By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Some reviews are more difficult to write than others, especially when there is a difference between my personal and professional opinions about the work. I am able to recognize when a book is excellent, but it just doesn’t resonate with me. That’s the case with …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
“Food is far more than just sustenance.” That idea is the inspiration behind John M. Efron’s research in “All Consuming: Germans, Jews, and the Meaning of Meat” (Stanford University Press). Efron, Koret professor of Jewish history at the University of Calif…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
The first image is the cover of “I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This” (Used with the permission of Candlewick Press). The second is a page from “Will Eisner: A Comics Biography” by Stephen Weiner and Dan Mazur (Used with the permission of NBM Graphic…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Anyone who has attended a Purim service knows that Haman is a villain whose name must be blotted out by means of booing, hissing, stamping your feet or using a noisemaker when the biblical book of Esther is read. What becomes clear in Adam J. Silverstein’s 239-pag…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Sarah Hurwitz, who was a speech writer for President Barak Obama and First Lady Michele Obama, was a secular, cultural Jew before she accidently discovered the beauty of her heritage. She wrote about that in her first book, “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirit…
