Tragic, comic, and utterly honest, this extraordinary memoir is at once a great family saga and a magical self-portrait of a writer who witnessed the birth of a nation and lived through its turbulent history.It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the forties and fifties, in a small apartment crowded with books in twelve languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. His mother and father, both wonderful people, were ill-suited to each other. When Oz was twelve and a half years old, his mother committed suicide, a tragedy that was to change his life. He leaves the constraints of the family and the community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen and joins a kibbutz, changes his name, marries, has children, and finally becomes a writer as well as an active participant in the political life of Israel.A story of clashing cultures and lives, of suffering and perseverance, of love and darkness. (20051227)

The publication of Portnoy’s Complaint in 1969 provoked instant, powerful reactions. It blasted Philip Roth into international fame, subjected him to unrelenting personal scrutiny and conjecture, and shocked legions of readers—some delighted, others appalled. Portnoy and other main characters became instant archetypes, and Roth himself became a touchstone for conflicting attitudes toward sexual liberation, Jewish power, political correctness, Freudian language, and bourgeois disgust. What about this book inspired Richard Lacayo of Time to describe it as “a literary instance of shock and awe,” and the Modern Library to list it among the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century?Bernard Avishai offers a witty exploration of Roth’s satiric masterpiece, based on the prolific novelist's own writings, teaching notes, and personal interviews. In addition to discussing the book’s timing, rhetorical gambit, and sheer virtuousity, Avishai includes a chapter on the Jewish community’s outrage over the book and how Roth survived it, and another on the author’s scorching treatment of psychoanalysis. Avishai shows that Roth’s irreverent novel left us questioning who, or what, was the object of the satire. Hilariously, it proved the serious ways we construct fictions about ourselves and others.

The Americas, Ilan Stavans, Series Editor € Winner of a 1982 Los Angeles Times Book Prize € Selected by the New York Times for "Books of the Century" With a new introduction by Ilan Stavans and a new foreword by Arthur Miller.

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background.In CliffsNotes on Night, you follow the humanistic first-person account of a teenage boy's incarceration by the Nazi Secret Service in World War II; his experiences in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald death camps; and his struggle to find meaning among the horror.Covering little more than a year of the young narrator's life, this study guide shares a story about endurance, loyalty, and faith — all nurtured by the strength of love. Other features that help you figure out this important work includeLife and background of the author, Dr. Elie WieselA list of charactersA historical timeline of Nazi GermanyA review section that tests your knowledge and suggests essay topicsA selected bibliography that leads you to more great resourcesClassic literature or modern-day treasure — you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

"This important anthology sheds much light on the aesthetic and moral role of writers in representing the Shoah. By including both survivors and non-witnessing authors in their study, the Raphaels emphasize the universal and ongoing nature of this crucial issue." --Alan L. Berger, author, Children of Job: American Second-Generation Witnesses to the Holocaust "The Raphaels have gathered for us--teachers, students, readers--a collection of short stories built on silence: from the unspeakable events of the Holocaust through the profound silence of history to the decorous silence of racism and probity. 'The story [of the Holocaust] is never-ending,' says the introduction. Without this book we'd know less than we must know to stay alive." --Hilda Raz, editor, The Prairie Schooner Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Writing Both survivors of the Holocaust and those who were not there agree that it is impossible to tell what happened as the Nazi Final Solution was put into effect. No writing can adequately imagine the concentration camps, ghettos, and death camps. And that is precisely why writers must tell--and retell--what happened there. In When Night Fell, Linda Schermer Raphael and Marc Lee Raphael have collected twenty-six short stories that tell of the human toll of the Holocaust on those who survived its horrors, as well as later generations touched by its memory. The stories are framed by discussion of the current debate about who owns the Holocaust and who is entitled to speak about it. Some of the stories included here are by internationally acclaimed authors. Others may be new to many readers. When Night Fell is a fitting memorial to this genocidal horror, putting eloquent voice to human endurance that is--almost--beyond words. The authors included in When Night Fell: S. Y. Agnon, Yehuda Amichai, Aharon Appelfeld, Sholem Asch, Giorgio Bassani, Rachmil Bryks, Chaver Paver, Ida (Stein) Fink, Pierre Gascar, Chaim Grade, Henryk Grynberg, Rachel Haring Korn, Arnost Lustig, Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, Hans Peter Richter, Isaiah Spiegel, Leonard Tushnet, S. L. Wisenberg, and Jerzy Zawieyski.

In this fully revised and expanded edition, Nickelsburg introduces the reader to the broad range of Jewish literature that is not part of either the Bible or the standard rabbinic works. This includes especially the Apocrypha (such as 1 Maccabees), the Pseudepigrapha (such as 1 Enoch), the Dead Sea Scrolls, the works of Josephus, and the works of Philo. This new edition also has an enormously helpful CD-ROM, including biblical citation hyperlinks to the NRSV, web links to primary documents, chapter summaries, and discussion questions.

When Dr. Eva Neidorf is found dead on the morning she is to give a lecture to the Jerusalem Psychoanalytic Society, Chief Inspector Michael Ohayon investigates, revealing, along the way, intimate details about his own life. National ad/promo.

Apocalyptic literature evokes an imaginative world that is set in deliberate counterpoint to the experiential world of the present. Apocalypticism thrives especially in times of crisis, and it functions by offering a resolution of the relevant crisis, not in practical terms but in terms of imagination and faith. The Apocalyptic Imagination by John Collins is one of the most widely praised studies of Jewish apocalyptic literature ever written. And this second edition of Collins's study represents a complete updating and rewriting of the original work. Especially noteworthy is the chapter on the Dead Sea Scrolls, which now takes into account all of the recently published texts. Other chapters discuss apocalypse as a literary genre, explore the phenomenon and function of apocalypticism in the ancient world, study a wide range of individual apocalyptic texts, and examine the apocalyptic character of early Christianity.

This collection of interrelated stories about a sixteenth-century Prague rabbi and the golem he created became an immediate bestseller upon its publication in 1909. So widely popular and influential was Yudl Rosenberg’s book, it is no exaggeration to claim that the author transformed the centuries-old understanding of the creature of clay and single-handedly created the myth of the golem as protector of the Jewish people during times of persecution.In addition to translating Rosenberg’s classic golem story into English for the first time, Curt Leviant also offers an introduction in which he sets Rosenberg’s writing in historical context and discusses the golem legend before and after Rosenberg’s contributions. Generous annotations are provided for the curious reader.The book is full of adventures, surprises, romance, suspense, mysticism, Jewish pride, and storytelling at its best. The Chief Rabbi of Prague, known as the Maharal, brings the golem Yossele to life to help the Jews fight false accusations of ritual murder—the infamous blood libel. More human, more capable, and more reliable as a protector than any golem imagined before, Rosenberg’s Golem irrevocably changed one of the most widely influential icons of Jewish folklore. (20080701)