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Editorial

A Children’s Bible That Appeals More to Adults Than to Kids

By Matthue Roth

Ellen Frankel, CEO and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Publication Society, has labored for the better part of her career to make Jewish traditional texts more palatable to a general audience. The new “JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible” — a hybrid of JPS’s modern translation, along with Frankel’s reinterpretations of words and phrases that were archaic, awkward or weird — is clean and precise. From the first sentence, it’s clear we’re reading a translation that’s both old-school and vibrant: “In the very beginning, God created a world — the heavens and the earth — out of nothing. But this world was without rhyme or reason.”Read More

Teen Lit Takes the Road Less Traveled

By Matthue Roth

Leanne Lieberman, the author of the definitive novel on Teenage Orthodox Lesbians (there’s little competition) is, surprisingly, neither Orthodox nor gay herself. This book review takes a look at Lieberman’s debut novel and examines the places where her character’s path converges and diverges from her own.Read More

A Taste of Israel

By Matthue Roth

Israeli food is known for a lot of things, but refinement is not traditionally one of them.Read More

Inspired by Jazz, a Poet Does ‘His Own Thing’

By Matthue Roth

The recent PEN/Oakland National Book Awards were a bit of a change of pace for Steve Dalachinsky. For one thing, the poet’s usual performance venues are smoky Manhattan bars and tiny underground jazz clubs, not academic auditoriums. For another, Dalachinsky is far more accustomed to going to other people’s performances than to his own.Read More

Food Maven Rethinks Jewish Cuisine

By Matthue Roth

Arthur Schwartz’s main kitchen was packed. It did not seem like an unusual occurrence. On this particular day, a neighbor came over, searching for challah tips, and his housekeeper polished a set of antique brass pans. In the background, his assistant whipped up a prolific number of apple cakes for a lecture taking place the next day.Read More


 

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