L’Chaim and Lamentations is a collection of seven richly layered stories that tackle not only the question of what it means to be Jewish but also what it means to be human, exploring universal themes of companionship and loneliness, faith and perseverance. The colorful characters who people its pages are varied: Aharon, who struggles to assert his sexuality against the burden of his father’s expectations; Esther and Sadie, an odd-couple pair of elderly roommates; Ida Nudelman, an aging secretary whose place in the world no longer feels certain; and Mendel Nachman, a cantor who finds redemption in a diner. These stories detail the lives of the powerful and confident, but also the struggle of the modest and the determined, people doing the very best they can. Some are at home in the poor, immigrant neighborhoods of New York’s Lower East Side in the 1920s, others spend their lives tending to the dead in a Jewish cemetery in post-war Poland, while still others navigate the realities of life in contemporary America. Their stories span across place and time, but they are bound together by their shared historical, cultural, and religious backgrounds. The inherited trauma of the Jewish people informs Craig Darch’s characters as they toil, flail, and often flourish. Charming, poignant, and life-affirming, L’Chaim and Lamentations revels in local color while celebrating the universal joy and suffering that permeates these tales of the living and all the ghosts they carry.

In this extraordinary memoir, Deborah Cohan shares her story of caring for her elderly father, a man who was often generous and loving, but who also subjected her to a lifetime of cruelty, rage, and controlling behavior. Trained as a sociologist and family violence counselor, Cohan reflects on how she healed from decades of emotional abuse.

The first anthology of its kind, I Am of the Tribe of Judah: Poems from Jewish Latin America brings together poetry from the Mexican border to the tip of South America. Originally written in Spanish, Portuguese, Yiddish, Ladino, Casteidish, and Hebrew, these poems have been translated into English, many for the first time, by a group of prize-winning translators. This multilingual collection looks at the tradition across more than five hundred years, featuring poems that exalt being Jewish, whether Ashkenazi or Sephardic, and poems that express humor and satire. Conversely, there are poems in response to anti-Semitism and poems of exile, of protest, and of the Holocaust. In a different mode, there are wondrous poems on mysticism and Kabbalah. The book includes an insightful introduction and historical background by world-renowned literary and social critic Ilan Stavans, professor at Amherst College.

Judaism and Christianity are finely interwoven, expressing the same timeless spiritual, moral and human values that lie at the heart of man. Concerned with the Jewish roots of Christianity, To Life - this book covers nearly 4000 years of Jewish and Christian history.

An award-winning journalist tells you everything you need to know about being Jewish in this user-friendly guide that explains not only what Jews do and believe, but why.

God’s Word Leads Us to God’s Heart Hebrew Word Study: Revealing the Heart of God is a devotional book unlike any you’ve ever read. Most Hebrew word study books read like a dictionary, not really explaining the Hebrew words in light of specific Bible passages. Hebrew Word Study by Chaim Bentorah combines an in-depth look at the meanings of a variety of scriptural words and phrases in the original Hebrew with a down-to-earth application for our daily Christian experience. Guided by Chaim’s expertise in biblical languages, you will examine not just word definitions, but also the origins of words, their place in the culture and idioms of the day, and even their emotional context. With the author’s anecdotes and stories from the Bible and ancient Jewish literature, the meanings of these words and passages become even more vivid. Each of the ninety word studies in this book will encourage and strengthen you in your relationship with God. As you search the depths of God’s Word, you will see just how beautiful the Scriptures are, and most of all, you will see the beauty of God Himself and come to love Him all the more.

"From the Sabbath to circumcision, from Hanukkah to the Holocaust, from bar mitzvah to bagel, how do Jewish religion, history, holidays, lifestyles, and culture make Jews different, and why is that difference so distinctive that we carry it from birth to the grave?" This accessible introduction to Judaism and Jewish life is especially for Christian readers interested in the deep connections and distinct differences between their faith and Judaism, but it is also for Jews looking for ways to understand their religion--and explain it to others. First released in 2002 and now in an updated edition.

A rendezvous of history and imagination, of realities and dreams, hopes and disenchantments. The setting is Lodz, Poland, in the years of the author's childhood, when he witnessed the cataclysmic events of the 1930s, imprisoned between walls of ghettos, and finally silenced in Auschwitz.

An examination of the ethical issues raised by the possibility of human life extension, including its desirability, unequal access, and the threat of overpopulation. Life extension—slowing or halting human aging—is now being taken seriously by many scientists. Although no techniques to slow human aging yet exist, researchers have successfully slowed aging in yeast, mice, and fruit flies, and have determined that humans share aging-related genes with these species. In New Methuselahs, John Davis offers a philosophical discussion of the ethical issues raised by the possibility of human life extension. Why consider these issues now, before human life extension is a reality? Davis points out that, even today, we are making policy and funding decisions about human life extension research that have ethical implications. With New Methuselahs, he provides a comprehensive guide to these issues, offering policy recommendations and a qualified defense of life extension. After an overview of the ethics and science of life extension, Davis considers such issues as the desirability of extended life; whether refusing extended life is a form of suicide; the Malthusian threat of overpopulation; equal access to life extension; and life extension and the right against harm. In the end, Davis sides neither with those who argue that there are no moral objections to life enhancement nor with those who argue that the moral objections are so strong that we should never develop it. Davis argues that life extension is, on balance, a good thing and that we should fund life extension research aggressively, and he proposes a feasible and just policy for preventing an overpopulation crisis.