Books
Brilliant ‘Crucible’ Returns to Broadway With Gripping Message for Age of Trump
Arthur Miller’s 1953 masterpiece of witch trials and McCarthyism returns to Broadway in a brilliant revival that reminds the viewer all too well of what Philip Roth referred to as “The indigenous American berserk.”
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Remembering the Indomitable Jewish Spirit of Imre Kertész
Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész has died at the age of 86. Benjamin Ivry recalls the author’s identity as a Jewish writer and his pointed criticism of those who wrote about the Holocaust.
Remembering the Inspirational Legacy of Aharon Megged
Israeli writer Aharon Megged has died at the age of 95. Benjamin Ivry remembers the legacy of the fiery and contradictory scribe who was anything but the hackneyed stereotype of an inward-looking kibbutznik.
How A.J. Liebling Became BFF’s With Albert Camus
Almost exactly years ago, A.J. Liebling became infatuated with a French stranger named Albert Camus. Robert Zaretsky chronicles the surprising friendship between the Jewish New Yorker writer and the French existentialist.
Eat, Drink + Think
Artisanal Matzo From Brooklyn — and All the Dish
Matzapalooza, Italian=style Seder, pros cook Passover, plus restaurant openings and closings, chefs on the move and everything happening this week in the world of Jewish food.
This Isn’t Boris Fishman’s First ‘Rodeo’
Seeking literary inspiration, Russian-Jewish author Boris Fishman looks west twice — to America itself and to Montana where he sets his new novel “Don’t Let My Baby Do Rodeo.”
The Enduring Mysteries of Raoul Wallenberg
A new herculean effort of investigative journalism has cleared up some mysteries regarding Raoul Wallenberg’s wartime heroism. But there are some that even biographer Ingrid Carlberg can’t solve.
Remembering Geoffrey Hartman — Wordsworthian, Critic and Holocaust Scholar
Geoffrey Hartman — who survived World War II via the Kindertransport and went on to be a famed scholar and critic at Yale — has died at the age of 85. Talya Zax remembers his legacy.
Arthur Koestler Fans Should Brace Themselves For a New ‘Darkness at Noon’
Arthur Koestler’s 1940 novel “Darkness at Noon” is considered one of the great novels of the 20th Century. A discovery of a new manuscript may change how we view the classic allegory of totalitarianism.
Love in the Time of Viagra
A former student and intimate acquaintance of Bernard Malamud makes her fiction debut. Julia M. Klein discusses “Scary Old Sex,” by Arlene Heyman.
