kirsch, movie review by Emil Stern, an essay by Malka Simkovitch, a necrology by Ben Balint, soccer hooligan memories by Mark Glanville, and much much more! jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/winter...
jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-life/... Reviel Netz on the remarkable story of the Chabad menorah and its critical meaning, from Roman imperial art to medieval diagrams in Maimonides, his son Abraham, the Yemenite scholar R’ Kapah, Israeli critics, and abstract expressionists, too. A wild journey.
Straightening Out the Menorah - Jewish Review of Books
The long journey from Maimonides’s Medieval Drawing to the Rebbe’s Abstract Public Monuments
jewishreviewofbooks.com
December 25, 2024 at 2:32 PM
jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-life/... Reviel Netz on the remarkable story of the Chabad menorah and its critical meaning, from Roman imperial art to medieval diagrams in Maimonides, his son Abraham, the Yemenite scholar R’ Kapah, Israeli critics, and abstract expressionists, too. A wild journey.
We just put our winter issue to bed and the writing really sparkles. This one has quite a cast of character, ranging from French Jewish radicals to soccer hooligans to a persnickety book reviewer (no, not one who's written for JRB). Now's the time to subscribe! www.ezsubscription.com/jrb/subscribe
Subscribe for $24.95 off and get a free JRB tote bag! (While supplies last.)
The leading publication for Jewish intellectuals.
www.ezsubscription.com
December 20, 2024 at 7:31 AM
We just put our winter issue to bed and the writing really sparkles. This one has quite a cast of character, ranging from French Jewish radicals to soccer hooligans to a persnickety book reviewer (no, not one who's written for JRB). Now's the time to subscribe! www.ezsubscription.com/jrb/subscribe
In spending a life pondering why talmudic arguments often turned on unlikely interpretations, Halivni was not merely asking what motivated talmudic passages; he was trying to explain the literary character of the bedrock text of rabbinic Judaism, and his life. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
Like a Surgeon with a Scalpel, an Archaeologist with a Spade - Jewish Review of Books
David Weiss Halivni once rescued a scrap from a page of the Shulchan Arukh from the sandwich paper of a Nazi guard. His whole life turned out to be about rescuing texts.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
December 2, 2024 at 6:26 PM
In spending a life pondering why talmudic arguments often turned on unlikely interpretations, Halivni was not merely asking what motivated talmudic passages; he was trying to explain the literary character of the bedrock text of rabbinic Judaism, and his life. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
“I want to be your wife,” she tells the alarmed Dustin. “To stuff you with Thanksgiving turkey.”
A review of Galit Dahan Carlibach’s wicked novel, “Zot ani, Iowa (It’s Me, Iowa)”, and Maya Arad’s “The Hebrew Teacher” jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/343...
A review of Galit Dahan Carlibach’s wicked novel, “Zot ani, Iowa (It’s Me, Iowa)”, and Maya Arad’s “The Hebrew Teacher” jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/343...
Lost in America
Two new books, different in tone but matched in caliber, show Israelis making their way as best they can in America and in life.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 28, 2024 at 9:29 AM
“I want to be your wife,” she tells the alarmed Dustin. “To stuff you with Thanksgiving turkey.”
A review of Galit Dahan Carlibach’s wicked novel, “Zot ani, Iowa (It’s Me, Iowa)”, and Maya Arad’s “The Hebrew Teacher” jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/343...
A review of Galit Dahan Carlibach’s wicked novel, “Zot ani, Iowa (It’s Me, Iowa)”, and Maya Arad’s “The Hebrew Teacher” jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/343...
An almost decade-old review of "Pumpkinflowers," Matti Friedman's micro-history and memoir about an otherwise unremarkable site in the history of Israeli military adventures in Lebanon. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/227...
A Cedar of Lebanon - Jewish Review of Books
In addition to the weight survivors feel, Friedman bears the burden of giving voice to the place that shaped young men’s lives and took others, while leaving no official trace.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 27, 2024 at 11:00 AM
An almost decade-old review of "Pumpkinflowers," Matti Friedman's micro-history and memoir about an otherwise unremarkable site in the history of Israeli military adventures in Lebanon. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/227...
Maybe Israelis are widely anathematized because they are perceived as evil, colonizing Europeans. Or perhaps it's their ambiguous position as not quite settlers, not quite indigenous—hence a sense of the uncanny—which leads to anti-Israeli hatred and disgust? jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jew...
Of “Good Jews” and Bad Binaries - Jewish Review of Books
Anti-Israeli bigots do not hate Israel because they believe the worst about its actions. They feel an urge to believe the worst about Israeli actions because they hate Israel.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 26, 2024 at 12:56 PM
Maybe Israelis are widely anathematized because they are perceived as evil, colonizing Europeans. Or perhaps it's their ambiguous position as not quite settlers, not quite indigenous—hence a sense of the uncanny—which leads to anti-Israeli hatred and disgust? jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jew...
When Bellow met Agnon in Jerusalem, "[Agnon] asked me if any of my books had been translated into Hebrew. If they had not been, I had better see to it immediately, because, he said, they would survive only in the Holy Tongue." They were speaking in Yiddish. jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jew...
A Good Golus - Jewish Review of Books
“Well,” he said, “this is a good little golus you’ve got here.”
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 25, 2024 at 1:59 PM
When Bellow met Agnon in Jerusalem, "[Agnon] asked me if any of my books had been translated into Hebrew. If they had not been, I had better see to it immediately, because, he said, they would survive only in the Holy Tongue." They were speaking in Yiddish. jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jew...
Did Bendahan write a modernist novel, an ethnographic portrait of Tetouani Sephardi life, or maybe, a brilliant and ambivalent piece of feminist fiction repurposing the old (antisemitic and antifeminist) trope of the beautiful Jewess?
J Kornberg on "Mazaltob" jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
J Kornberg on "Mazaltob" jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
The Jewess Mystique - Jewish Review of Books
An early feminist novel about a North African Jewish damsel in (Jewish) distress.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 24, 2024 at 2:24 PM
Did Bendahan write a modernist novel, an ethnographic portrait of Tetouani Sephardi life, or maybe, a brilliant and ambivalent piece of feminist fiction repurposing the old (antisemitic and antifeminist) trope of the beautiful Jewess?
J Kornberg on "Mazaltob" jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
J Kornberg on "Mazaltob" jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
Sit in on a meeting of the board of any Jewish organization or watch the Knesset Channel...and you will find ample confirmation that Jewish politics is messy. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Prof. Elisheva Carlebach on the Jewish Political Tradition. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/601...
Prof. Elisheva Carlebach on the Jewish Political Tradition. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/601...
Tradition and Invention - Jewish Review of Books
If Jews were included in early 20th-century discussions of political communities, it was generally concerning their right to preserve their language and culture, along with other minorities, at a time when empires were being dismantled.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 22, 2024 at 11:10 AM
Sit in on a meeting of the board of any Jewish organization or watch the Knesset Channel...and you will find ample confirmation that Jewish politics is messy. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Prof. Elisheva Carlebach on the Jewish Political Tradition. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/601...
Prof. Elisheva Carlebach on the Jewish Political Tradition. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/601...
Today is the Yahrzeit of the late Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Rabbi Sacks reviewed in our pages the English literary theorist, Terry Eagleton's, 2016 book, "Culture and the Death of God." jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/100...
November 21, 2024 at 12:12 PM
Today is the Yahrzeit of the late Lord Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Rabbi Sacks reviewed in our pages the English literary theorist, Terry Eagleton's, 2016 book, "Culture and the Death of God." jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/100...
The London crowd was delighted to hear that the young poet would be reading an ode to T. S. Eliot; then, as if on cue, the great man entered the hall. “Eminence becomes you,” began Litvinoff. But then, oh dear . . .
Jack Omer-Jackaman in the Fall issue.
jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
Jack Omer-Jackaman in the Fall issue.
jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
Tread Lightly Lest My People’s Bones Protest: Litvinoff, Eliot, and English Antisemitism - Jewish Review of Books
The London crowd was delighted to hear that the young poet would be reading an ode to T. S. Eliot; then, as if on cue, the great man entered the hall. “Eminence becomes you,” began Litvinoff. But then...
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 20, 2024 at 10:03 AM
The London crowd was delighted to hear that the young poet would be reading an ode to T. S. Eliot; then, as if on cue, the great man entered the hall. “Eminence becomes you,” began Litvinoff. But then, oh dear . . .
Jack Omer-Jackaman in the Fall issue.
jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
Jack Omer-Jackaman in the Fall issue.
jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...
Ayn Rand imagined that her romantic prose soared. In truth, not only did her anti-communist prose barely schlepp along, it mirrored Soviet Socialist Realism.
Read GS Morson's review of A Popoff, "Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success" in our Fall issue. jewishreviewofbooks.com/literature/1...
Read GS Morson's review of A Popoff, "Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success" in our Fall issue. jewishreviewofbooks.com/literature/1...
Atlas Schlepped - Jewish Review of Books
Ayn Rand imagined that her romantic prose soared, but it barely schlepped along.
jewishreviewofbooks.com
November 19, 2024 at 3:43 PM
Ayn Rand imagined that her romantic prose soared. In truth, not only did her anti-communist prose barely schlepp along, it mirrored Soviet Socialist Realism.
Read GS Morson's review of A Popoff, "Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success" in our Fall issue. jewishreviewofbooks.com/literature/1...
Read GS Morson's review of A Popoff, "Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success" in our Fall issue. jewishreviewofbooks.com/literature/1...
Your favorite magazine of serious, accessible, and sometimes playful writing on Jewish culture and scholarship is now on Bluesky!
Follow us for our smart criticism, inimitable style, abiding curiosity, and uncompromising commitment to Jewish intellectual life.
Follow us for our smart criticism, inimitable style, abiding curiosity, and uncompromising commitment to Jewish intellectual life.
November 18, 2024 at 5:51 PM
Your favorite magazine of serious, accessible, and sometimes playful writing on Jewish culture and scholarship is now on Bluesky!
Follow us for our smart criticism, inimitable style, abiding curiosity, and uncompromising commitment to Jewish intellectual life.
Follow us for our smart criticism, inimitable style, abiding curiosity, and uncompromising commitment to Jewish intellectual life.