Adam Kirsch is a contributing editor for Tablet Magazine and the author of Benjamin Disraeli, a biography in the Nextbook Press Jewish Encounters book series.
Nowhere Man
The poet Joseph Brodsky, kicked out of the USSR and never fully at ease writing in English, was a man of many residences and few homes, as a new biography shows
Final Verse
In the poems of Silver Roses, the late Rachel Wetzsteon—who took her own life last year—is still very much alive
The Structuralist
A biography explores Claude Lévi-Strauss’ fascination with what makes cultures tick
Bordering on Malicious
The new Words Without Borders anthology of writing from the Middle East is marred by a key omission
Devastated
Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands contextualizes the story of Eastern European Jewry’s sad fate without relativizing it
Caught on Film
An Israeli historian uses an iconic photograph to tell five intertwined stories of the Warsaw Ghetto
Divided Soul
A new biography examines the conflicting passions that animated the life and work of Dybbuk playwright S. An-sky
Convertito
The Jews of San Nicandro tells the remarkable story of a group of Fascist-era Italian peasants who became Jews and ultimately made aliyah
Ben-Gurion
Cheap Eats
An entrepreneur opened a Jewish-themed restaurant in Lviv, Ukraine. Chopped liver is on the menu, but not its price—diners get to haggle over it.
Grace Notes
Orthodox klezmer and bluegrass virtuoso Andy Statman and evangelical country star Ricky Skaggs cross genres and faiths to form a mighty duo
Goodbye to All That
For generations, the Jews of Caracas had idyllic weather, prosperity, and vibrant communal organizations. Things have changed under Hugo Chávez.
