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If All the Seas Were Ink

Mar 13, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

At the age of 27, alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce, Ilana Kurshan decided to begin learning daf yomi, the “daily page” of the Talmud. By the time she completed the Talmud after seven and a half years, Kurshan was remarried with three young children.

The Ruined House: A Novel

Jan 31, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

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 visions cuts to the core of contemporary Jewish-American identity.

Forest Dark: A Novel

Jan 17, 2018 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

A discussion with New York Times best-selling author Nicole Krauss on Forest Dark: A Novel.

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

Dec 4, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Mark R. Cohen’s new book Maimonides and the Merchants suggests that, like the Geonim before him, Maimonides wished to provide Jewish merchants an alternative and comparable forum to the Islamic legal system and thereby shore up an important cornerstone of communal autonomy.

Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel

Oct 26, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

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 Israel, Meir was one of the most notable women of our time.

Dinner at the Center of the Earth

Oct 18, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event video

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.

The Other Peace Process

Oct 17, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

A discussion with Rabbi Ron Kronish on his new book, The Other Peace Process: Interreligious Dialogue, A View from Jerusalem.

The Arabic Translation and Commentary of Yefet ben ‘Eli on the Book of Proverbs

May 9, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Ilana Sasson, instructor at Sacred Heart University and JTS alumna, will discuss her new critical edition of a key Arabic translation and commentary on the book of Proverbs.

Braced: A Book Talk and Discussion

Apr 3, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

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 shaken. Ultimately she discovers her own voice and learns how to face this challenge—plus all the others associated with being a preteen.

Anti-Jewish Riots in the Crown of Aragon and the Royal Response, 1391–1392

Mar 13, 2017 By Benjamin R. Gampel | Public Event audio

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 medieval Jewry: the anti-Jewish riots of 1391-92 in the lands of Castile and Aragon.

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

Mar 1, 2017 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio | Sukkot

In his book Kohelet’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 of one of the deepest and most controversial books of the Tanakh.

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

Dec 5, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Kaplan was a compulsive diarist. His journal of twenty seven volumes is one of the longest on record. Communings of the Spirit, Volume 2 contains in vivid detail the edited selections from 1934-1941. He reacts passionately to the momentous events of the thirties paying particular attention to the rise of Fascism.

Vulture in a Cage: Poems by Solomon ibn Gabirol

Nov 28, 2016 By Raymond Scheindlin | Public Event audio

Named after Solomon Ibn Gabirol’s own sharp self-description, Vulture in a Cage is the most extensive collection of the eleventh-century Hebrew poet’s works ever to be published in English. Here, vital poems of praise, lament, and complaint sit alongside devotional poetry, love poetry, descriptive meditations on nature, and epigrams.

Reading Genesis: Beginnings

Nov 2, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Deuteronomy 32:47 says the Pentateuch should not be “an empty matter.” This new anthology from Beth Kissileff fills Genesis with meaning, gathering intellectuals and thinkers who use their professional knowledge to illuminate the Biblical text. These writers use insights from psychology, law, political science, literature, and other scholarly fields, to create an original constellation of modern Biblical readings, and receptions of Genesis.

Aphrodite and the Rabbis

Sep 27, 2016 By Burton L. Visotzky | Public Event audio

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 still celebrate today.

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

Sep 14, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

Kosher USA follows the fascinating journey of kosher food through the modern industrial food system. It recounts how iconic products such as Coca-Cola and Jell-O tried to become kosher; the contentious debates among rabbis over the incorporation of modern science into Jewish law; how Manischewitz wine became the first kosher product to win over non-Jewish consumers; and more.

Thinking and Killing Philosophical Discourse in the Shadow of the Third Reich

May 25, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

In this Library Book Talk, Professor Alon Segev discusses his book, Thinking and Killing—Philosophical Discourse in the Shadow of the Third Reich, which deals with the contribution of eight German thinkers to the discussion about the Holocaust and the Final Solution.

Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place

Mar 15, 2016 By David C. Kraemer | Public Event audio

In the aftermath of the conquest of the Holy Land by the Romans and their destruction of the Jerusalem Temple, Jews were faced with a world in existential chaos—both they and their God were rendered homeless. In a religious tradition that equated Divine approval with peaceful dwelling on the Land, this situation was intolerable. In response, the Rabbis sought to build new “structures,” new homes for both God and Israel. Rabbinic Judaism: Space and Place offers the first comprehensive study of spatiality in rabbinic Judaism, exploring how the Rabbis reoriented the Jewish relationship with space and place following the conquest and destruction.

The Beautiful Possible: A Novel

Mar 2, 2016 By Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary | Public Event audio

A lively discussion with Amy Gottlieb on her epic debut novel The Beautiful Possible, in the vein of Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love. Gottlieb’s story follows a postwar love triangle between an American rabbi, his wife, and a German-Jewish refugee.