October 10, 2019
By EMILY BURACK
NEW YORK (JTA) — When New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke the Harvey Weinstein story on Oct, 5, 2017, it started a #MeToo revolution: Women began sharing personal experiences of the sexual harassment and abuse they had faced.
Even though the activist Tarana Burke coined the concept of MeToo in 2006, the reporting by Kantor and Twohey about Weinstein helped transform it into...
June 24, 2019
(JTA) — Best-selling novelist Judith Krantz, whose first novel “Scruples” was published the year that she turned 50, has died.
Krantz died on Saturday at her home in Bel Air, California at the age 91, Deadline reported.
According to the Jewish Women’s Archives, Krantz is the third-largest-selling female novelist in history. “Although her goal is for her books to provide escape and entertainment, she does try to make some serious...
May 17, 2019
By RACHEL GORDAN
BOSTON (JTA) — Herman Wouk, the bestselling Orthodox Jewish author whose literary career spanned nearly seven decades and who helped usher Judaism into the American mainstream, died Friday at the age of 103.
His agent confirmed the news to The Associated Press.
Wouk was the author of two dozen novels and works of nonfiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Caine Mutiny” from 1951, which was a fixture on...
December 28, 2018
By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
(JTA) — Amos Oz would often speak in the kind of tossed-off epigrams that come only with a lot of practice. But just when you wanted to smack him for his breezy erudition, he would redeem himself with a flash of spot-on — and hilarious — self-awareness.
In 2011, speaking at the 92nd Street Y about the novel he’d just published in English, “Scenes From Village Life,”...
December 18, 2018
By SAM SOKOL
(JTA) — Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Alice Walker has come under intense criticism after endorsing a book by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist David Icke.
In an interview with The New York Times Book Review, Walker — who is best known for her book “The Color Purple,” detailing the hardships of African-American women in the early part of the twentieth century — responded to a question about what she was currently reading...
November 18, 2018
By ARIE KAPLAN
(JTA) — When Stan Lee died on Nov. 12 at 95, he left behind a vast legacy. Between 1961 and 1969, his greatest sustained burst of creative activity, he co-created a vast array of iconic characters, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Black Panther, Daredevil, Nick Fury, Doctor Strange and Falcon.
Lee raised the bar for superhero storytelling....
September 23, 2018
By YVETTE ALT MILLER
(JTA) — For months author J.K. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred.
Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into anti-Semitism.
“Lethal White,” the fourth series in Rowling’s Cormoran Strike mystery series, written...
August 29, 2018
Reviwed by JASON GAINES, Ph.D.,
“The Israel Bible“edited by Rabbi Tuly Weisz. Jerusalem: Menorah Books, 2018. 2190 p.
“The Israel Bible” advertises itself as the first Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, “to highlight the special connection between the Land and the People of Israel.” It succeeds in this goal, with commentary and illustrations that call helpful attention to the interdependence between the Jewish people, their sacred texts, and Israel both ancient...
May 23, 2018
(JTA) — Philip Roth, whose notorious novels about the sex drives of American men gave way to some of the most probing examinations of the American Jewish condition in the 20th and 21st centuries, has died.
He was 85. His death was confirmed to The New York Times by his friend, Judith Thurman.
Early in his career, Roth drew outrage with sometimes stinging depictions of Jewish life, as well...
January 26, 2018
By BEN SALES
NEW YORK (JTA) — Book Culture, a chain of independent New York City bookstores, just can’t win.
First it promoted a children’s book about Palestine that praised intifada. That angered members of the Jewish community, so Book Culture apologized, condemned violence against Israelis and declared its support for Israel’s right to exist.
Now the apology has angered pro-Palestinian activists, who are pledging to boycott Book Culture unless it...
