Israel Books

a powerful trip across the mind of a holocost surviver wandering the haunted and enchanted streets of the old city in search of a lost friend. rich with emotion and stunning prose, this narration tells the story of the beggars and madmen who gather at dusk in the shadow of history, allowing the narrator to question his very memories. this is a text which lies on your table demanding to be read again and again, revealing bits of its mystery.

As i watched Elie Weisel on the Oprah show i cried..when ivbought his first book Dawn** i cried, and with every purchase i intend..i will cry and say thank you GOD!! and Mr Weisel..
I am a descendant of slaves, and i can now look back on what was done by MLK, Nelson Mandela, and others who have dedicated thier lives to freedom..for all people and dedication to our own cultures..Thank you Mr Weisel..Thank U..
U have opened my own eyes to the fact..that there is something i can do..
I also thank the Jewish people of this world who have survived to tell thier stories..

1986 Nobel Prize Peace Winner Elie Wiesel is one of the great moral figures in the modern era. His classic work 'Night' perhaps more than any other work made horrifically clear the pain and suffering of the Holocaust. He has written over fifty works of literary and moral testimony, a number of which are not simply classics of literature but which changed the course of history. One of those was his 'Jews of Silence' on the fate of Russian Jewry.
This present work is written about the Six- Day War of June 1967. It is written with the same humane quality, the same mystical lyricism that pervades much of his work. It expresses something of the relief felt in the Jewish world in 1967 when Israel overcame the threat of destruction from the Arab world initiated at Nasser's closing of the Suez Canal.
The work moves back and forth from the Jerusalem of the present to the small Eastern European village world Wiesel lived in before the Holocaust. The work despite its poetic and revelatory qualities is confusing in its narrative line, and in my judgment far from one of Wiesel's best. Yet it does express something of the longing of hundreds of Jewish generations to return to their ancestral home in Jerusalem, and the land of Israel - and to dwell there in peace with their neighbors. It is a book written in the same humane and generous spirit ( And thus follows the ancient Jewish adage- that the greatest triumph is to make a friend of a former enemy) of all Wiesel's works.
This work does give some feeling of that great exaltation the Jewish world felt in 1967 at its escaping existensial danger and returning to its holiest places.

Before reading this book, you may want to read ZVI by Elwood McQuaid ZVI : The Miraculous Story of Triumph Over the Holocaust

I've read The Best of Zvi at least three or four times since I bought it last year.To me,it's thrilling and encouraging to read about how God uses this ordinary Jewish Christian to tell them about their Messiah who has come, and is going to return again for those who are ready.

We purchased Zvi's first book years ago and it is gripping and inspiring. It is good to read the update on his life. Would recommend it for anyone. We have given a number of his books as gifts and our children (now grown) could hardly wait to read this new version.

Each chapter illustrates the hand of God working powerfully through the remarkable life of Zvi, who boldly witnesses for Jesus the Messiah in the land of Israel. Zvi, a Holocaust survivor and veteran of 4 Israeli wars, is always ready with a reason for his faith and with clear answers to tough questions. The Best of Zvi is a wonderful tool for sharing the gospel with Jewish friends and acquaintances. Zvi ventures through all segments of society as a sheep among wolves to offer food for thought and truth for the souls of God's chosen people. Every page is an inspiration for the believer and an opportunity for the truth seeker.

Political violence roiled the Jewish state from its beginning, and Ehud Sprinzak gives context to today's turmoil in Brother against Brother: Violence and Extremism in Israeli Politics from Altalena to the Rabin Assassination.

Sprinzak is a partisan who believes in Labor's two-state solution to the Palestinian question. Nonetheless, his portraits of the Right's early leaders, particularly Begin, often are quite flattering. Even Rabin's assassin is examined in an objective, even-handed way; the portrayal is similar to the treatment of Timothy McVeigh in American Terrorist.

Sprinzak gives a lot of insight into the early struggle for the Jewish state and the excesses that fed the Palestinian hatred that continues to fester. Massacres of Arab villagers at the hands of Jews, and other atrocities committed by Israel's founders, are laid bare. Sprinzak makes the case that the 1967 War both united the country and helped seal the political divide between those who seek accomodation with the Arabs and those who view peace as illusory. Rabin's assassination is seen not as an aberration but a predictable response by the opposition.

Like many of his countrymen, the author exudes a combination of pride and angst over the history and future of Israel. The Altalena incident, in which the Right's attempt to arm its supporters was foiled by violence at the hands of the Laborites, sets the stage and never seems far removed from what is happening 50 years later.

This is a tremendous, instructive book that never becomes a diatribe despite the author's political leanings.

Sprinzak does an excellent job at both presenting and analysing the history of political extremism in Israel. This is helped considerably by the fact that Israel as a modern state has such a relatively short history, so the project is not as epic as it might be if if one was going to attempt a similar catalogue/anthology of the political violence and extremism in France, for instance. Add to that that Sprinzak was one of Israel's pre-eminent scholars and as such, was given tremendous access in terms of what he could see and what information he was privy to.

The book is quite thorough; it gives background on the pre-state militias (Haganah, Irgun, Lehi), as well as discusses their feuds- it opens with the Altalena affair and goes on to examine "The Hunting Season". It then moves forward to describe, in turn, violence and extremism from the ultra-orthodox, the political left, the nationalist-religious right, and Israel's famed quasi-fascist, Rabbi Meir Kahane, who was expelled from the Knesset for having a racist platform. The book culminates in examining the Rabin Assassination.

This book is very interesting as it not only gives much-needed background and context on the extreme right, who dominate much of the current attention given to Israeli politics, but also points out the history and extremism of OTHER camps and ideologies, such as the ultra-orthodox and the left. Not only is this interesting, it is typical of Sprinzak's sense of "fair play". While a fair amount of the book focuses on the misdeeds of the right, Sprinzak is not a name caller, nor a finger-wagger- he is merely a chronicler. And as such, he feels compelled to point out the violence of ALL members of Israeli society.

Impressively, Sprinzak is able to do all this while maintaining an objective professionalism. While he clearly identifies himself as a Laborite, he soundly condemns all political violence, AND simultaneously seems to give the impression that he sympathizes with many of the people he describes- not because he approves of what they do, but rather, he understands the frustration that drives them to their actions. The result is very powerful, and very balanced. Best of all, like any good academic, Sprinzak is thorough enough to give us SOURCES!

I must admit, it was quite refreshing to be able to learn about a part of Israel's history that is often referenced but rarely directly spoken about, for fear it will be exploited. The fact that Sprinzak chose to isolate INTERNAL Israeli violence from the continuous Middle East conflict was another crucial and excellent choice; to muddle up his research with background on the PLO, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad would have done nothing but distract readers from the main purpose of the book: taking an honest look at both examing and understanding the roots of ISRAELI political violence and extremism. For many non-Israeli readers, this may be the first time you realize that the Middle East conflict is not just about Israelis vs. Palestinians. It's not just "who gets a state", but also "what kind of state will we have"? This book goes a long way to giving people an inside view into the political history of Israel- and how far some people have been willing to go.

The book's one drawback is that the epilogue, in which Sprinzak describes various scenarios that might result in the short-term aftermath of Rabin's killing now seem outdated. It is a shame he was not able to publish a second edition before his death.

In short, the book gets points for being easy to read (Sprinzak apparently learned from his earlier book, "The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right", which in some places, was painful to read), having a lot of interesting (and for many, NEW) information, and for being able to maintain a good sense of balance. It's only negative mark (perhaps worthy of a half or quater-point deduction) is that it was written in 1996, rather than 2003; it would have been nice to get Sprinzak's take on the current goings-on in Israel.

A fitting capstone to this great man's legacy. I look forward to the day when a similar project (in both scope and honesty) is completed by a Palestinian scholar.

I have this book. Ehud was one of my Proffessers at the Hebrew University Political Science Dept. in the 70's and this is an excelent book about Israeli Violent Politics. It is a unique study. It covers a long period. Although the book is New, it reflects the situation before Ehud Barak got elected. But the first Chapters about the Altalena are also very interesting. Ehud told us then that from 1948 till 1967 extra-parliementary Politics was getting less. Since the Idelogical Problem of what to do with the territories taken in 1967 there has been a rise in Politics outside the Knesset. The book also covers Kahanism and the background to the Tragic murder of Rabin.

This is a timely collection of some retrospection why islam and muslims had suddenly become the villain in the mind of the west. The author painstakinly dissected the current arguments and shows that its actually same orientalist veiwpoint that was once obscured all the intellectual thinkings in nineteenth century and before. After the cold war since US needed a new enemy, islam served as a potential candidate thanks to the zionist lobby. After reading Bernard Lewis's "what went wrong" and not being satisfied by his answers, I personally was looking for an explanation of what really went wrong. Dr. Alam explains that in a lucid way how various historico-socio-economic conditions led the demise of the once powerful islamic empire from Cordova to Indonesia. No wonder Dr. ALam is so villified in the media for having the courage to say and unveil the naked truth.

Challenging New Orientalism is more than a mere collection of "dissenting essays." No, this compendium is a lantern, illuminating the truths behind many of the Orientalist myths that have distorted Western perceptions of Islamicate societies. One such claim is that Islam and democracy are mutually exclusive. Armed with a deep understanding of the social sciences and humanities, Alam uses economics, political science, theology, philosophy, and history to combat the arguments made by so many for so long, including such highly-regarded Orientalists as Bernard Lewis, Samuel Huntington, and Thomas Friedman. Meticulously researched and carefully crafted, Alam takes time to first deconstruct popular arguments and pervasive themes, before offering his own, fact-based explanation for how history has shaped the current dialectic between Islam and the West using poetic prose that is easy to follow and difficult to put down. In the end, while the reader may not adopt Alam's view on the current situation, one would hope the reader no longer blindly accepts the view of the Orientalist.

Written by M. Shahid Alam (Professor of Economics at Northeastern University, Boston) Challenging the New Orientalism: Dissenting Essays on the "War Against Islam" is a post-September 11th anthology of short essays sharply critiquing "new Orientalism" - specifically, Western demonization of the Islamic world. While recognizing the political and economic failings of the Islamic world, Alam denounces the not-really-hidden objective of new Orientalism: to justify American and Israeli grabs for power, territory and influence as a security imperative and civilizing mission. Challenging the New Orientalism does not in any way condone terrorist acts; however, it does urge readers to think deeply about fundamental mishandling of modern situations - such as bungled wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that are ultimately creating terrorists faster than allied Islamic governments can catch them. Of particular interest are Alam's two essays critical of well-known New York Times political columnist Thomas Friedman. An emphatic, vociferously passionate counter against the tendency to frame Islam itself as a harmful, retrogressive, or pro-terrorist force.

This is a fascinating book about the Middle East. It is written with an understanding and honesty that seems to stem from the author's direct involvement with the situation. This personal perspective makes it a very interesting and compelling read. I did not want to put the book down, which is unusual for me when reading non-fiction. The personal perspective brought the issues to life in a way that was exciting and informative. I recommend this book highly.

I have been involved for over thirty years with the developments in Israel and therefore consider myself well-versed and aware of the general gist of the principal political leaders opinions during this time.
What for me was new and informative, and therefore very interesting, were the thoughts and feelings of the second echelon of opinion makers over the past decade "plus", that were expressed in their own words in these interviews.
I very much liked the chronological presentation of the twentysix interviews which forced me to relive and review this last decade and which made me realize the very substancial convergence of ideas, if not feelings, among the Israeli protagonists.
The afterword by LC is to the point, concise and hopeful but not overly optimistic. (I agree.)

From the beginning, The Charney Report : Confronting the Israeli-Arab Conflict draws you in. It starts with a historical perpective of the conflict and then is followed by excepts of interviews from his television programs. These interviews are fascinating, captivating and straight to the point.

I couldn't put it down!

This powerful photographic essay of few words describes the lives and tragic deaths of Jewish children in the holocaust and those who survived.
It consists of photos from the archives at Yad Vashem: The Holocaust Martyrs and Rememrance Authority in Jerusalem, Israel.
It shows pictures of these children, many who were murdered, and some who survived during the holocaust, it is both stark and tender.
As Elie Wiesel said of this little book: "Look at these children. Look at their faces. They will break your heart'.
The book begins : "Before the Nazis . . . some children lived in towns like this," showing the children in happier times, going on to their suffering and starvation in the ghettos and in too many cases their evential murder.
Real pictures of real children who lived during those times.
The hope lies in their memories and of the stories of those who survived'
Few words and many pictures, it brings home the tragedy of these times to young readers, in a way that few books can.
I have been to Yad Vashem, and have also seen throughout Israel, many beautiful children, and remembered that children like these were once cruelly murdered in their hundreds of thousands by the Nazis.
Israel must protect her children!

This is a wonderfully touching book that introduces elementary age children to the holocost. The pictures are poignant and draw the children in. The text is simple and thought provoking. Children begin to realize that war affects everyone even the children.

I am a 6th grade teacher of a multicultural awareness course in NJ. I came across this book last year and it was excellent. The pictures give the whole story in a very simple and powerful manner.
I also found excellent discussion questions in "Memories of the Night: A study of the Holocaust by Anita Meyer Meinbach.
I think Chan Byers "The Children we remember" is a must in the classroom library.

This is it for me! The ultimate guide to what is a vibrant & exciting city. She takes you through every different section of the city covering history, architecture, very up-to-date restaurants, bars & shopping addresses. Great book to own and looks fantastic on your coffee table ;)

Great book, nice presentation, nice images - really gives you a feel and a desire to get out there and see all the places listed.
Highly recommended

I by myself live in Tel Aviv, and you hardly can know all of the trendy things going on here, and this book shows them all, and in a very concise form, both visually as well as textually. I personally would have preferred to get even more pictures of the places than being printed in the book (usually a few pictures of one place), but overall every guest of this city will get with this book a clear view, and will know what to visit and where to hang out. Excellent book, highly recommended.

All this time, my friends and colleagues have told me that Bill Clinton was "the most pro-Israel President of all time." They could not have been more WRONG! Reading David Crystal's book has been eye-openning and has underscored how we have allowed people to so easily revise history to suite their personal and political agendas. I commend Mr. Crystal for having the courage and intellectual rigor to find the truth and report on it.

This book is very informative and is a must read for anyone interested in American or Israeli politics. Although the writer may have a bias, he attacked the subject matter very objectively and fairly. Everything in this book appears to be 100% factual. It is also well-written

I knew Clinton was a jerk when it came to domestic politics; but I didn't realize how much damage he had done in the international arena until I read this book. Clinton really put the screw to the Jews; it's amazing how few really know that. I commend the author for teaching me something.

This book is a compilation of ten essays written by Hays over the years. The essays are brilliant and might take reading over several times to fully digest. Hays considers Paul's hermeneutic of the Old Testament and cites several examples in I Corinthians that show how Paul considered the church to be the eschatological people of God. The arguments he presents are pursuasive and compelling. In another section of the book Hays expounds Paul's train of thought in the last few verses of Romans 3 and Romans 4. The insights he offers into this section of Romans is alone worth the price of the book. He shows how Paul mounts an argument from the law to show that the law always pointed to inclusion of the Gentiles, who were apart from the law, into Abraham's family. Like another reviewer here noted, Hays failure to translate certain German texts is frustrating and would have been helpful. Hays makes a couple of points that I didn't necessarily agree with. For example, he contends that Paul's argument in Galatians hinges on the understanding of the singular seed as an allusion to David's seed in II Sam. 7. I need to re-read this section but I believe that N.T. Wrights idea of the incorporative use of Christos in Galatians 3:16 sounds more reasonable to me, especially in light of Pauls conclusion in 3:29. It seems to me that Paul's quotation of the relevant Genesis texts would be dis-ingenuous knowing that the 'seed' there is a collective singular. Wright's incorporative idea of Christos might also have been helpful regarding Hay's interpretation of Habbakuk 2:4. Overall, this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

In Conversion, Hayes shares with us some of his early research that led him to his excellent "Echoes of Scripture." His posit that we must read Paul as a preacher of the hope of Israel, while sounding simple, is profoundly important. Pau's claim that his gospel was nothing but the fulfillment and proclamation of that spoken by the prophets has incredible implications for the proper understanding of the N. T., and yet, in the amillennial and postmillennial worlds, this truth is greatly misunderstood, or ignored.
Hays' suggested rewording of Romans 4:1 is particularly provocative, and sets the stage for opening our eyes to a totally different interpretation of that text/context than has been the center of the faith-v-works polemic for so long.
I highly recommend Conversion of the Imagination. If you read this work carefully, it may be that you also, like Paul, have a conversion of the imagination!

In order to understand Paul, one of the things that is of major importance is understanding how he understood the bible of the early Church (the Old Testament). Hays has spent over two decades learning how Paul handled the Old Testament, and this along with his Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul will richly repay study. The last and briefest essay (originally appearing as an article in The Christian Century), "A Hermeneutic of Trust," should be read by everyone who wants to know why some scholars (and others) take such a loose view of the authority of Scripture, and who wants to be reassured that we stand under, not over, Scripture. Recommended.

Keeping kosher and not eating much meat, I always love vegetarian and fish dishes , especially when they are as great as these. The only section I found a bit lacking in originality was soups ; could have used more and more original recipes for those.

FANTASTIC ASPARAGUS SOUP RECIPE!!!
I just bought this book and have made this soup and it was out of this world! great kosher dairy vegitarian recipes - pics for everything! - easy to use and fun to read!
Love it so much buying 2 for my mom and grandmother for mothers day!!

A wonderful collection of dairy dishes that I can't wait to make my own! As a Kosher cook, I don't mix dairy and meat in one dish or one meal. Whenever I want to plan a meal that will be dairy only,I always have to search through many of my cookbooks to find non meat recipes. Finally, with this book, I have 80 recipes that are just dairy. All the dishes in this book seem perfect for everyday meals or those special occasions you want to show off! Incredibly, this cookbook has a photograph for every recipe. The photos are so tempting that you find yourself moving your nose closer to the page trying to smell the dishes. Reading through the recipes I wanted to try every recipe from homemade granola, cheese pancakes, heuvos rancheros,tomato rice soup, diet vegetable soup, french onion soup, tuna nicoise (with fresh tuna), walnut encrusted salmon, linguini with salmon, penne a la vodka, pesto pizza, portabella tower, chocolate yodel cake, three layer carrot muffins, zucchini muffins and strawberry shortcake. These are only a few of the 80 delectable recipes. This cookbook would make a lovely gift to the newly wed or the busy mom, someone new to cooking and baking or someone like myself who has been cooking and baking for many years from a cookbook collection of 500 plus books. The recipe instructions are clear and informative. The author really takes you through each recipe step by step.
I hope this review has helped you.