This is richly written and deeply emotional history of the Jews. The author, Simon Dubnov, wrote his tale from a social rather than a religious perspective, giving an excellent account of Jewish life and events from ancient times to the 20th Century. Particularly moving is the thought that the Russian Dubnov, whose life was so intensely dedicated to the preservation and telling of Jewish story, should die at the onset of the Holocaust, and thus be spared the living of this final and most horrific episode.

If your library contains but one volume of history in this field, let it be Dubnov's.

In Shamir's novel of astonishing imagination King David'searlyyears are remembered by his faithful lieutenant Uriah the Hittitewriting in his journal a few days before his death. Readers who enjoyed Joseph Heller's GOD KNOWS and/or Stefan Heym's THE KING DAVID REPORT will find this less known novel an utterly joyful surprise. At that price, you can afford to take the risk--a wonderful book!

Moyshe-Leyb Halpern (1886-1932) was one of the great modern Yiddish poets. Born in Galicia, he came to New York City in 1908,where he joined with other young poets to write and publish avant garde poetry. He published two volumes of poetry during his lifetime, _In nyu-york_ [In New York], in 1919, and _Di goldene pave_ [The Golden Peacock] in 1924. A third collection, titled with the poet's name, came out posthumously, in 1934. _In New York: A Selection_, translated, edited, and introduced by Kathryn Hellerstein, presents a selection of the poems from Halpern's first book, most of them in English translation for the first time. This book includes the Yiddish originals, as well as a useful introductory essay and bibliography. Ironic, witty, and lyrical, Halpern's poems in Hellerstein's excellent translations portray the disillusionment and hope of the immigrant generation. _In New York: A Selection__, the only volume of Halpern's poems published in English translation, is, indeed, a lost classic.

Hallamish has written a book for people who want to understand the basic concepts of Jewish mysticism without being bogged down by complicated historical issues or being hijacked by populist charlatans. Most books on the Kabbalah are written either by secularist professors or by closed-minded believers. Hallamish offers the best of both worlds - he is a professor of Jewish mysticism at Israel's Bar Ilan University, but, while he avoids any preaching or missionizing, he clearly recognizes the living spiritual power of the tradition which he describes in this book.

This book consists of excerpts from the diary of former Israeli Primer minister (1954-55 and Foreign minister (1948-56) Moshe Sharett, letters and other documents, narrarated by the late Livia Rokach. Some excerpts about the content of the book below.

Sharett paraphrases chief of staff Moshe Dayan, as saying that Israel's method to aquire more territory vis a vis its Arab neighbors would be one of "provocation-and-revenge." When the Arab countries responded militarily to these provocations, the Israeli government would claim that they were unprovoked acts of aggression against poor little Jews. The Israeli public would be stimulated into a righteous frenzy of "revenge" to support Israeli "retalitaion" which would develop into such a military conflict where Israel could achieve its imperial goals.

Sharett paraphrased Dayan as saying that Israel must see violence "as the main... instrument...Towards this end it may, no-it must-invent dangers...." Sharett goes on to quote Dayan expressing hope for war with the Arab countries so that Israel may acquire its lebensraum. He adds that David Ben Gurion once said that it would be worth a million pounds to pay an Arab to start a war.

The "Lavon affair." From July 2 to July 27 1954, 10 Egyptian Jews under the command of Israeli agents bombed British and American cultural and information centers and cinemas and Egyptian public buildings. This campaign ended when one of its participants was caught after a bomb exploded in his pocket in Alexandria. Sharett did not know about these atrocities until after they were completed. The goals of these atrocities were described by Colonel Benjamin Givli head of military intelligence to an agent being dispatched to Egypt as to break up the friendly relations between the West and Egypt and to destablise Nasser's Regime.

In January 1955 Rokach quotes several excerpts from Sharett's diary of indirect contacts with the Nasser government in Egypt pressing for direct negotiations on peace. However this was shattered on February 28 1955 when Israel attacked the Gaza strip killing 39 people. Israel tried to say that this attack occured after an Egyptian military unit had infiltrated into Israel and attacked public transportations and attacked on Israeli military outpost. However Sharett lamented "how crushing" the evidence was refuting Israel's official version. He asked who would be foolish enough to believe upon seeing the huge amounts of explosives used, the blocking and mining of roads and the precise coordination of the attack, that it had developed from a sudden confrontation with an Egyptian military unit.

Israel engaged in irrigation on Arab lands in the Demilitirized zones between it and its neighbors and attacked fishing boats in Lake Tiberias. Sharett was told by the UN observers about this and inquired of the head of the Water Works department who confirmed that it was all true. He lamented that he had denied this publicly and been made to appear as a liar in front of the whole world.

Other interesting tidbits include some of the activities of Ariel Sharon. His most famous atrocity during this period was the massacre of 69 civilians in the Jordanian village of Qibya in October 1953 as commander of the infamous Unit 101. Nobody from Qibya had had anything to do with the killing of two Israelis earlier. Ben Gurion had tried to say that the act was carried out by refugees from Nazism living on the border with Jordan and had no Israeli army involvement but that is now known, of course, to be a lie. The Qibya massacre is discussed in some detail in the endnotes to the book, including examining Sharon's later dubious rationales. Then there was the Unit 101 attack on the Al-Burj refugee camp in Gaza killing about twenty defenseless people; this is described in an appendix to the book by one of the attackers. Sharett declared in his diary that the Qibya affair had portrayed Israel to the whole world as a bunch of blood sucking mass murderers. Then there was the incident where two Israelis were killed after they had hiked onto Jordanian soil. The Jordanian authorities arrested the murderers but one of the victim's brother had apparently led four members of his army reservist unit into Jordan and killed 5 innocent Bedouins at random. Sharett reported in his diary that Sharon had organized this expedition and it seems to have been approved by Dayan.

Useful insights are provided into Israel's plans to destabilize Lebanon back in the early 50's when its border with that country was completely peaceful. Sharett quotes Dayan as saying that Israel needed a Christian military officer to declare a Christian state in Lebanon that would cede South Lebanon from the Litani River soutward to Israel. It is noted that Israel has always been grasping out the bountiful waterways of South Lebanon. An exchange of letters between Ben Gurion and Sharett from March 1954 is posted in this book where Sharett declares that he would be willing to support Lebanon's destablization; but he worried about the lack of separatist agitation by the Christians which would make the plan unfeasible at that time. The comparison is made between these plans and Israel's later policies like the setting up of a "state" in South Lebanon under the mercenary Major Sa'ad Haddad.

Rabbi Twerski's supurb writing style and his wonderful antedotes make this a classic commentary to the Mesillas Yesharim. His examples are geared towards the modern day reader, but their lessons are for all time. This book does not contain the complete text to the Ramchal's sefer so I strongly suggest you read the original work first and use Rabbi Twerski's book as a commentary. However the book is intended to be read alone and even the novice reader of Jewish Philosophy will gain a tremendous amount from this book.

This book has changed the way I look and feel about life.It is a love affair with God pursued through the traditions of the Jews.The mixture of knowledge,respect and awe that comes through the pages weds the reader to a powerfull process of living.I am a Christian by upbringing and this book has given me a new basis for my beliefs and day to day life.I hope I can remember and pursue it's teachings.I feel that for any person who is interested in the religious way of life this book is a wonderfull opportunity.

It's amazingly easy to hurt a child's feelings, repeatedly, inadvertently, and with consequences which only show up 20 years later in the child's lack of happiness or confidence (or worse). This book describes step by step how to do it differently, without fancy theory, but with plenty of worked out examples and dialogs.

Parent's time is always scarce: this book will pay for your time investment after just a couple of techniques are used! I read it one page a night (60 seconds per day or so) and I wish I had read it several years ago.

Based on the transcripts of a five-day seminar Moshe did in California in 1979, this book, which combines wonderful images with a direct transcript of his lectures, offers the best way to clearly get a sense of this wonderful man and his physical/verbal wizardry.

It's a very detailed, organized book that doesn't give u any hard time understanding. It has good/strong background information for readers.