Blog Update January 2026
On this cold, windy, and otherwise miserable day, it’s time for a blog update. Continue reading Blog Update January 2026
On this cold, windy, and otherwise miserable day, it’s time for a blog update. Continue reading Blog Update January 2026
“Israel is a story of a homeless people that kept a dream alive for millennia, of a people’s redemption from the edge of the abyss, of a nation forging a future when none seemed possible,” Daniel Gordis writes in the introduction to his new book, Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn. He continues, “Never had the Jews left Zion willingly, and never had they ceased believing that they would one day return.” Gordis captures the intense struggle of the Jews to secure their homeland as they suffered expulsion, pogroms, and the Holocaust. It is a story of the … Continue reading Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn, by Daniel Gordis @ NYJB
“The Mizrahi Era of Rebellion: Israel’s Forgotten Civil Rights Struggle 1948–1966 (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East),” by Bryan K. Roby seeks to complicate this simplified vision of Israeli history. Continue reading The Mizrahi Era of Rebellion: Israel’s Forgotten Civil Rights Struggle 1948–1966 (Contemporary Issues in the Middle East), by Bryan K. Roby @ NYJB
This week I review a specialist text on the interconnection between architecture, urban planning, religion, and politics. Continue reading CCLaP Fridays: The Subversive Utopia, by Yasir Sakr
Daniel Gordis has written a concise and exciting political biography of Menachem Begin. . . . Begin was a man who sought to save Israel’s metaphorical soul with daring acts, both on and off the battlefield. It earned him ire and derision at home and abroad, but it also preserved Israel during times of crisis. Continue reading Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul, by Daniel Gordis @ NYJB
Over at the New York Journal of Books, I reviewed Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon, where I state that, “Sharon lived a life saturated with controversy. Mr. Landau’s biography paints a comprehensive picture of Ariel Sharon, a man easy to hate, but harder to understand.” Continue reading Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon, by David Landau @ NYJB