Golda Meir: Israel's Matriarch

A balanced biography of Golda Meir, who was both adored and abhorred, from award-winning author Deborah E. Lipstadt
 
Golda Meir (1898–1978) was the first and only woman to serve as prime minister of Israel. She was born in Kiev into a childhood of poverty, hunger, and antisemitism. When she was five, her father left to find work in America, and a year later the family settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As a teenager she became devoted to Labor Zionism, giving street-corner speeches, and her family’s home became a destination for Zionist emissaries. Her love for Labor Zionism was so fervent that her boyfriend, Morris Meyerson (her future husband), was often in competition with her dedication to the cause.
 
Zionism prevailed. In 1921, Golda left America for Palestine with Morris and her sister Sheyna. Though the reality of living in Palestine was far from the dream of Zionism, Meir settled on the kibbutz Merhavia and was swiftly appointed to the Histadrut (the General Organization of Hebrew Workers in Palestine). As an ally of the Zionist David Ben-Gurion, Meir played an important role in the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine; proved an almost singular ability to connect and fundraise with diaspora Jewry, particularly Americans; and served in three pivotal positions following Israel’s independence: labor secretary of the newly formed state, foreign minister, and Israel’s fourth prime minister.
 
In tracing the life of Golda Meir, acclaimed author Deborah E. Lipstadt explores the history of the Yishuv and Jewish state from the 1920s through the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all while highlighting the contradictions and complexities of a person who was only the third woman to serve as a head of state in the twentieth century.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Deborah E. Lipstadt is the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies at Emory University. Her award-winning books include Denying the Holocaust, History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier (the basis for the film Denial), Antisemitism: Here and Now, The Eichmann Trial, and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945. Ambassador Lipstadt currently serves as the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism. She lives in Washington, DC.

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Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence

An intimate look at Elie Wiesel, author of the seminal Holocaust memoir Night and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
 
As an orphaned survivor and witness to the horrors of Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) compelled the world to confront the Holocaust with his searing memoir Night. How did this soft-spoken man from a small Carpathian town become such an influential figure on the world stage? Drawing on Wiesel’s prodigious literary output and interviews with his family, friends, scholars, and critics, Joseph Berger seeks to answer this question.
 
Berger explores Wiesel’s Hasidic childhood in Sighet, his postwar years spent rebuilding his life from the ashes in France, his transformation into a Parisian intellectual, his failed attempts at romance, his years scraping together a living in America as a journalist, his decision to marry and have a child, his emergence as a spokesperson for Holocaust survivors and persecuted peoples throughout the world, his lifelong devotion to the state of Israel, and his difficult final years. Through this penetrating portrait we come to know intimately the man the Norwegian Nobel Committee called “a messenger to mankind.”

Joseph Berger was a New York Times reporter, columnist, and editor for thirty years, and he continues to contribute periodically. He has taught urban affairs at the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College. He is the author of Displaced Persons: Growing Up American After the Holocaust and lives in New York City.

Elie Wiesel: Confronting the Silence

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Maimonides: Faith in Reason

An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one of the world’s foremost bibliophiles
 
Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.
 
As a scholar of Jewish law, a physician, and a philosopher, Maimonides was a singular figure. His work in extracting all the commanding precepts of Jewish law from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, interpreting and commenting on them, and translating them into terms that would allow students to lead sound Jewish lives became the model for translating God’s word into a language comprehensible by all. His work in medicine—which brought him such fame that he became Saladin’s personal physician—was driven almost entirely by reason and observation.
 
In this biography, Alberto Manguel examines the question of Maimonides’ universal appeal—he was celebrated by Jews, Arabs, and Christians alike. In our time, when the need for rationality and recognition of the truth is more vital than ever, Maimonides can help us find strategies to survive with dignity in an uncertain world.

Alberto Manguel is an internationally acclaimed reader, writer, and interpreter of a broad array of texts. From 2015 to 2018 he was the director of the National Library of Argentina. His books include The Library at Night and Fabulous Monsters. He lives in Lisbon.

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Mel Brooks: Disobedient Jew

A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy
 
Mel Brooks, born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926, is one of the great comic voices of the twentieth century. Having won almost every entertainment award there is, Brooks has straddled the line between outsider and insider, obedient and rebellious, throughout his career, making out-of-bounds comedy the American mainstream.
 
Jeremy Dauber argues that throughout Brooks’s extensive body of work—from Your Show of Shows to Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein to Spaceballs—the comedian has seen the most success when he found a balance between his unflagging, subversive, manic energy and the constraints imposed by comedic partners, the Hollywood system, and American cultural mores. Dauber also explores how Brooks’s American Jewish humor went from being solely for niche audiences to an essential part of the American mainstream, paving the way for generations of Jewish (and other) comedians to come.

Jeremy Dauber is a professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University. His books include Jewish Comedy and The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem, both finalists for the National Jewish Book Award, and, most recently, American Comics: A History. He lives in New York City.

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Historian Anita Shapira on David Ben-Gurion

Casting a great shadow during his lifetime, David Ben-Gurion's legacy continues as one of the most important Zionist icons and the founder of modern Israel. As we prepare to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary of statehood, explore the story of Ben-Gurion's life anew with master historian Anita Shapira and gain new insights into his experience leading the new state of Israel through its early years, focusing on the personal qualities that defined his political leadership.

This program was hosted by Park Avenue Synagogue and the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

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Arthur Miller: American Witness

“New Yorker critic Lahr shines in this searching account of the life of playwright Arthur Miller. . . . It’s a great introduction to a giant of American letters.” —Publishers Weekly

“No one writes about playwrights and the theater the way John Lahr does. In this probing, brilliantly insightful, and also deeply readable and entertaining book, he offers unique insight into how Miller’s mind works, and how the details of his biography impacted his body of work.” —Sarah Ruhl, MacArthur Prizewinning playwright

Distinguished theater critic John Lahr brings unique perspective to the life of Arthur Miller (1915–2005), the playwright who almost single-handedly propelled twentieth-century American theater into a new level of cultural sophistication. Organized around the fault lines of Miller’s life—his family, the Great Depression, the rise of fascism, Elia Kazan and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Marilyn Monroe, Vietnam, and the rise and fall of Miller’s role as a public intellectual—this book demonstrates the synergy between Arthur Miller’s psychology and his plays. Concentrating largely on Miller’s most prolific decades of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, Lahr probes Miller’s early playwriting failures; his work writing radio plays during World War II after being rejected for military service; his only novel, Focus; and his succession of award-winning and canonical plays that include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible, providing an original interpretation of Miller’s work and his personality.

John Lahr has been a contributor to the New Yorker since 1991, where for twenty-one years he was its senior drama critic. He is the author of eighteen books, including Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography.

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Sidney Reilly: Master Spy by Benny Morris

A revealing biography of Sidney Reilly, the early twentieth-century virtuoso of espionage

Sidney Reilly (c. 1873–1925) is one of the most colorful and best–known spies of the twentieth century. Emerging from humble beginnings in southern Russia, Reilly was an inventive multilingual businessman and conman who enjoyed espionage as a sideline. By the early twentieth century he was working as an agent for Scotland Yard, spying on émigré communities in Paris and London, with occasional sorties to Germany, Russia, and the Far East. He spent World War I in the United States, brokering major arms deals for tsarist Russia, and then decided to become a professional spy, joining the ranks of MI6, Britain’s foreign intelligence service. He came close to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime in Moscow before eventually being lured back to Russia and executed. Said to have been the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond character, Reilly was simultaneously married to three or four women and had mistresses galore. Sifting through the reality and the myth of Reilly’s life, historian Benny Morris offers a fascinating portrait of one of the most intriguing figures from the golden age of spies.

Benny Morris is an Israeli historian, formerly professor of history in the Department of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University. He is the author of a dozen books, including 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War and Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001.

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Gift Ideas 2022: Best Gifts to Give This Year

Announcing the latest
Jewish Lives Collections

Perfect for 2022 Holiday Gifts

The Limited Edition Art Collection

$150.00

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The Limited Edition Antiquity Collection

$120.00

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The Limited Edition Origins of Israel Collection

$250.00

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The Limited Edition Thinkers Collection

$120.00

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Gorgeous gift collections for your 2022 Holiday / Hanukkah Shopping List!

The Art Collection
The Antiquity Collection
The Thinkers Collection
The Origins of Israel Collection

Celebrate Jewish heritage with limited edition gift collections of the prizewinning Jewish Lives series. These expertly curated collections will be a highlight in any family's library for generations to come.

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences.

Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present.

Jewish Lives is a partnership of Yale University Press and the Leon D. Black Foundation. 

Ruth: A Migrant's Tale by Ilana Pardes

A wide-ranging exploration of the story of Ruth, a foreigner who became the founding mother of the Davidic dynasty

The biblical Ruth has inspired numerous readers from diverse cultural backgrounds across many centuries. In this insightful volume, Ilana Pardes invites us to marvel at the ever-changing perspectives on Ruth’s foreignness. She explores the rabbis’ lauding of Ruth as an exemplary convert, and the Zohar’s insistence that Ruth’s Moabite background is vital to her redemptive powers. In moving to early modern French art, she looks at pastoral paintings in which Ruth becomes a local gleaner, holding sheaves in her hands. Pardes concludes with contemporary adaptations in literature, photography, and film in which Ruth is admired for being a paradigmatic migrant woman. Ruth’s afterlives not only reveal much about their own times, but also shine new light upon this remarkable ancient tale and point to its enduring significance. In our own era of widespread migration and dislocation, Ruth remains as relevant as ever.

Ilana Pardes is Katharine Cornell Professor of Comparative Literature and the director of the Center for Literary Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of Countertraditions in the Bible and The Song of Songs: A Biography.

Ruth: A Migrant's Tale

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Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation

In the Bible, Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero, the most popular figure in Jewish folklore, invited into every Jewish home during the Passover Seder? In Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation, his new biography in the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press, author Daniel C. Matt explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). Dr. Matt will be in conversation with Dr. Barry W. Holtz, Theodore and Florence Baumritter Professor of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

This program was hosted by the Center for Jewish History and funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This event took place on March 3, 2022.

Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation

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Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance

Watch a 1-hour exploration of the life and legacy of dance world legend Jerome Robbins.

Jerome Robbins, born in New Jersey to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, declined to join the family business and instead pursued a life in the theater, where he went on to become a renowned dancer, choreographer, writer, producer, and director. His work in ballet, Broadway, and film on such projects such as West Side Story, Peter Pan, and Fiddler on the Roof leave a legacy of artistry for generations to come.

This event took place on March 14, 2022 at Park Avenue Synagogue as part of the Reading Jewish Lives series and was co-sponsored by the Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

Jerome Robbins: A Life in Dance

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Hollywood Icons, Legendary Performers

Discover the stage and silver screen with Jewish Lives

Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power

$26.00

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Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio

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Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures

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Stan Lee: A Life in Comics

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Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker

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Steven Spielberg: A Life in Films

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Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence

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Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio

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The Limited Edition Hollywood Collection

$225.00

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VIDEO: Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power

Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986), born Chaim Godalia Rykower in a Polish shtetl, was the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history and an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. Possessing engineering brilliance, a ferocious will, a combative personality, and an indefatigable work ethic, he oversaw the development of nuclear marine propulsion and the first civilian nuclear utility.

In a new biography in the Jewish Lives series published by Yale University Press, independent historian and award-winning freelance journalist Marc Wortman, PhD, explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.

Wortman is in conversation with Bruce E. Kahn, retired U.S. Navy Chaplain and Rabbi Emeritus at Temple Sholom in Chevy Chase, MD, who co-officiated at Rickover’s memorial service.

This program is hosted by The Center for Jewish History and is funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

This event took place on February 17, 2022.

Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power

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Who is Elijah the Prophet?

In the Bible Elijah is a zealous prophet, attacking idolatry and injustice, championing God. He performs miracles, restoring life and calling down fire. When his earthly life ends, he vanishes in a whirlwind, carried off to heaven in a fiery chariot. Was this a spectacular death, or did Elijah escape death entirely? The latter view prevailed. Though residing in heaven, Elijah revisits earth—to help, rescue, enlighten, and eventually herald the Messiah. Because of his messianic role, Jews open the door for Elijah during each seder—the meal commemorating liberation from slavery and anticipating final redemption.

How did this zealot turn into a compassionate hero—apparently the most popular figure in Jewish folklore? Becoming Elijah explores this question, tracing how Elijah develops from the Bible to Rabbinic Judaism, Kabbalah, and Jewish ritual (as well as Christianity and Islam). His transformation is pertinent and inspirational for our polarized, fanatical world.

Becoming Elijah: Prophet of Transformation

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Who is Admiral Hyman Rickover?

Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. As important as the transition from sail to steam, his development of nuclear-propelled submarines and ships transformed naval power and Cold War strategy. They still influence world affairs today.

His disdain for naval regulations, indifference to the chain of command, and harsh, insulting language earned him enemies in the navy, but his achievements won him powerful friends in Congress and the White House. A Jew born in a Polish shtetl, Rickover ultimately became the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history.

In this exciting new biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.

Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power

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A Conversation with James Traub: Who is Judah Benjamin?

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis.

In this new biography in the Jewish Lives series at Yale University Press, journalist and scholar James Traub grapples with the difficult truth that Benjamin, who was considered one of the greatest legal minds in the United States, was a slave owner who deployed his oratorical skills in defense of slavery.

This program was hosted by the Center for Jewish History and funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. This event took place on October 20, 2021.

You can learn more in the new Jewish Lives biography Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy by James Traub.

Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy

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Julian Zelizer on the Life and Legacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” From his words spoken in 1965 to this day, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel remains a model of the intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America.

Explore Heschel’s early years and foundational influences; the fortuitous opportunity that brought him to the United States to study at Hebrew Union College and teach at the Jewish Theological Seminary; and his lasting legacy that has endured as a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books, and has written for CNN.com, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

This program was hosted by the Park Avenue Synagogue as part of the Reading Jewish Lives book program, and was co-sponsored by American Jewish University.

You can learn more in the new Jewish Lives biography, Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement by Julian E. Zelizer.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement

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Who is Abraham Joshua Heschel?

“When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying.” So said Polish-born American rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) of his involvement in the 1965 Selma civil rights march alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Heschel, who spoke with a fiery moralistic fervor, dedicated his career to the struggle to improve the human condition through faith.

In this new biography, author Julian Zelizer tracks Heschel’s early years and foundational influences—his childhood in Warsaw and early education in Hasidism, his studies in late 1920s and early 1930s Berlin, and the fortuitous opportunity, which brought him to the United States and saved him from the Holocaust, to teach at Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This deep and complex portrait places Heschel at the crucial intersection between religion and progressive politics in mid-twentieth-century America. To this day Heschel remains a symbol of the fight to make progressive Jewish values relevant in the secular world.

Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books, and has written for CNN.com, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement

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Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy

Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of Jefferson Davis.

In this new biography, author James Traub grapples with the difficult truth that Benjamin, who was considered one of the greatest legal minds in the United States, was a slave owner who deployed his oratorical skills in defense of slavery.

How could a man as gifted as Benjamin, knowing that virtually all serious thinkers outside the American South regarded slavery as the most abhorrent of practices, not see that he was complicit with evil? This biography makes a serious moral argument both about Jews who assimilated to Southern society by embracing slave culture and about Benjamin himself, a man of great resourcefulness and resilience who would not, or could not, question the practice on which his own success, and that of the South, was founded.

Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy

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Tags: Civil War, American History

Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream

In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel rose from desperate poverty to ill-gotten riches, from an early-twentieth-century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas.

Join Vanity Fair writer Michael Shnayerson for a 60-minute discussion in which Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel, but rather to understand him in all his complexity.

This program took place on Jul 22, 2021 in partnership with Park Avenue Synagogue, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning.

Bugsy Siegel: The Dark Side of the American Dream

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