Sigal Samuel and I grew up in the same city, attended the same college and ended up in the same office. Before that momentous event, our paths had never crossed. (Full disclosure: since then, we have become attached at the hip — or the byline.) I grew up in a secular, if proudly Sephardic, environment….
“Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.” This quote from Ann Patchett sums up my feelings about writing — and it’s also how I feel about my chosen religious lifestyle. I grew up in a secular Jewish home and, as a young adult, was drawn…
The Mystics of Mile End, Forward editor Sigal Samuel’s debut novel about a dysfunctional Jewish family, will be published by HarperCollins on October 13. Told from multiple perspectives, the story takes place in an iconic Montreal neighborhood that is home to hipsters and Hasidic Jews. In this excerpt, we see the family and their neighbors…
Daniel Handler is finally trying to make the world a less unfortunate place. The Jewish author of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and his wife, illustrator Lisa Brown, have pledged a million dollars to Planned Parenthood, . Handler, known to readers under the pen-name Lemony Snicket, tweeted out the news on Tuesday afternoon: .@lisabrowndraws &…
— what a super name for a book. I’ve had this relatively new volume by Aaron Rezny and Jordan Schaps on my desk for a little while now, and I keep dipping back into it because it’s so rich in delicious tidbits about the Jewish foodways of New York’s Lower East Side. It’s kind of…
My Facebook newsfeed is always alive with kittens, but last week it was alive with political kittens. Israeli author Nurit Sternberg has written a children’s book called “,” about two kittens “rescued” from last summer’s fighting zone in Gaza and brought to Israel by the IDF soldier Matan Meshi. Both the kittens and Meshi happen…
This is an occasional column in which the writer evaluates a cookbook by making some of its recipes, sharing the dishes with friends and asking her guests what they think of the results. She recently cooked her way through “Honey & Co: the Cookbook,” by Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer (Little, Brown and Company). Itamar…
Born in in 1910, my grandmother Rachela Pupko Krinsky Melezin was a Vilner through and through. When I told her, during college, that I was becoming vegetarian — that the days of devouring her kreplach and piroshki were over — she took it as most Jewish grandmothers would. I wish I could have directed her…
When one thinks of Judd Apatow, books aren’t the first thing that come to mind. Bro-medies? Sure. Seth Rogen? Definitely. Weed? Duh. But books? And yet, the man behind “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up” apparently owns a lot of books. As he recently told : “I have actually convinced myself that buying books is the…
The Sapir Prize for Hebrew Literature is one of Israel’s most important literary awards, and the most significant financially. Recently, the managing board of the prize decided to change its guidelines and enable only candidates who are residents of Israel to submit their work. This new rule caused an interesting and important debate, both in…
The details on hundreds of letters, books, magazine articles, reports and other materials found in Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden’s secret compound in Pakistan were declassified and released by the Obama administration. Among the documents released, which were taken from bin Laden’s compound by Navy SEALS after it was seized in May 2011, is an…
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