By Diana Brement, Jewish Sound Columnist
Cookbooks
One might assume that “Eating the Bible” by Rena Rossner (Skyhorse, cloth, $24.95) would give you recipes using garlic, leeks, melon, cucumbers and well-cooked meat — all foods mentioned in the Bible. But Rossner makes clear from the start that her intent was to create recipes inspired by the five books of the Torah to provoke learning and discussion. Each recipe in this fully illustrated book comes with a few lines of text and discussion questions. “Spy Fruit Salad” calls for fruit the Israelite spies used to show the bounty of the Promised Land (Numbers 13:23). Some of Rossner’s creations are quite whimsical. The plague of darkness is represented by Hidden Treasures Midnight Brownies and Mt. Sinai by a Thick Cloud Pavlova (egg white cake). The author’s goal is clearly to get kids involved, so go wild building a gingerbread tabernacle and observe the salt offering with Herb Roasted Beef in Salt Crust or salt-crusted potatoes. With a nod to the foods mentioned in the Torah (and there’s a guide at the back) she includes Cucumber and Melon Gazpacho (Numbers 11:15). Then there’s Balaam’s talking donkey. He gets burritos. (Think about it.)
History
“Between Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel” edited by Orenstein, Tal and Miller (Pittsburgh, paper, $27.95). This collection of academic essays, each extensively footnoted, might make challenging reading, but important for those interested in Israel’s environmental past and future. Topics include “Human Impact on Wildlife,” “Combating Desertification,” and “Olive Green,” about the environmental impact of Israel Defense Force activities that generally go on without oversight.
“The Golden Age Shtetl” by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern (Princeton, cloth, $29.95). Throw off your tired, Tevye-inspired stereotype of the Polish-Russian shtetl. The shtetl — that little Jewish village where life hung in the balance like a fiddler on the roof — was probably not even called a shtetl and it did have a golden age in the early to mid-19th century. It’s that following decline, though, that we tend to remember. This detailed but readable account of this earlier history follows the market town economy that helped these villages thrive, and the continually shifting politics that followed the shifting sands and borders of European governments and helped or hindered the economy. An image we rarely have is of Jewish and gentile merchants bringing goods from all over Europe and mingling at these government-approved markets. Petrovsky-Shtern, the Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies at Northwestern University, was able to draw on a trove of Eastern European archival material, much of it unavailable to Western scholars until recently.
“The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl” by Arthur Allen (Norton, cloth, $26.95). The Nazis were terrified of typhus, an often-fatal disease spread by body lice (not head lice), that has plagued troops since at least the dawn of the modern army. In their drive to make a typhus vaccine, the Nazi government recruited an eccentric Polish researcher, Dr. Rudolph Weigl. Weigl, who allowed lice to feed on him to study the disease’s spread (and contracted and survived typhus), managed to bring Jewish researchers into his lab and to hire other workers who were Jewish or members of the intelligentsia who otherwise might have perished. Allen vividly relates this little-known story, including lots of distastefully entertaining details about lice and disease. The book, from the author of “Vaccine,” comes out in July.
“50 Children: One Ordinary American Couple’s Extraordinary Rescue Mission into the Heart of Nazi Germany” by Steven Pressman (Harper, cloth, $26.99). Another little-known story is covered by Steve Pressman who has made a documentary on the same subject. A Midwestern Jewish couple managed to bring 50 Jewish children from Austria to the U.S. in 1938, before escape became impossible for European Jews. The popular myth is that Americans didn’t really know what was going on in Europe, but the Krauses’ plan shows that many did. While their story is inspiring, how these children adapted and thrived is equally fascinating. Surprisingly, many were able to be reunited with at least one parent.
Personal History
“The Late Starters Orchestra” by Ari Goldman (Algonquin, cloth, $22.95). Former New York Times reporter Goldman writes charmingly and insightfully about his desire to return to playing the cello after many decades. Setting a goal of performing at his 60th birthday party, he joins New York’s Late Starters Orchestra and embarks on a year of playing and practice, attending camps and workshops and mentoring his son in the same instrument. He even gives up exercise to increase his practice time and gains 20 pounds. More than just a report on the journey, Goldman explores issues of aging, marriage and childrearing, as well as community and career. The book will be out in a few weeks.
“The Promise of a Pencil” by Adam Braun (Scribner, cloth, $25). While subtitled “How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change,” one could argue that Adam Braun is not really “ordinary.” Brought up in a family whose motto was “Why be normal?” and driven by his father to achieve, Braun first brought that to the workplace, where he had begun a successful Wall Street career, and then to the founding of his charity, Pencils of Promise. Braun shows how a small idea — a boy begging in India for money for a pencil — became an international organization providing schooling to the world’s poorest children. There’s a lot of detail, perhaps a little too much for the average reader, but for readers interested in the behind-the-scenes work of starting an organization, or just a good story, it’s entertaining and edifying.
Judaism
“Recipes for a Sacred Life” by Rivvy Neshama (Divine Arts, paper, $16.95). The author draws from a variety of spiritual and religious traditions to give us her views of how to bring more sacredness into our lives. With each short “recipe,” or vignette, Neshama shares a story from her life and how it helped her achieve greater awareness or how she brought a spiritual dimension to the mundane.
Traditional Judaism says that women are not supposed to say the Mourners’ Kaddish, but “Kaddish: Women’s Voices” (Urim, cloth, $25) illustrates a shift in the Orthodox community to more acceptance of women participating in the public prayer that extols the virtues of God. The writers in this National Jewish Book Award-winner give a variety of perspectives and share how the Kaddish prayer helped them honor and recover from their losses, some of them quite profound.
Politics
“Every Day is Election Day: A Women’s Guide to Winning Any Office From the PTA to the White House” by Rebecca Sive (Chicago Review, paper, $17.95). This is a concise and practical step-by-step guide for any woman thinking of running for political office. Sive, a public affairs consultant, has been featured in the Huffington Post and teaches at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies. She starts with your dream and a personality test to see if you’ve got the right stuff, going all the way to turning the inevitable failure into success.