Nextbook Press Stream

Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole talk geniza (depository for worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers) with the Jerusalem Post.

The authors stress that readers shouldn’t expect to derive any tips on how to discard their own divine detritus. “The lessons of Sacred Trash—and of the Cairo Geniza—have nothing to do with garbage disposal. Our book is really about the worth of words and their place in Jewish life.”

Check out pieces of the Geniza from the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge.

Via @nytimes: “She Wrote a Nation’s Welcome:” The work of Emma Lazarus and her biographer Esther Schor recognized in the “Poet of Exiles” exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

Even if Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” had not transformed the gargantuan Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor from an aggressive monument — “Liberty Enlightening the World” — into a welcoming “Mother of Exiles”; even if she had not provided that crowned goddess with a humane voice that still resonates (“Give me your tired, your poor”); even if she had not asserted a powerful connection between liberty and opportunity, the exhibition “Emma Lazarus: Poet of Exiles” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage demonstrates that there would still be reasons to value her life and work.

APOLOGIA FOR BEN-GURION

(Review of BEN-GURION by SHIMON PERES)

“They were kindred spirits. Both were voracious readers, polymaths, single-mindedly ambitious, and coldly pragmatic. Both had high, unself-critical opinions of themselves. They ruthlessly battled foes within their political camp, though Ben-Gurion was arguably the more vindictive. Both were Big Idea men. Ben-Gurion envisioned a renascent Israel along vaguely biblical principles; Peres, more ambitious still, sought an entirely “new Middle East.”” —Jewish Ideas Daily

Fresh off El Al from Israel. Peres wrote BEN-GURION like God wrote the bible. Guess that makes Landau Moses.

Join the conversation: Roundup of Nextbook Press author and title news

“…the Arab rejectionism that made peace unreachable in Ben-Gurion’s day still grips today’s Palestinian leadership.” (Jewish Ideas Daily)

Eichmann’s glass booth will be displayed at the Knesset for another week as part of an exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the trial. “If I had to pick two people who were most instrumental in pushing the Final Solution, after seeing this exhibit, I would say it was the Mufti and Eichmann,” Netanyahu said. (JPost)

Jewish Book World interviews Hillel Halkin. (JBW)

As the United States Poet Laureate and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, Robert Pinsky founded the Favorite Poem Project, a program dedicated to celebrating, documenting and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives. (bigthink)

Related Nextbook Press titles:

VIDEO: Beside the Golden Door: New exhibit features annotated ‘The New Colossus’ »

Earlier today, we stopped by New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage for a new exhibit involving Esther Schor’s interactive, annotated version (first published by Nextbook Press) of the famous Emma Lazarus sonnet, “The New Colossus.” Check it. (via Tablet Magazine)

Gift Guide: What to give the bookworms in your life

Nestled in the list of nonfiction suggestions is Nextbook Press’ SACRED TRASH by Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole.

“For readers who revere the written word and the wisdom it can convey. This is the story of how a Jewish intellectual, a couple of Presbyterian Scotswomen, and others worked to unearth and piece together fragments of paper from 900 years of Medieval Jewish life - a stunning cache of Jewish manuscripts.”

Read more about SACRED TRASH at nextbookpress.com.

Advanced praise for WHEN GRANT EXPELLED THE JEWS

“Thoroughly researched and crisply written, this is a very fine work that will interest students of both American and modern Jewish history.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Sarna expertly navigates the repercussions of Grant’s shocking order, which galvanized the American Jewish community into action, reminding many who were refugees from European expulsions how insecure they were even in America… . Sarna weighs the short-lived order against important Jewish appointments in Grant’s administration, his humanitarian support for oppressed Jews around the world, and lasting friendships with Jews. A well-argued exoneration of a president and a sturdy scholarly study.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“In this compelling and focused study, Jonathan D. Sarna explores the causes—and assesses the little-known impact—of one of the most troubling incidents in the life of the Union’s greatest commander.”

—Geoffrey C. Ward, coauthor of The Civil War

“An absorbing account of a lamentable act by the North’s greatest general, a dishonorable act committed by an honorable man. This fair and balanced treatment of the event places the commander and the Jews in the context of great conflict. Fortunately, redemption and rapprochement would follow.”

—Frank J. Williams, president, Ulysses S. Grant Association

On December 17, 1862, as the Civil War entered its second winter, General Ulysses S. Grant issued a sweeping order, General Orders #11, expelling “Jews as a class” from his war zone. It remains the most notorious anti-Jewish official order in American history.The order came back to haunt Grant in 1868 when he ran for president. Never before had Jews been so widely noticed in a presidential contest, and never before had they been confronted so publicly with the question of how to balance their “American” and “Jewish” interests.

During his two terms in the White House, the memory of the “obnoxious order” shaped Grant’s relationship with the American Jewish community. Surprisingly, he did more for Jews than any other president to his time. How this happened, and why, sheds new light on one of our most enigmatic presidents, on the Jews of his day, and on America itself.