Library Corner

Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews and the Civil War

November 20, 2025

In 1860, there were 150,000 Jews living in the United States. How did this small minority, comprised mostly of recent immigrants, react to the fierce national debate over slavery? Richard …

American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt & the Jews

November 4, 2025

President Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt (1858-1919) is famous as a conservationist, a “trust-buster” of business monopolies, an advocate for consumer protections, and the inspiration for the beloved stuffed toy, the teddy …

Risking Life for Art

November 4, 2025

The iconic World War II film, The Train, asks whether it is moral to risk human lives to save art. In an early scene, a French Resistance leader initially refuses to …

A Bittersweet Novel of Israel

August 19, 2025

Lihi Lapid’s bestselling Israeli novel, On Her Own, is now available in English, translated by Sondra Silverston. As the book opens, a terrified eighteen-year-old girl, Nina, is cowering in the stairwell …

Herzl & Friends: When Zionism Was New

June 10, 2025

When Rachel Cockerell set out to write a history of her very British family, she was amazed to discover that her great-grandfather had played a crucial role in an early …

Trust and Betrayal in Brussels

May 29, 2025

In the 1990s, American playwright and screenwriter Alice Austen was working as a lawyer in Brussels. Some elderly neighbors in her elegant Beaux Arts apartment building befriended her, inviting her regularly …

The Complicated Legacy of Anne Frank

April 17, 2025

For millions around the globe, the face of Anne Frank – bright, sensitive, and all-too-young – is instantly recognizable.  For many, she represents the six million Jews, including 1.5 million …

Art and Adventure in a Time of War

March 10, 2025

By Robin Jacobson.  Perched majestically on a rocky hilltop, the Abbey of Montecassino has kept vigil over Italy’s Liri Valley for nearly two thousand years. During the Second World War, …

Secrets and Lies

March 3, 2025

After Sasha Vasilyuk’s grandfather died in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2007, her grandmother made a shocking discovery. In an old briefcase stashed under a bed, she found a confession letter her …

Portrait of an Artist and his Jewish Patrons: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers

January 21, 2025

By Robin Jacobson.  As a celebrated portrait artist, John Singer Sargent had his choice of commissions at the turn of the twentieth century. The most aristocratic, glamorous, “high society” figures …