Books And Blintzes

For the Art of Jewish Learning and Living

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Jerusalem As A Second Language - Distelheim

Jerusalem As A Second Language – Distelheim

The story of a Russian family that finds itself suddenly part of the wave of Jewish immigration to Israel in the aftermath of the fall of communism, Jerusalem As A Second Languagehas all the hallmarks of the best kind of coming of age story. As the Zelinikov family learns to navigate their new country, and the new religious, political, economic, and social relationships that go along with it,…

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Adar – You Were Their Salvation

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999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz - Heather Dune Macadam

999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz – Heather Dune Macadam

Writer and researcher Heather Dune Macadam has given over a decade of attention to the narratives at the core of her book’s work, and her devotion to her subjects presents readers with a remarkably original and balanced narrative. In 999, she follows the first group of young Jewish women to be deported to Auschwitz, some of whom were just teenagers at the time. With her sharp focus on this…

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Your Line On The Throne Of Israel Shall Never End

Your Line On The Throne Of Israel Shall Never End

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Kislev 5780 - #JewishTextArtChallenge

Kislev 5780 – #JewishTextArtChallenge

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The Song of the Jade Lily - Kirsty Manning

The Song of the Jade Lily - Kirsty Manning #bookreview

A grandmother and her granddaughter face the secrets of their past in Kirsty Manning’s elegant and lovingly told novel The Song of the Jade Lily.

Romy fled Vienna with her parents in 1939, arriving in Shanghai comparatively privileged among the Jewish refugees seeking a safe haven from the Nazis. Their new neighbors, the Ho family, are ethnic Chinese, and when the city is captured by the…

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Journey To Open Orthodoxy - Rabbi Avi Weiss

Journey To Open Orthodoxy – Rabbi Avi Weiss

With his new collected volume of writings Journey To Open Orthodoxy, Rabbi Avi Weiss presents how his thinking and experiences have come together to shape his vision for the future of the Jewish people. Reaching beyond the limitations of a denominational platform, these essays articulate a menu of possibilities on a wide-range of topics, from halacha to Jewish leadership, diversity and inclusion…

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The 5780 BooksAndBlintzes Holiday Bookshelf Guide - From Rosh HaShanah to Simchat Torah

The 5780 BooksAndBlintzes Holiday Bookshelf Guide – From Rosh HaShanah to Simchat Torah

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The air is getting chillier, leaves are exploding with color, and Jewish communities around the world are getting ready to celebrate a month-long holiday-palooza. In addition to (hopefully) eating delicious food and spending time with our loved ones, we may also be spending hours in synagogue services, which along with all the screen-free days for the…

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White Zion - Gila Green

White Zion – Gila Green

With a vibrancy and complexity that brings her characters and their stories to life, Gila Green’s latest book, White Zion is a celebration of her artistry. Written as a collection of stories, it weaves together the tales of generations as Green crosses continents, watches empires fall, and new countries and families emerge.

Readers who are familiar with Green’s other works will find themselves…

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Floating In The Neversink - Andrea Simon

Book Review! Floating In The Neversink by Andrea Simon

Like many others of my generation, my earliest images of the Catskill mountains and its Jewish summer bungalow and resort communities, came directly from the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing. While my imagination will always equate the Catskills with the fictional Kellerman’s and the popular mythology of real-life Kutcher’s , Andrea Simon’s new book Floating In The Neversinkshowcases the summer Jewish…

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Never A Native - Alice Shalvi

Never A Native - Alice Shalvi A book review by BooksAndBlintzes.com

Alice Shalvi is a force to be reckoned with, and in her memoir, Never A Native, she describes how a refugee German Jewish girl became one of the most important voices in Israeli feminism and social politics. From its early descriptions of her family’s fight from the Nazis to England in the 1930s to her celebrated work re-shaping the academic and political fabric of a new nation state, Shalvi’s…

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Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman

Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman

In Spies of No Country, Matti Friedman turns his laser-like investigative focus to the “Arab Section”, a tiny group of Jews from Arab countries who were recruited to secure intelligence for the pre-Israel military. As he did in his debut Pumpkinflowers, Friedman offers a sliver of history, a small narrative easily overlooked in the saga of a much large conflict. In Pumpkinflowersit was a hilltop.…

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From Longing To Belonging by Shelly Christensen

"From Longing To Belonging" by Shelly Christensen - Book review from booksandblintzes.com #inclusion #jewishcommunity #mustread #disabilities

It’s the book every Jewish institution has been waiting for – a comprehensive and practical approach to making inclusion an actionable organizational principal. While nearly all synagogues, educational programs and community service providers WANT to be accommodating and attentive to the needs of their stakeholders, knowing HOW to do this is where so many get stuck. And for those, who like the…

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Jewish Text Art Challenge - Tammuz - The Two Tablets

Jewish Text Art Challenge – Tammuz – The Two Tablets

In the middle of summer and the Torah reading cycle firmly in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers), why does this month’s Jewish Text Art Challenge text come from the book of Shemot (Exodus)?

This verse, which is part of the famous narrative of the Ten Commandments and the golden calf, is also part of the Torah reading for minor fast days. One of these is the 17th of Tammuz, which commemorates…

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Jewish Text Art Challenge Sivan – First Fruits Celebrated on the 6th day of the hebrew month Sivan, the holiday of Shavuot is a highlight of the Jewish calendar.

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The Rabbi Finds Her Way - Robert Schoen with Catherine de Cuir

The Rabbi Finds Her Way - Robert Schoen with Catherine de Cuir - Book Review @bookandblintz @StoneBridgePress

What does a rabbi do all day? This is the question at the center of this lively and entertaining introduction to Rabbi Pearl Ross. Readers join her journey as she steps into her position as Assistant Rabbi at a large and prosperous Reform congregation near her hometown, falls in love, and addresses a long-time rift with her estranged sister.

Robert Schoen and Catherine de Cuir’s writing,…

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A Land Flowing With Milk And Honey The verse we selected for the Hebrew month of Shevat focuses on the connection to the land of Israel inspired by the holiday of Tu B'Shevat.