"Now, life." This week's #SundaySentence comes from Eli Sharabi's HOSTAGE (trans. Eylon Levy), as quoted in a @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social review by @ssecunda.bsky.social that I've #JustRead. www.erikadreifus.com/2025/10/sund...

Our Fall issue is now online!

My recent romp through the history of the Jewish cult of saints, is out with @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo... Visiting the Graves of the Righteous: Inns of Molten Blue - Jewish Review of Books

Ever wonder about the strange Aramaic invitation at the beginning of the Passover Haggadah? Check out my piece in last year's issue of @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social Many thanks to @ssecunda.bsky.social for his friendship and editorial wizardry! jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

Happy to announce the Spring issue, timely Passover- and other-wise, with discussion of war in Gaza and dissent against oppressive government, while also keeping our heads in the clouds, or at least in poetry about the strange air above a librarian’s ladder. jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/spring...

What a cover!!!

Winter issue just dropped, with a book review by Adam Kirsch, movie review by Emil Stern, an essay by Malka Simkovitch, a necrology by Ben Balint, soccer hooligan memories by Mark Glanville, and much much more! jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/winter...

This book, a clear-eyed, terrifying collection of field notes by a skilled anthropologist writing from the field and fog of war in Gaza, has left me shaking.

Elegant response by @elirubin.bsky.social to Reviel Netz's piece on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's menorah. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

There’s hardly anyone saying anything fresh, new, interesting and weird about Israel and Palestine. Actually, I think there’s only one: Ammon (Nono) Raz-Krakotzkin. If you know Hebrew, can do meandering podcasts, and have patience for a long runway, this is a must. open.spotify.com/episode/7dRT...

Incunabula in the news

Excited to participate in this event celebrating Galit Hasan-Rokem’s book.

In spending a life pondering why talmudic arguments often turned on unlikely interpretations, Halivni was not merely asking what motivated talmudic passages; he was trying to explain the literary character of the bedrock text of rabbinic Judaism, and his life. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

New position at The Jewish Theological Seminary: The inaugural Robert S. Rifkind Chair in American Jewish history (open-rank, tenure track) 🗃️ www.h-net.org/jobs/job_dis...

When Bellow met Agnon in Jerusalem, "[Agnon] asked me if any of my books had been translated into Hebrew. If they had not been, I had better see to it immediately, because, he said, they would survive only in the Holy Tongue." They were speaking in Yiddish. jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jew...

Truly beautiful, short history of the Kibbutz by the rabbinicist (!) Mira Balberg. escholarship.org/uc/item/8316....

One of the few toys about which I still remember the details of play.

Did Bendahan write a modernist novel, an ethnographic portrait of Tetouani Sephardi life, or maybe, a brilliant and ambivalent piece of feminist fiction repurposing the old (antisemitic and antifeminist) trope of the beautiful Jewess? J Kornberg on "Mazaltob" jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

Significant auction of mainly rabbinic manuscripts at Sotheby's. There are real treasures here: Volumes of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, a couple of Sefer ha-Arukhs, etc. Some prices are high, but there is a certain reasonableness, lacking from some heimishe a. houses. www.sothebys.com/en/buy/aucti...

Sit in on a meeting of the board of any Jewish organization or watch the Knesset Channel...and you will find ample confirmation that Jewish politics is messy. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Prof. Elisheva Carlebach on the Jewish Political Tradition. jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/601...

You know how in time-travel movies, images of people who no longer exist fade from photographs? Well, the rabbis imagined the ink, which had inscribed your name in the record books, flying off of the papyrus.

"[Korah's family] and everything that belonged to them descended alive into the pit"—Rabbi Berakhiah in the name of Rabbe Helbo: Even their names flew off the papyrus rolls! (ySan 10:1; 28a) וירדו הם וכל אשר להם חיים שאולה רבי ברכיה בשם רבי חלבו אף שמותיהם פרחו מתוך טמסותיהם

www.brepols.net/products/IS-... A great day for scholars / יומא טבא לרבנן

For all you Jewish Review of Books readers, fans and haters alike, I draw your attention to JRB's first steps on Bluesky. It will be a worthwhile feed, so follow the magazine at @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social !