Israel Books

This book is wonderful... There is a large portion of geometric intuition on varieties that this book provides that have made learning about dual varieties and descriminants fascinating. As a word of caution though, this book is somewhat densely packed information-wise, and has no exercises - so while really interesting, for initially learning about algebraic geometry, you're probably going to want to have supplementary materials.

New York Times magazine journalist Gertrude Samuels visited Israel periodically before 1967.She would often stay at the frontier kibbutz of Gonen on the Syrian border. This kibbutz was under fire from the Syrians, and courageously maintained a presence in the face of this hostlity. In this small work Samuels tells the story of the kibbutz during the Six Day War. She writes sympathetically about the Israelis, their plight, their dedication to their country, their hardworking modesty. She captures the spirit of another time. She gives portraits of the individuals. This is an excellent descriptive work which though it does not go very deep gives a true picture and feeling of the Israeli society of another time.

H J Heinz is best known today for the labels on his condiments and for his descendant's relatively unpredictable widow, currently the wife of the unsuccessful Presidential hopeful John Kerry. But in his day, in and around Sharpsburg PA, Heinz was known as a man so utterly trustworthy that when his first (and initially successful) horseradish business went belly up, he paid all of his creditors in full. It took years. But it was a matter of principle.

As this book shows, Heinz is one of two well known Pittsburgh business marvels who also had what we will call a life of conscience and community concern. George Westinghouse being the other. Yes, there are many other less-well known Pittsburghers of that era who also had a compassion for others and a desire to serve; Robert Pitcairn and William Penn Snyder, for instance. But we will not mention the two best-known steel barons. They had a different agenda altogether.

So, read this if you are wondering if great business success and goodness can co-exist. They can. They did. In H J Heinz.

Disengagement Through The Lens is not only a moving pictorial documenting a tumultous time in Israeli history, but also a concise timeline of events up to, during, and after. Providing maps, biblical quotes, and the history of each community, you will find yourself with not only a timely retelling of the event, but also a historical reference to sharpen your recall as time dims the memory.
Authors William King and Emilia Kahan have provided us with a window into a thriving community as it was being uprooted from it's home.
The photos speak volumes.

The novel covers the active lifetime of the prophet Jeremiah, which paralleled major political, cultural and sociological struggles in the Middle-East. It incorporates themes of the fall of the Kingdom of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem, the exile of the Jewish people and the redaction of the bible. The movement of the narrative focus between lyrical renderings of landscape and analytical portrayal of biblical events is fluid, while the characters and events are introduced and supported in much authority and credibility. Indeed a wealth of archaelogical remains and actual texts helped reconstruct the period of reference, so that the reader feels involoved in something of much more importance than a normal 'story'.

As Londoner Colin Shindler wrote in the Jerusalem Post last July, Dr. Rory Miller's book about British opposition to a Jewish State from 1945 to 1948 shows that slanders routinely hurled against Israel in the liberal British press are all part of a continuum.

Miller focuses on three anti-Zionist bodies--the Jewish Fellowship, the Arab Office and the Committee for Arab Affairs.

The Fellowship, founded in 1942, included important Anglo-Jewish figures such as Basil Henriques, Viscount Bearstead, Lord Swaythling, and several Jewish Conservative MP--as well as Liberal Synagogue chief Rabbi Israel Mattuck, Sir Leonard Lionel Cohen (the first Jewish Lord Justice) and Sir Robert Waley Cohen, president of the United Synagogue, the flagship of the traditional mainstream. They openly opposed Zionism after Lord Moyne's murder in November 1944. Israel's potential rebirth threatened these semi-assimilated Anglicized Jews, who realized that reports of the extermination of European Jewry did nothing to lessen British anti-Semitism during the war.

They feared an Israel reborn would limit their hopes to become Jewish Britons rather than British Jews and expected accusations of dual loyalty to follow any support for Zionism. They also refused to equate Zionism with Judaism (as had Max Nordeau at the Second Zionist Congress in 1898.)

The Fellowship in no way cooperated with other anti-Zionist bodies such as the Arab Office, whose goal was to promote Arab causes in Britain, or the Committee for Arab Affairs (CAA), neither of which cared a fig about Jewish identity. But the latters' efforts to kill the Jewish state before it was born were equally intense.

The CAA, established in 1945 by Sir Edward Spears (another former Conservative MP) quickly became the vehicle of non-Jewish Arabists and anti-Zionists. Financed via London's Arab Legations, often via the Arab Club's account, the group at its peak successfully lobbied as many as 40 Members of Parliament. Sir Ronald Storrs, the former military governor of Jerusalem following the Balfour Declaration, was a prominent CAA leader. This perceived Middle East expert was badly informed and prejudiced, according to David Fromkin's Peace to End All Peace. According to Miller he was also terribly anti-Zionist. In articles in the Sunday Times, Storrs claimed that the Histadrut had promoted strikes in order to force independent companies out of business so they could be taken over. The charge prompted legal action, and Storrs and the Sunday Times were forced to issue a joint apology, a series of events that mightily miffed Storrs.

Then CAA chief Spears, "the defining personality in the anti-Zionist camp," according to Miller, actively took up his cause on returning to London from a ministerial position in the Levant at the end of 1944. The Jewish Chronicle regarded him as "the Pickwickian fatboy" enslaved to the Arab cause. Spears may have been the first to outlandishly compare Zionism to Nazism. He claimed (equally outlandishly) that the Yishuv supported the Allies during the war for profit. After Israel's establishment, many British anti-Zionists gave up, but Spears continued trying to delegitimize the Jewish state until he died in the 1970s.

Miller provides an excellent window onto the campaign of British anti-Zionists, an important area few others have considered. Alyssa A. Lappen

Rabbi Dolgin was a man of great learning and great middot, a leader and builder in Israel. I had the privilege of listening to him at various Shiurim in the Beit Knesset he built in Ramot Eshkol in Jerusalem. His Torahs bring light to the world and who reads and studies this volume will be enlightened by it.

This book tells all about jewish photographers in Palestine / Israel in the years 1890-1933. A fascinating book and a great gift!

A perfectly wonderful read. I picked up The Dog of Knots, found myself transported in time and place, and, when my journey had ended, I felt enlightened and thankful.

This book touches upon so many emotions...the love of family and friends, the pain of loss, the anxiety of impending peril, and one remarkable unifying element...the simple and basic compassion for a tired old stray dog. Ms. Kaplan has shown us that humanity is both precious and everlasting, despite all of our religious and political differences.

Deep in symbolism, rich in characters, and a story that has you enchanted from page one. The perfect 'family' book.

I bought this right after Passover and I think I will read it during Passover preparation every year! I laughed out loud so many times my family thought I was losing it! Besides being funny, it is also informative. I highly recommend it!