By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Even when I promise myself I’ll take a break from World War II novels, there are always some that grab my interest. For example, I’ve enjoyed Pam Jenoff’s work and, when I saw that her latest novel “The Woman with the Blue Star” (Park Row Books) was gettin…
By Bill Simons
Fleischmanns, NY, sits in the Western Catskills, approximately 100 miles from Binghamton. Metropolitan areas dominate the demographics of American Judaism, but for more than 125 years, Fleischmanns, with a population of about 350, has reflected Jewry’s small-town presence. …
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
The exploration of family relationships – the families we are born into and the ones we create on our own – forms the basis of three recent novels. Each shows how those relationships form the core of our lives, even while noting how every family has its unique c…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
I wracked my brain to come up with an opening that would tie together the three books in this review, but had no luck. You may be asking, “Then why did she decide to review them together?” Well, they were next on my to-read pile and didn’t fit with other revie…
By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
My family has long eaten matzah all year-round. For dessert (we didn’t have cake or cookies around the house), my father would regularly eat a piece of matzah slathered with jam. My preference is for whole wheat matzah and it’s always in my cupboard. I’ve been…
