In the mid-1940s, before he became Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion realized a fundamental fact about the country that the 1948 War of Independence would create: When it came to weapons, Israel could rely on no country but itself.As...

On June 1, 1916, the U.S. Senate confirmed Louis D. Brandeis to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, making him the first Jew to hold such a post. To commemorate the centennial of this event in June, Yale University Press published “Louis D. Brandeis:...

In Jennifer Weiner’s new memoir “Hungry Heart,” this New York Times best-selling author is, well, an open book. She has spent more than five years on the Times best-seller list with more than 11 million copies of her books in print in 36 countries....

St. Louis lawyer Michael A. Kahn, in his just-published novel “The Dead Hand,” combines an expertise in law with his well-honed skills as a mystery writer. “The Dead Hand” (Poisoned Pen Press, $26.95, cloth; $15.95 paper), which deals with complex...

Jewish Lives is a major series of interpretative biographies that explores the range and depth of Jewish experience, from antiquity through the present.The books in this series, in partnership with Yale University Press, include Jews in every field of...

As this book review is being written, both of the presumptive major party presidential nominees—Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump — are reportedly vetting a number of candidates to be their running mates.  Once again, Joel K. Goldstein...

One of the great ironies in the entertainment world is the endurance of a fear that a play, film or TV show might be “too Jewish” for general audiences. Broadway and Hollywood owe their very existence to their roots in Yiddish theater, a fact that...

The complex, confusing and ever-volatile issues surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are so daunting that some scholars and observers of the Middle East have given up even trying to trace its history or offer possible paths to a solution. Robert...

During the 1930s, few people saw that a global depression, mass migrations and extremist ideologies in Germany and Russia foreshadowed war. “Modern Girls” explores this era along with ways of being Jewish and being “modern” that are relevant today.As...

Alan Spector, local author of "You're Never Too Old to Play the Game," about his lifetime attachment to playing baseball and "Hail, Hail to U. City High," about his high school and post-graduation experiences as a student and alumnus of the University...

"When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories From A Persuasive Man" By Jerry Weintraub with Rich Cohen Twelve, 280 pp., $25.99 Jerry Weintraub has been a talent agent and manager, impresario, sometime actor, movie producer, and philanthropist....

Alan Furst's dream of a feature-length, movie adaptation of one of his novels has yet to be fulfilled. But his espionage novels set in Europe during World War II, are appreciated by critics and have shown up on New York Times bestseller lists. His most...