News Brief
The National Yiddish Book Center is to receive $750,000 for a Yiddish fellowship program for college students. More ▸
literature
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News Brief
Finalists were named for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. The Jewish Book Council, administrator of the new prize, announced last Friday that the winner will be chosen in March and the $100,000 prize will be awarded in May. More ▸
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Around the Jewish World French Jews Appear to Be Opting
With the French presidential election three months away, conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy is gaining strength in the Jewish community. But are voters being swayed by Sarkozy’s strong support of Israel and tough stands on suburban violence and Islamic fundamentalism, or do they just not think much of his opponent, Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party?… More ▸
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Obituary East German Spymaster Markus Wolf Examined Jewish Roots in Later Years
Markus Wolf, the former East German spy chief who bedeviled Western intelligence services and developed an interest in his Jewish roots late in life, died Nov. 9 at age 83. Known to family as Misha and to Western intelligence as “the man with no face,” Wolf died peacefully in his Berlin home. For decades, Western… More ▸
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News Brief
Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Styron died at age 81. The author of “The Confessions of Nat Turner” and “Sophie’s Choice” succumbed to pneumonia after a long illness. The novels by the white, Protestant Southerner often dealt controversially with the experiences of persecuted minorities. The author was also a liberal activist, whose work included advocating for… More ▸
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Arts & Culture with Love Story Based on Zohar, Rabbi Makes a Foray into Fiction
Some things that happen are not true, and some true things never happened. That’s how Rabbi Lawrence Kushner recalls a teaching he heard from Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. And it fits Kushner’s newest book, which is a book about a book, based on a real book the author found many years ago in Safed, Israel,… More ▸
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News Brief
Robert Rosenberg, who brought hard-boiled Boston sensibilities to his writing about Israel, died at 54. His employer, Ha’aretz, said he died Wednesday of cancer in Tel Aviv. Rosenberg’s experiences covering the police beat for the Jerusalem Post in the 1980s were the basis for four detective novels featuring Avram Cohen, a brandy-swigging Holocaust survivor. He… More ▸
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Arts & Culture Extensively Updated, New Edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica Hits Shelves
The editors of the Encyclopaedia Judaica’s new edition confronted a whole new world. In the more than 30 years since the first edition was published, Jewish life has been revitalized in the former Communist world, Las Vegas and Atlanta have become fast-growing Jewish communities and women have taken a much more active role in Jewish… More ▸
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Around the Jewish World a Hunch Pans out As New Group Unites Jewish Journalists in London
At first glance, you might wonder just what the members of the group chatting in a pub in London’s Hampstead neighborhood have in common. There are men and women of all fashions and political persuasions, some work in the public sector, some in the private sector and others in charity. Some are experts in politics… More ▸
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News Brief
Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything Is Illuminated” was named the decade’s best work of Jewish fiction. More than 1,500 people voted online in the first People’s Choice Award, sponsored by JBooks.com. Foer’s 2004 novel was chosen by 34.7 percent, and Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” was chosen by 29.3 percent. The remaining finalists were Cynthia… More ▸
