A 2021 National Jewish Book Award Finalist One of Smithsonian Magazine's Best History Books of 2021 "An uplifting tale, suffused with a karmic righteousness that is, at times, exhilarating." —Wall Street Journal "A gripping narrative that reads like a page turning thriller novel." —NPR In the summer of 1942, the Rabinowitz family narrowly escaped the Nazi ghetto in their Polish town by fleeing to the forbidding Bialowieza Forest. They miraculously survived two years in the woods—through brutal winters, Typhus outbreaks, and merciless Nazi raids—until they were liberated by the Red Army in 1944. After the war they trekked across the Alps into Italy where they settled as refugees before eventually immigrating to the United States. During the first ghetto massacre, Miriam Rabinowitz rescued a young boy named Philip by pretending he was her son. Nearly a decade later, a chance encounter at a wedding in Brooklyn would lead Philip to find the woman who saved him. And to discover her daughter Ruth was the love of his life. From a little-known chapter of Holocaust history, one family’s inspiring true story.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW AND ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR “A deeply reported, deeply personal history of Zionism and Israel that does something few books even attempt: It balances the strength and weakness, the idealism and the brutality, the hope and the horror, that has always been at Zionism’s heart.”—Ezra Klein, The New York Times Winner of the Natan Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Ari Shavit’s riveting work, now updated with new material, draws on historical documents, interviews, and private diaries and letters, as well as his own family’s story, to create a narrative larger than the sum of its parts: both personal and of profound historical dimension. As he examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, Shavit asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can it survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. Shavit’s analysis of Israeli history provides a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today’s global political landscape.

Step into the haunted and hair-raising world of Five Nights at Freddy's! With animatronic animals, dark shadows, creepy vibes, and an ever-present sense of doom, Five Nights at Freddy's has been perfecting its formula for scares since the first game debuted in 2014. The Big Book of Five Nights at Freddy's is the ultimate guide to this immersive universe, providing comprehensive tips, tricks, and strategies for every game in the series. Additional topics covered include the history of the rapidly expanding franchise as well as the fascinating storylines that are cleverly woven throughout the games, all accompanied by full-color gameplay photos. This deluxe hardcover volume is perfect as a collectible for the experienced fan or a practical guide for new thrill-seekers.

With worldwide focus on the strategies used to win the Gulf War, here is a guide to ancient Oriental stratagems and their relevance today. Swiss sinologist Harro von Senger has brought together an invaluable guidebook for the West, illustrating the traditional strategic rules and survival schemes used by the Chinese for thousands of years.

As seen on PBS's American Spring LIVE, the award-winning author of Buzz and Feathers presents a natural and human history of seeds, the marvels of the plant kingdom. "The genius of Hanson's fascinating, inspiring, and entertaining book stems from the fact that it is not about how all kinds of things grow from seeds; it is about the seeds themselves." -- Mark Kurlansky, New York Times Book Review We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life: supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and pepper drove the Age of Discovery, coffee beans fueled the Enlightenment and cottonseed sparked the Industrial Revolution. Seeds are fundamental objects of beauty, evolutionary wonders, and simple fascinations. Yet, despite their importance, seeds are often seen as commonplace, their extraordinary natural and human histories overlooked. Thanks to this stunning new book, they can be overlooked no more. This is a book of knowledge, adventure, and wonder, spun by an award-winning writer with both the charm of a fireside story-teller and the hard-won expertise of a field biologist. A fascinating scientific adventure, it is essential reading for anyone who loves to see a plant grow.

Through his hundreds of lectures, Rabbi Wein has brought the Torah perspective on history to thousands of listeners. In this original work, he paints a magnificent, panoramic picture of our people in the centuries that shaped us and our world. This major work has the touches of luxury you expect in books of this magnitude, including a ribbon place-marker and embossed foil-stamped jacket. Large 8-1/2 x 11 coffee-table format. Beautifully written and illustrated, it is accurate and incisive, yet personal and passionate. It is informative, provocative, and inspiring. Seldom is must reading so enjoyable.

Patterns in Jewish History is Rabbi Berel Wein's masterful, thematic exploration of the history of the Jewish people. Through the prism of timeless themes: education, customs, anti-Semitism, assimilation, the role of women, teachers and rabbis, the land of Israel and more, Rabbi Wein examines the values that have enabled the Jewish people to survive and thrive for three thousand years. Patterns in Jewish History explains how Jewish practice, traditions and responses to historical forces have varied over time and place, but how, more importantly, Judaism's unchanging ideals have united the Jewish people throughout history from its very beginnings at the foot of Mount Sinai through modern times; from Europe to Africa, the Middle East and America. With characteristic depth of research, accessibility of language, and love of Torah, Rabbi Wein presents a remarkable history of a unique people.

One of our great urbanists and one of our great public health experts join forces to reckon with how cities are changing in the face of existential threats the pandemic has only accelerated Cities can make us sick. They always have—diseases spread more easily when more people are close to one another. And disease is hardly the only ill that accompanies urban density. Cities have been demonized as breeding grounds for vice and crime from Sodom and Gomorrah on. But cities have flourished nonetheless because they are humanity’s greatest invention, indispensable engines for creativity, innovation, wealth, and connection, the loom on which the fabric of civilization is woven. But cities now stand at a crossroads. During the global COVID crisis, cities grew silent as people worked from home—if they could work at all. The normal forms of socializing ground to a halt. How permanent are these changes? Advances in digital technology mean that many people can opt out of city life as never before. Will they? Are we on the brink of a post-urban world? City life will survive but individual cities face terrible risks, argue Edward Glaeser and David Cutler, and a wave of urban failure would be absolutely disastrous. In terms of intimacy and inspiration, nothing can replace what cities offer. Great cities have always demanded great management, and our current crisis has exposed fearful gaps in our capacity for good governance. It is possible to drive a city into the ground, pandemic or not. Glaeser and Cutler examine the evolution that is already happening, and describe the possible futures that lie before us: What will distinguish the cities that will flourish from the ones that won’t? In America, they argue, deep inequities in health care and education are a particular blight on the future of our cities; solving them will be the difference between our collective good health and a downward spiral to a much darker place.