Shai Secunda

Two Years of War - Jewish Review of Books How can we make sense after two years of war?

jewishreviewofbooks.com/contemporary...

#SundaySentence - Erika Dreifus The best sentence I've read during the past week.

"Now, life."

This week's #SundaySentence comes from Eli Sharabi's HOSTAGE (trans. Eylon Levy), as quoted in a @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social review by @ssecunda.bsky.social that I've #JustRead.

www.erikadreifus.com/2025/10/sund...

Cover of magazine.

Our Fall issue is now online!

Visiting the Graves of the Righteous: Inns of Molten Blue - Jewish Review of Books Graves of Tzaddikim hold many things—hopes, prayers, and sometimes even the deceased's body.

My recent romp through the history of the Jewish cult of saints, is out with @jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo... Visiting the Graves of the Righteous: Inns of Molten Blue - Jewish Review of Books

"Whoever Is Hungry, Come and Eat"? From the Babylonian Poor to the Ashkenazi Elijah - Jewish Review of Books Whydowebegin the seder by inviting “whoever is hungry” to come and eat? Aren’t the guests already at the table? And why do we do it in Aramaic? It has something to do with Babylonian magic bowls . . .

Ever wonder about the strange Aramaic invitation at the beginning of the Passover Haggadah?

Check out my piece in last year's issue of
@jewishreviewbooks.bsky.social

Many thanks to @ssecunda.bsky.social for his friendship and editorial wizardry!

jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

Spring 2025 - Jewish Review of Books

Happy to announce the Spring issue, timely Passover- and other-wise, with discussion of war in Gaza and dissent against oppressive government, while also keeping our heads in the clouds, or at least in poetry about the strange air above a librarian’s ladder. jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/spring...

What a cover!!!

Truly unbelievable.

Wow this is something. Do you know if this is specifically religious studies?

And Hamas remains an Israel
Problem

Winter 2025 - Jewish Review of Books

Winter issue just dropped, with a book review by Adam Kirsch, movie review by Emil Stern, an essay by Malka Simkovitch, a necrology by Ben Balint, soccer hooligan memories by Mark Glanville, and much much more! jewishreviewofbooks.com/issue/winter...

Wowwwwww

It’s the first book length study of its kind unflinchingly describing the experience of soldiers in the field, the good, bad, and the very ugly, yet all through the nonjudgmental, curious, and sophisticated viewfinder of anthro.

Asaf Hazani

This book, a clear-eyed, terrifying collection of field notes by a skilled anthropologist writing from the field and fog of war in Gaza, has left me shaking.

Fair. This may be the same thing, but the "posting habit" is really different here. People share things to share, but not to garner a reaction.

So I'll take this as an opportunity to engage:) Do you think there was something in the feed at twitter that lead, at least earlier, to more engagement?

The Menorah, the Rebbe and the Aesthetics of Transcendence: A Response to Reviel Netz - Jewish Review of Books The Lubavitcher Rebbe had great artistic taste—and that included his choice of menorah.

Elegant response by @elirubin.bsky.social to Reviel Netz's piece on the Lubavitcher Rebbe's menorah. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

I mentioned it many years ago in an article in Segula magazine.

אפגב252- אמנון רז-קרקוצקין ברדיו עם קלצ’קין · Episode

There’s hardly anyone saying anything fresh, new, interesting and weird about Israel and Palestine. Actually, I think there’s only one: Ammon (Nono) Raz-Krakotzkin. If you know Hebrew, can do meandering podcasts, and have patience for a long runway, this is a must. open.spotify.com/episode/7dRT...

Incunabula in the news

Excited to participate in this event celebrating Galit Hasan-Rokem’s book.

Like a Surgeon with a Scalpel, an Archaeologist with a Spade - Jewish Review of Books David Weiss Halivni once rescued a scrap from a page of the Shulchan Arukh from the sandwich paper of a Nazi guard. His whole life turned out to be about rescuing texts.

In spending a life pondering why talmudic arguments often turned on unlikely interpretations, Halivni was not merely asking what motivated talmudic passages; he was trying to explain the literary character of the bedrock text of rabbinic Judaism, and his life. jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

New position at The Jewish Theological Seminary: The inaugural Robert S. Rifkind Chair in American Jewish history (open-rank, tenure track) 🗃️

www.h-net.org/jobs/job_dis...

A Good Golus - Jewish Review of Books “Well,” he said, “this is a good little golus you’ve got here.”

When Bellow met Agnon in Jerusalem, "[Agnon] asked me if any of my books had been translated into Hebrew. If they had not been, I had better see to it immediately, because, he said, they would survive only in the Holy Tongue." They were speaking in Yiddish. jewishreviewofbooks.com/american-jew...

Here on Earth: A History of the Kibbutz Author(s): Balberg, Mira | Abstract: Here on Earth tells the story of the kibbutz, a daring social experiment in collectivized living, from its inception in the beginning of the twentieth century to t...

Truly beautiful, short history of the Kibbutz by the rabbinicist (!) Mira Balberg. escholarship.org/uc/item/8316....

One of the few toys about which I still remember the details of play.

The Jewess Mystique - Jewish Review of Books An early feminist novel about a North African Jewish damsel in (Jewish) distress.

Did Bendahan write a modernist novel, an ethnographic portrait of Tetouani Sephardi life, or maybe, a brilliant and ambivalent piece of feminist fiction repurposing the old (antisemitic and antifeminist) trope of the beautiful Jewess?
J Kornberg on "Mazaltob" jewishreviewofbooks.com/jewish-histo...

Important Judaica | 2024 | Sotheby's Sotheby’s is pleased to announce the 18 December sale of Important Judaica. Highlights include an exceptional group of manuscripts from the celebrated Montefiore and Sassoon collections. Among these a...

Significant auction of mainly rabbinic manuscripts at Sotheby's. There are real treasures here: Volumes of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah, a couple of Sefer ha-Arukhs, etc. Some prices are high, but there is a certain reasonableness, lacking from some heimishe a. houses.
www.sothebys.com/en/buy/aucti...

Fair point. Maybe this is why I often find the moral demand of settle colonialism discourse to be…highly problematic.