Biography

Cover of "Canine Pioneer"

Susan Martha Kahn

An insightful look at the life and legacy of a pioneer cynologist between Europe and Israel.

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Book cover for "Hermann Cohen: Writings on Neo-Kantianism and Jewish Philosophy"

Samuel Moyn and Robert S. Schine

A fresh collection of writings by Hermann Cohen that sheds light on an often overlooked scholar.

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Book cover for "Transmitting Jewish History: In Conversation with Sylvie Anne Goldberg"

Yosef Hayim YPerushalmi and Sylvie Anne Goldberg, Foreward by Alexander Kaye and translation by Benjamin Ivry 

Series of interviews that paint a revealing portrait of history and bring together exceptional material on Yerushalmi’s personal and intellectual journeys.

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Book cover for "Don Isaac Abravanel: An Intellectual Biography"

Cedric Cohen-Skalli

One of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the aftermath of the expulsion of 1492

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Book cover for "Glikl"

Annotated with an introduction by Chava Turniansky; English translation by Sara Friedman

One of the greatest leaders and thinkers of Iberian Jewry in the aftermath of the expulsion of 1492

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Book Cover for "Spinoza's Challenge to Jewish Thought: Writings on His Life, Philosophy, and Legacy"

Daniel B. Schwartz

Key works about Spinoza’s critical role in the formation of modern Jewish identity

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Cover of "Defender of the Faithful: The Life and Thought of Rabbi Levi Yitshak of Berdychiv"

Arthur Green

The life and thought of Levi Yitshak of Berdychiv (1740–1809), one of the most fascinating and colorful Hasidic leaders of his time.

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Cover of "Gershom Scholem: From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back"

Noam Zadoff

A new intellectual portrait of a prominent twentieth-century philosopher

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Cover of "Toward Nationalism's End: An Intellectual Biography of Hans Kohn"

Adi Gordon

The life and intellectual evolution of Hans Kohn, a pioneer of nationalism studies

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Cover of "Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady: The Origins of Chabad Hasidism"

Immanuel Etkes; Jeffrey M. Green, translator

The only biography in English of the founder of the Chabad movement in Hasidism

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Cover of "Germany’s Prophet: Paul de Lagarde and the Origins of Modern Antisemitism"

Ulrich Sieg; Linda Marianiello, translator

A provocative and disquieting portrait of Bible scholar and founder of modern German antisemitism Paul de Lagarde

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Cover of "Best of Times, Worst of Times: Memoirs of a Political Education"

Walter Laqueur

A memoir by a highly respected historian and political commentator

Walter Laqueur has been writing and teaching for over six decades, primarily in the fields of 20th-century history and politics. In this engaging memoir, Laqueur focuses on the political and historical events that have shaped his thinking and inspired his intellectual work.

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Cover of "Yehuda Amichai: The Making of Israel's National Poet"

Nili Scharf Gold

“By uncovering the European roots of this central, widely read and much translated Israeli author, Gold opens the way for other similar studies of the European background of Israeli writing. Her book will be indispensable for all future studies of Amichai's poetry.” —Arnold Band, Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California at Los Angeles

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Cover of "Memoirs: Hans Jonas"

Christian Wiese, editor; Krishna Winston, translator

Because Jonas’s life spanned the entire twentieth century, this memoir provides nuanced pictures of German Jewry during the Weimar Republic, of German Zionism, of the Jewish emigrants in Palestine during the 1930s and 1940s, and of German Jewish émigré intellectuals in New York. In addition, Jonas outlines the development of his work, beginning with his studies under Husserl and Heidegger and extending through his later metaphysical speculations about “God after Auschwitz.

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Cover of "The Life and Thought of Hans Jonas: Jewish Dimensions"

Christian Wiese

An analysis of the Jewish background of an eminent philosopher.

Cover of "Leo Strauss and the Politics of Exile: The Making of a Political Philosopher"

Eugene Sheppard

“With a graceful weave of biography, historical context and philosophical analysis, Eugene Sheppard presents an intellectual portrait of Leo Strauss that boldly challenges the clichés that becloud his legacy.” — Paul Mendes-Flohr, University of Chicago

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Cover of "The Pure Element of Time"

Haim Be’er

“The writing is subtle, skillful, humorous and vivacious. Haim Be’er created in this novel a superb blend of horror, ridicule, compassion, self-irony, as well as a remarkable picture of Jerusalem in the early years of Israel’s statehood.” —Amos Oz

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Cover of "Painting a People: Maurycy Gottlieb and Jewish Art"

Ezra Mendelsohn

“Deeply researched and thoroughly original, this remarkable study encourages new ways of thinking about Jewish artists and their place in the emergence of modern culture.” —Richard I. Cohen, author of “Jewish Icons: Art and Society in Modern Europe”

Cover of "Aharon Appelfeld: From Individual Lament to Tribal Eternity"

Yigal Schwartz

Schwartz organizes his book around three of Appelfeld’s major themes: the recovery of childhood and memory, the creation of place and the religious stance of the Holocaust writer. He develops a new perspective not only on Appelfeld’s work, but on Holocaust literature itself.

Cover of "Prisoner of Hope: Moshe Prywes as Told to Haim Chertok"

Moshe Prywes and Haim Chertok

“The life recorded here is unique, and yet reflects the most dramatic generation in the history of the Jewish people. The writing is delicate, humoristic and tragic, and always compelling.” —Amos Oz

Cover of "With My Own Eyes: The Autobiography of an Historian"

Jacob Katz

“In this delightful memoir Jacob Katz appears as a wise, sensitive writer, very skillfully describing, analyzing and reflecting upon the most significant happenings of his long, interesting, and creative life.” —Isadore Twersky

Cover of "Breaking the Silence: The German Who Exposed the Final Solution"

Walter Laqueur and Richard Breitman

“A superb piece of detective work and an exciting real-life spy drama.” —San Francisco Chronicle

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Cover of "Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman"

Jehuda Reinharz

“An academic tour de force… It must surely become the definitive biography of a man who was arguably the foremost representative of the Jewish people in the twentieth century.” —American Historical Review

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Cover of "The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution"

Richard Breitman

Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources… the author conclusively counters efforts to portray the Holocaust as unpremeditated, the result of bureaucratic improvisation under wartime constraints.

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Cover of "The Philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig"

Paul Mendes-Flohr

Eleven essays on the life and thought of Jewish philosopher and theologian Franz Rosenzweig

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Cover of "The Darker Side of Genius: Richard Wagner’s Anti-Semitism"

Jacob Katz

Richard Wagner’s antisemitism considered in the context of his time, place, and aspirations rather than in relation to his later appropriation by the Nazis

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Cover of "Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Zionist Leader"

Jehuda Reinharz

“An academic tour de force… It must surely become the definitive biography of a man who was arguably the foremost representative of the Jewish people in the twentieth century.” — American Historical Review

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Cover of "Hitler in History"

Eberhard Jäckel

In contrast to most scholarly works on Hitler, this brilliant book is lucid, forthright, and blessedly brief.” — American Historical Review

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